Std Research: Documenting Biodiversity: Biological Systematics in Historical and Conceptual Context

标准研究：记录生物多样性：历史和概念背景下的生物系统学

• 批准号: 0925827
• 负责人: David Patterson
• 金额: $ 10.45万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0925827&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Std; Research; Documenting; Biodiversity; Biological

There is at present no consensus among practitioners of modern systematics with regards to the nature of their object of study, and the same goes for those who are working to catalog biodiversity. The proposed project is an attempt to re-orient old debates on these topics by asking foundational questions in a new way while still paying attention to the philosophical, historical, and social implications of systematics and its applications.The project has two goals. The first is to examine and test some foundational ontological assumptions behind modern systematics and contemporary efforts to understand biodiversity. Once questions about units of analysis have been addressed, it will be possible to ask value, logistical, and policy questions in an informed way: How should we understand biodiversity? How is it best cataloged? Which species concepts work best in particular situations? Is there a unique best species concept? In what ways does it make sense for some or all of the various database projects to work together or to adopt the same ontology? This work will proceed by way of two workshops. In the first, the PI will work with researchers at Arizona State University as well as with eminent species theorists from around the world to compare six of the most widely used approaches to species discovery using the same group (beetles of the genus Eleodes) and the same morphological, molecular, and combined data sets. The second workshop will bring together representatives from several biodiversity databasing projects to examine assumptions, compare units of analysis, and look for ways to work in concert. This project should shape the way each of the participant groups thinks about their units of study, and this has the potential for large-scale ramifications for everything from species definitions to project missions to database ontology and wider conceptions about what biodiversity is and what we should care about it.

目前，现代系统学的实践者对其研究对象的性质尚未达成共识，那些致力于生物多样性编目的人也是如此。拟议的项目试图通过以新的方式提出基本问题，同时仍然关注系统学及其应用的哲学、历史和社会影响，来重新定位有关这些主题的旧辩论。该项目有两个目标。首先是检查和测试现代系统学和当代理解生物多样性的努力背后的一些基本本体论假设。一旦解决了有关分析单位的问题，就可以以明智的方式提出价值、后勤和政策问题：我们应该如何理解生物多样性？如何最好地编目？哪些物种概念在特定情况下最有效？是否有独特的最佳物种概念？部分或全部不同的数据库项目协同工作或采用相同的本体有什么意义？ 这项工作将通过两个研讨会的方式进行。首先，PI 将与亚利桑那州立大学的研究人员以及世界各地的著名物种理论家合作，比较使用同一类群（埃利奥德甲虫）和相同的形态、分子和组合数据集。第二次研讨会将汇集多个生物多样性数据库项目的代表，以检查假设、比较分析单位并寻找协同工作的方法。该项目应该塑造每个参与者群体思考其研究单元的方式，这有可能对从物种定义到项目任务到数据库本体以及关于生物多样性是什么和我们应该做什么的更广泛概念的各个方面产生大规模影响关心它。