House of Lords - Science and Technology

Select Committee on Science and Technology Minutes of Evidence

Memorandum by the Research Councils UK

1. Research Councils UK is a strategic partnership set up to champion the research supported by the seven UK Research Councils. RCUK was established in 2002 to enable the Councils to work together more effectively to enhance the overall impact and effectiveness of their research, training and innovation activities, contributing to the delivery of the Government's objectives for science and innovation. Further details are available at www.rcuk.ac.uk.

2. This evidence is submitted by RCUK on behalf of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), and represents their independent views. It does not include or necessarily reflect the views of the Science and Innovation Group in the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills.

3. AHRC supports research within a huge subject domain from traditional humanities subjects, such as history, modern languages and English literature, to the creative and performing arts. The AHRC funds research and postgraduate study within the UK's higher education institutions. In addition, on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England, it provides funding for museums, galleries and collections that are based in, or attached to, higher education institutions in England.

4. BBSRC is the UK's leading funding agency for academic research in the non-medical life sciences. BBSRC's contribution to this memorandum focuses on developments that have taken place since the Committee's 2003 report[1], rather than on re-iterating its position on systematics and taxonomy, which is very similar to its position in 2002.

5. MRC supports the best scientific research to improve human health. Its work ranges from molecular level science to public health medicine and has led to pioneering discoveries in our understanding of the human body and the diseases which affect us all.

6. NERC funds and carries out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment, and trains the next generation of environmental scientists. Details of NERC's Research and Collaborative Centres are available at www.nerc.ac.uk. NERC's contribution is based on the views of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Centre for Ecology and Biology (CEH), National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS), Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML), Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) [2], Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Science (SAHFOS) [3] and Swindon Office Staff. NERC's terrestrial science community appears less prominent in this response than is properly representative of its level of relevant activity.

Question 1. What is the state of systematics research and taxonomy in the UK? What are the current research priorities? What are the barriers, if any, to delivering these priorities?

7. As recognised by the Committee in its 2003 report, both BBSRC and NERC have an interest in this area, and work closely on some aspects. AHRC has an interest for reasons explained in answer to Question 8. The MRC has a small interest, in particular concerning the evolution of infectivity, virulence and pathogenicity of pathogens.

8. Although it acknowledges the fundamental role of systematics in most areas of life science research, BBSRC has little involvement in the support of taxonomy. It sees taxonomic research as mostly taking the form of scholarship associated with the maintenance of collections, and therefore funded by bodies responsible for those collections, or as relating to the understanding of biodiversity in the natural environment, thus falling inter alia within the remit of NERC. However, since the publication of the 2003 report, BBSRC has been involved in the active promotion of systematics research through the establishment of a Systematics Working Group within the Council. The remit and some of the outcomes are described in paragraphs 30-36.

9. NERC is not primarily concerned with systematics and taxonomy per se, focussing instead on using the information, particularly in the context of how biodiversity contributes to key ecosystem processes and services. The Biodiversity theme in NERC's new Strategy[4] acknowledges the need for tools and techniques to describe biodiversity and to measure the abundance and distribution of its functional components. Some of the other six themes in the Strategy include challenges, such as constructing integrated assessment models linking climate change with changes in, among other things, the natural world, where systematics and taxonomy could contribute (see answer to Question 2). NERC's most relevant research programmes are also outlined in answer to Question 2.

10. The face of systematics and taxonomy has been changing as a result of developments in information technology and molecular biology. There have been moves to increase the accessibility of systematics and taxonomy knowledge through the internet, as recommended by the Committee in its previous report. Developments in the molecular sciences, including the potential for rapid screening via molecular barcoding (DNA Barcoding, eg with the involvement of the NERC Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa within the framework of the Canadian Barcode of Life Network), are also providing a significant opportunity to advance and revitalise systematics and taxonomy, although there is some concern that the cost of molecular techniques is depriving traditional taxonomy of funds, and that although there is much to be gained in systematics and taxonomy by combining new molecular approaches with classical taxonomy, dedicated funding may be required to support the necessary collaboration.

11. Both BBSRC and NERC have an interest in the development of methods and tools for systematics and taxonomy, and in supporting research projects where new technology can be used for making the knowledge accessible to a wide audience eg through the internet. NERC is currently funding, under its e-Science programme, a consortium project (CATE). Further details appear in response to Question 9.

12. Although there is recognition of the importance of systematics and taxonomy research, and considerable support for it, some barriers remain:

— Limited total funding, combined with competing priorities;

— The relative unattractiveness of traditional systematics and taxonomy, in terms of securing research funding and support for essential underpinning, via culture collections. Grant proposals are generally required to be hypothesis-based, and while grants to assess, for example, biodiversity and ecosystem function in deep-sea communities are funded, the taxonomic effort that is required to underpin such studies may remain unsupported (but see paragraph 27 regarding one of the possible benefits of NERC's new National Capability funding stream);

— The fact that classical taxonomy is detailed and labour intensive. The scientific outputs that taxonomists create for users of taxonomic science (species descriptions, identifications, keys, guides, inventories) require considerable time and resources to provide, and this is not always recognised by the user community or by those providing the funding;

— The sometimes low publication rate, and the failure of systematics and taxonomy to receive coverage in the most prestigious journals, which rarely publish species descriptions, for example; publications often have a low immediate impact factor and/or poor citation rate, and funding bodies may therefore not consider the science to be "cutting edge";

— The knock-on effect on career development, and thus the image of the discipline as a profession;

— The shortage of taxonomists coming into the profession, and the demands on current taxonomists to train their successors (but see comments regarding the identification of skills needs under Questions 4 and 13);

— The perception that there are still some ambiguities regarding the funding responsibilities of BBSRC and NERC in this area (but see paragraph 36 regarding cross-Council working);

— The scale of effort required, particularly for (marine) microbes. In some taxa in deep-sea ecosystems, more than 100 undescribed species may be present in a single small sediment sample. The deep-sea environment is the largest environment on earth, and only a tiny proportion has been sampled; often more than 50 per cent of the species in each sample are new to science. There are estimated to be more than 1.5 million diatom species in the world's oceans, of which fewer than 15,000 have been described;

— The higher cost of developing and using molecular approaches, and thus the lower capacity overall for taxonomic "volume";

— The need to unambiguously relate molecular and traditional systematics and taxonomic methods; the newer approaches may not always be valuable if not used in conjunction with the traditional methods.

13. Some of the impediments to advances in taxonomy were debated in the journal Science in 2004[5].

Question 2. What is the role of systematics and taxonomy and, in particular, in what way do they contribute to research areas such as biodiversity conservation, ecosystem services and climate change? How important is this contribution and how is it recognised in the funding process? How is systematics integrated in other areas of research?

14. As indicated above, systematics and taxonomy play a fundamental role in the biological sciences. For example, scientists at NOCS and PML consider that systematics and taxonomy underpin almost all marine ecological research, particularly invertebrate and vertebrate ecology. We need at least a basic knowledge of the species that make up the communities we are studying (including an ability to distinguish between species and recognise the significance of their different characteristics) in order to maximise the gain from those studies, for example to properly measure biodiversity, to understand the implications of biodiversity change and geographical shifts in species, and to fully appreciate the extent and effects of environmental change. For example, BAS comments that taxonomic information underpins its research work in the Antarctic to determine biodiversity distributions (paleo and current day) and the impacts of disturbance by icebergs—a major driver of biodiversity in the South.

15. The value of process-based ecological research becomes much greater when closely linked to the scientific identities of the organisms concerned. Such identities are needed to connect biodiversity, biogeochemistry and ecosystem services; to exploit biotechnological applications, based on useful enzymes, pigments, nutrients or pharmacologically-active compounds; to use the fossil record to interpret past climate changes; and to monitor, predict and control human, animal and crop diseases.

16. An example of the importance of high-quality systematics and taxonomy, is provided by the case of climate-driven changes in relative abundance of two very closely related species of copepod (Calanus finmarchicus and C. helgolandicus, with maximum abundance at different times of year). These changes are now thought to have greatly accelerated the demise of cod in the North Sea. The taxonomic expertise to distinguish the two copepod species—and recognise the important of the change—had been maintained at the Sir Alister Hardy Foundation for Ocean Sciences (SAHFOS), funded by NERC, Defra and other partners. However, that skill-base was very nearly lost, and the necessary training is no longer routinely provided to undergraduate students.

17. For microbes with novel biotechnological potential (mostly marine)[6], systematics and taxonomy provide the necessary framework for cost-effective bioprospecting—with a taxonomically-based approach increasing the hit rate by 10-100 fold for potentially-exploitable secondary metabolites. NERC's Marine and Freshwater Microbial Biodiversity (M&FMB) and Post-Genomics and Proteomics programmes have developed significant national capability in this area. Instead of just a few thousand different kinds of bacteria, we now know there are many millions, mostly in the sea—with their varied genetics producing an equally wide spectrum of molecular entities, occupying a very much larger, and different, chemical diversity structural space than has been achieved to date by compounds developed through combinatorial chemistry. Smart isolation, de-replication and screening techniques (based on robotics, molecular biology and bioinformatics) now make it possible to isolate and investigate novel organisms and products of interest in weeks or days, rather than years.

18. Taxonomists at NOCS comment that the importance of, and interest in, marine biodiversity is exemplified by the Census of Marine Life, a major world-wide, 10-year initiative funded by the Sloan Foundation to assess and explain the diversity, distribution, and abundance of life in the oceans. The UK requires trained taxonomists to contribute to this endeavour.

19. One of the major discoveries made by the DEEPSEAS Group at NOCS is that abyssal deep-sea ecosystems can undergo major changes over decadal-scale time periods, possibly due to climatic oscillations. At the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, there has been a dramatic change in the abundance of organisms including holothurians and foraminiferans over the past 15 years. In the case of the foraminiferans, many of the species that fluctuate in abundance are undescribed[7]. A recent study in Nature[8] (subsequently featured in TIME magazine's top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007, and co-authored by scientists from BAS, NOCS and SAMS) reported that during a series of cruises in the Southern Ocean, which took deep-sea samples in only a tiny fraction of this enormous area, more than 1400 species were identified and more than 700 of these were new to science.

20. Taxonomic principles and methods underpin medical research that aims to improve understanding of the evolution of infectivity, virulence and pathogenicity of pathogens—where their identity and lineage needs to be known with precision. An example of MRC research that builds on a strong microbial taxonomy, is research in The Gambia on the effectiveness of TB (BCG) vaccination in people who have had prior exposure to tuberculosis species and subspecies, other than Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

21. In at least parts of the systematics and taxonomic community there is a perception that the effort (and funding) in their disciplines has been decreasing. The NOCS DEEPSEAS Group introduces its pessimistic view of the future of its taxonomy work by saying that the "financial support for taxonomy within NOCs is effectively non-existent" (see answer to Question 13), and that "Taxonomic problems arising in postgraduate research are dealt with on a "needs must" basis funded by general grants, or, more usually, ignored. In effect, taxonomy, although vital to all areas of deep-sea biology, is not recognised in the funding process."

22. At PML, the view is that for many years the science effort in taxonomy and systematics has been decreasing. It says that there are still "a reasonable number of marine invertebrate "identifiers"—people who can distinguish one individual from another and assign a name to a specimen as long as it is in the taxonomic key (book) to which they have access. However, a whole set of skills and expertise to appreciate the importance of differences between organisms and to maintain the international standards for identification is disappearing rapidly from the UK, Europe and worldwide. This is important since although "identifiers" may be able to distinguish their own local or national organisms, they will not be able to share these data with others if they are not able to fully use and keep up with conventional taxonomy as well as develop the taxonomy further."

23. NERC does take account of the need for systematics and taxonomy in its funding decisions. About 11 per cent of NERC's Peer Review College members identify taxonomy and/or systematics in their expertise. NERC's main focus is not (and cannot be) on alpha taxonomy per se; the systematics and taxonomy that NERC supports must be within the context of environmentally-focussed projects. Recent research programmes with considerable taxonomic components include the Environmental Genomics[9], Marine and Freshwater Microbial Biodiversity[10] and Soil Biodiversity[11] programmes. Current programmes in which systematics and taxonomy are relevant include the Post-Genomics and Proteomics[12]; Sustainable Marine Bioresources[13]; and Quantifying and Understanding the Earth System (QUEST)[14] programmes, and UK PopNet[15] (which aims to place population ecology within the context of landscape change and sustainability). Through the Post-Genomics and Proteomics programme, NERC supports the Environmental Bioinformatics Centre (see answer to Question 7), and, as mentioned above, NERC is also supporting the CATE project under its e-Science programme (see answer to Question 9).

24. As indicated in answer to Question 1, a number of the themes in NERC's new strategy include challenges where systematics and taxonomy could contribute. The Climate system and Biodiversity themes have already been mentioned. The Biodiversity theme in particular presents a good opportunity for the contribution of systematics and taxonomy to broader research areas to be recognised and reflected in the funding process. The Sustainable use of natural resources theme includes challenges such as understanding how the biological, physical and chemical interactions in soils determine the extent to which people can use the land sustainably. The Environment, pollution and human health theme includes the challenge of increasing knowledge of the underlying biological, chemical and environmental processes that cause diseases to spread and determine how pathogens interact with other organisms. The Earth system science theme aims to include research to increase knowledge of the connections between biological evolution and adaptation, climate and environmental change.

25. NERC's Strategy is currently being translated into theme action plans, which are being discussed with the academic community. It will be for the systematics and taxonomy community to see where they can contribute to the research programmes that derive from these plans, and for other funding applicants to ensure that they involve that community where necessary, or request adequate support for any essential taxonomic background. NERC has evidence that there is a sizeable and organised community of taxonomists interested in applying their skills in the environmental area, and welcomes applications in support of its strategic goals, as well as applications for responsive-mode funding.

26. The Oceans 2025 programme[16], involving NERC's main marine centres and the Marine Biological Association and SAHFOS, is being funded for 5 years and has Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning as one if its nine major science themes. The Oceans 2025 programme includes several key projects funded under NERC's new National Capability funding stream. These include the British Oceanographic Data Centre, the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level, the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey (CPR, at SAHFOS)[17]; the Marine Mammal Survey; and the Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP, which is the largest protistan culture collection in Europe and the second largest in the world, and interacts with protistan taxonomists worldwide)[18].

27. The National Capability funding stream could overcome some of the barriers that have previously existed regarding the funding of systematics and taxonomy by NERC, and will be used to support taxonomy-relevant research also in NERC's other (non-marine-specific) centres, particularly the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH), which is the home of the Biological Records Centre (BRC)[19], the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), and the Centre for Population Biology (CPB). It will help to support, for example, the ongoing biodiversity monitoring by CEH and the collections housed by the BRC, which is the national custodian of data on the distribution of wildlife in the British Isles. NERC expects CEH and the other centres to also compete for Research Programme funding and responsive-mode funding. The new CEH strategy is currently being finalised, and places considerable emphasis on biodiversity research.

28. NERC is also a partner in the BiodivERsA ERA-Net, which recently announced the availability of several million Euros for biodiversity research to address the decline in plant and animal species[20], and it contributes to DIVERSITAS[21], an international programme of biodiversity science.

29. NERC also provides annual support to the Linnean Society's Systematics Research Fund[22].

30. The role of the BBSRC Systematics Working Group included the encouragement of multidisciplinary working between systematics and other areas of the biosciences; review of BBSRC structures to identify any measures which could be implemented to improve numbers of appropriate proposals being submitted; and review of the potential for partnerships with other agencies in addressing these problems. Much of this work has been carried out in collaboration with NERC, which was a member of the Working Group.

31. One of the outcomes has been the establishment of the Collaborative Scheme for Systematics Research (CoSyst), for which BBSRC is providing £75,000 per year over three years. The Scheme is administered by the Systematics Association and Linnean Society. The purpose of CoSyst is to encourage researchers in systematics and taxonomy to collaborate with researchers in other areas of biology to incorporate the skills in systematics into those other areas. The Scheme is designed to support small-scale projects to generate important pilot data that are often required before a full grant application is successful. The Scheme was launched in December 2006 and is currently in its second round. The first round resulted in 43 proposals being submitted and 7 proposals being funded. A review of how the Scheme has been implemented will be undertaken during 2008-9.

32. One of the most significant funding developments is that, following a wider government review of eligibility, BBSRC has taken the opportunity to review the funding eligibility of the Natural History Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew and Edinburgh. Following written submissions from all three institutions, BBSRC Council has agreed to confer on each the status of Independent Research Organisations eligible to apply for responsive mode research grants. This allows each institution to make investigator-led applications as well as to apply for funding through calls for research in managed programmes. The three organisations were already considered eligible for responsive and managed-mode funding from NERC at the time of the previous inquiry.

33. In addition to CoSyst, the BBSRC Systematics Working Group has led to a number of other practical outcomes, including a Systematics Symposium and a Biodiversity Exhibition.

34. The Symposium[23], organised by BBSRC and NERC, was held during August 2007 at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh as part of the Systematics Association Biennial Conference. It showcased systematics research funded by the Research Councils, highlighted the funding schemes and support available to the systematics and taxonomy communities from the Research Councils, and provided advice and contacts for potential applicants. A similar meeting on algal/protistan taxonomy was held at the Natural History Museum in April 2006[24].

35. The exhibition "Biodiversity—What on earth is it?" was launched by BBSRC and NERC in 2005. It is accessible online[25] and describes why biodiversity matters, and some of the work of Research Council-sponsored scientists in the areas of systematics and biodiversity.

36. By working together in this way, BBSRC and NERC hope to address any uncertainties remaining in the systematics and taxonomy community regarding which Council funds what, and regarding possible gaps in funding. A cross-Council agreement is in place regarding decisions on funding for proposals that cross Council boundaries. This agreement has been and will continue to be implemented for systematics/taxonomy proposals that are relevant to the remits of both Councils. There is a need to agree between Defra and DIUS the responsibilities for sustainable funding of microbial culture collections.

37. During next year, BBSRC will lead an activity to commemorate the bicentenary of the birth of Charles Darwin in 1809 with a series of public engagement activities. The aim of the events will be to demonstrate the importance and relevance of evolutionary research today.

38. MRC's investment in research on infections and disease-causing micro-organisms is approximately £45 million pa.

Question 3. Does the way in which systematics research is organised and co-ordinated best meet the needs of the user community? What progress has been made in setting up a body to lead on this? What contribution do the leading systematics research institutions make both nationally and internationally?

39. A number of fora address the co-ordination of research relevant to systematics and taxonomy, particularly biodiversity research that uses taxonomic knowledge. These fora include the Environment Research Funders' Forum[26] (ERFF), which recently published a strategic analysis of UK environmental monitoring activity; the UK Biodiversity Research Action Group (UKBRAG)[27], which runs the UK Biodiversity Action Plan; the National Biodiversity Network, which the BRC is helping to develop; the UK Global Environmental Change Committee (UKGECC) Biodiversity Sub-Group[28]; the Soils Research Advisory Committee[29], which was set up by BBSRC and NERC; and the Global Taxonomy Initiative.

40. BBSRC, NERC and CEH are members of UKBRAG; and NERC and BBSRC are members of ERFF and of the UKGECC Biodiversity Sub-Group, which has close links with UKBRAG.

41. At a European Level, the BiodivERsA ERA-Net[30] referred to above involves 19 partners from 14 different countries, and aims to bring together the best minds across Europe to address present and future challenges in biodiversity, linking scientific advancement to policy and practice.

42. At an international level, the DIVERSITAS programme mentioned above makes a significant contribution to international co-operation on biodiversity research, necessary "because the complex scientific questions posed by the global loss and change of biodiversity are beyond the scope of individual countries and disciplines". The programme is a partnership of inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations. Its integrated research framework and international multidisciplinary networks aim to promote, facilitate and catalyse scientific research on biodiversity—its origin, composition, ecosystem function, maintenance and conservation.

43. The bioDISCOVERY core project includes many tasks demanding taxonomic input, and aims to strengthen taxonomic expertise in understudied taxa and regions. Professor Georgina Mace, the Director of NERC's CPB, and Terry Parr of CEH are members of the Scientific Committee. One of the co-chairs of the bioSUSTAINABILITY core project is Professor David Raffaelli, Director of UKPopNet (mentioned above). The third core project is ecoSERVICES.

44. The Global Taxonomy Initiative[31] (GTI) has derived from the recognition by Governments worldwide (through the Convention on Biological Diversity) that taxonomy is needed to support effective conservation and management of biodiversity. DIVERSITAS and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)[32] (see under question 9 below), as well as the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, are regarded as partners. The activities agreed under the GTI highlight issues, facilitate the exchange of information, and promote technical cooperation.

45. In the medical area, Professor Duncan McGeogh and Dr Andrew Davison of the MRC Virology Unit (Glasgow) both serve as members of the Executive Committee of the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses, and are active members of virus-family-specific subgroups.

Question 4. What level of funding would be needed to meet the need for taxonomic information now and in the future? Who should be providing this funding?

46. Substantial funding is required to train new scientists and ensure that taxonomic skills do not disappear completely; ideally, the newly-trained scientists should be able to understand and use classical skills as well as new molecular tools. The museums (eg Natural History Museum) and Biological Resource Centres / culture collections (eg CCAP) are probably best placed to guide and train a new cohort of scientists and are aware of the urgent needs in this area. The skills needs review shortly to be conducted by ERFF (led by NERC) should help to clarify those training needs and identify how they can be met.

Question 5. How does funding in other countries compare? Could there be more international collaboration? If so, what form should this collaboration take and how might it be achieved?

47. The need for the Global Taxonomy Initiative confirms that systematics and taxonomy are or have been short of support worldwide, and probably no country in the world can claim to have expert taxonomists covering all groups of organisms. The few remaining classical taxonomists are overwhelmed by the amount of work that needs to be done in training new scientists and covering areas which have been very poorly covered for many years.

48. Funding appears not to be significantly more generous in other EU countries than in the UK, but there is relatively generous support and interest in the USA, a position achieved through initiatives such as the Partnerships for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy—PEET—programme[33] sponsored by the National Science Foundation, and funding from private foundations (eg Sloan Foundation, Moore Foundation). However, some taxonomists consider that even the PEET programme has some drawbacks, placing perhaps disproportionate emphasis on the computer infrastructure compared with alpha taxonomy[34]. The CCAP has some involvement with PEET and the two Foundations have provided some funding for CCAP initiatives.

49. With regard to systematics and taxonomy research relevant to marine biodiversity and bioresources, the relatively positive position in the USA is seen also in Japan and, increasingly, China.

50. Our answer to Question 3 indicates that European and international collaboration motivated by concerns about the decline in biodiversity is already quite extensive.

51. The UK is also involved in the international Census of Marine Life (CoML), the International Census of Marine Microbes (ICoMM) and international validation/intercomparison initiatives regarding marine microbial barcoding. BAS plays an important role in the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML)[35], which is supported by the Sloan Foundation.

52. In addition to supporting BiodivERsA, DIVERSITAS, and GBIF, NERC supports international collaboration through an International Opportunity Fund award (to Dr I Joint, PML) to enhance wider networking for the Marine and Freshwater Microbial Biodiversity community. This has involved working visits for UK researchers to the USA and elsewhere, an international workshop, and (26 Jan-3 Feb 2008) a science mission to Japan, co-supported by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (via the UK embassy, Japan). Although the topic of the mission is formally "marine bioresources", a major theme of the visit relates to the isolation, identification and exploitation of novel marine microbes.

53. The DEEPSEAS Group at NOCS comments that there are very good international collaborations within the taxonomic network. In one member's experience of two particular taxa (Amphipoda, Isopoda), experts communicate well, helping each other with specimens and samples and working on projects together where funding allows.

Question 6. What impact have developments in DNA sequencing, genomics and other new technologies had on systematics research? In what way has systematics embraced new technologies and how can these research areas interact successfully and efficiently?

54. Molecular approaches have revolutionised systematics and taxonomy research. The evolutionary relationships between many species, and between higher groups, have been overturned, and the species concept is itself now primarily defined in molecular terms.

55. The NERC Molecular Genetics Facility (MGF, at Sheffield, Edinburgh and Liverpool)[36] has played a major role in that process. As an example, the NERC Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP) is currently working with the MGF to carry out a major taxonomic revision for all organisms CCAP holds in culture (currently ~ 2800 strains), based on the "SSU" and "ITS" rDNA sequences (genes for partial small sub-unit and internal transcribed spacer ribosomal RNA) and other suitable molecular markers. CCAP is also involved in international efforts for the development of barcode sequences for protists.

56. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory has support from NERC (Post Genomics and Proteomics programme) and ICoMM for "metagenomic" sequencing of 16s ribosomal RNA (a component of the 30-Svedberg subunit of ribosomes) in marine microbes (bacteria and archaea) at a long-term sampling site in the English Channel, to study seasonal changes in community composition.

57. BAS also carries out a range of genomic studies, the data from which are submitted to international databases.

58. Despite the promise and power of molecular taxonomy, this new discipline is unlikely to solve all our current taxonomic problems, at least not in the near future. Our current knowledge of biodiversity and ecosystem function is largely based on morphology-based classical taxonomy. It is important that the molecular approach develops alongside the classical approach. The value of a polyphasic approach, marrying traditional taxonomic methods and modern molecular biology, has helped CCAP in a number of case studies.

59. A degree of mis-match between the techniques is inevitable, because the two approaches look at different suites of characters. At least some taxonomists consider that classical taxonomy will continue to be the prime tool for furthering advances for many years to come, although the new molecular tools are already providing massive advances particularly in microbial systematics, where the classical approaches have thus far been less successful. Many of the most interesting systematics and taxonomic discoveries in NW Europe, are now likely to be made as a result of molecular studies.

DATA COLLECTION, MANAGEMENT, MAINTENANCE AND DISSEMINATION

Question 7. Does the way in which taxonomic data is collected, managed and maintained best meet the needs of the user community? What is the state of local and national recording schemes?

60. Taxonomy users benefit from easy access to data, hence the drive to increase access via the internet (see answer to Question 9). Web-based taxonomy offers many advantages over paper-based taxonomy, particularly for scientists from developing countries, since many simply do not have access to the necessary research literature.

61. NERC's Culture Collection of Algae and Protozoa (CCAP)[37] has an internet site which allows users to search for strains they wish to order, and provides advice on how to deposit new strains. CCAP is involved in a pioneering collaboration with the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), to provide 2-way direct hyperlinks between EBI-held sequence data with CCAP database strain records.

62. The Centre for Ecology and Hydrology's new draft strategy[38] includes an outline of its Environmental Informatics Programme, which addresses the need to ensure easy access to the results of recording schemes such as the Countryside Surveys, Phenology Network, Predatory Bird Monitoring Scheme and the schemes run by the Biological Records Centre (BRC), but most of the schemes covered use, rather than produce, primary taxonomic knowledge.

63. One scheme that does provide access to primary taxonomic knowledge is NERC's Environmental Bioinformatics Centre[39] (NEBC). The NEBC is a dedicated bioinformatics and data management centre based at CEH Oxford that works to develop and implement solutions for NERC Environmental Genomics and Post-Genomics and Proteomics researchers, although it also has a remit to manage bioinformatics-related data generated by NERC-funded researchers outside those programmes. The Centre was originally set up in 2002 as part of the Environmental Genomics initiative. It is currently expanding its remit to include support for proteomics and metabolomics data management, and integration of solutions in a systems biology context with funding from the Post Genomics and Proteomics Programme. The NEBC team of bioinformaticians and data managers are responsible for the development of a variety of open-source projects.

64. The Natural History Museum is regarded by BAS and other users in the NERC research community as an excellent source of knowledge.

Question 8. What is the role of the major regional museums and collections? How are taxonomic collections curated and funded?

65. The AHRC is currently funding a collaborative project between the Natural History Museum and Kingston University called New Perspectives. The project is investigating the potential of using taxonomic collections as a research resource for the wider Arts and Humanities academic community. The New Perspectives Advisory Group consists of external academics from a range of disciplines and Museum staff. The Advisory Group is seeking wider input to its deliberations through a series of workshops, up to June 2008.

66. Preliminary findings of the project have confirmed that taxonomic collections, (their history, acquisition, interpretation and public display) represent a significant and yet largely untapped resource for academic research in the following areas:

— Museum studies

— Art (art history, contemporary art and design)

— History (social history, empire studies and history of exploration)

— Social Sciences

67. This project is detailed as a single example only; there are other arts and humanities interest, research and expertise that could add to the body of knowledge in an area usually thought of as scientific only.

68. The AHRC's remit also includes research in the fields of collections management and exhibition design, as well as broader institutional and organisational practices (eg collecting, conservation, display, interpretation, exhibiting, management, curatorship etc), material culture and the history of and relationship to objects.

69. Interdisciplinary research has the potential to bring academics from a wide range of disciplines into close contact with museum taxonomic collections and specialist curators. This interchange encourages knowledge transfer and the development of innovative ideas. A major benefit for university departments conducting such interdisciplinary research in a museum context is the opportunity to make academic outcomes accessible to a wide and varied public audience through museum exhibitions and formal and family learning programmes.

70. NERC's CCAP is funded as National Capability within the 5-year Oceans 2025 programme and managed by the Scottish Association for Marine Science, one of NERC's Collaborative Centres. It has the most genotypically diverse holdings of any national biological records centre. This provides a world-class resource to the scientific community, with research foci, relevant to this inquiry, on the elucidation of taxonomic questions and the ex situ conservation and genotypic stability of conserved taxa.

71. BAS has a variety of collections, marine and terrestrial, including a very comprehensive collection of Antarctic mosses and lichens. These are maintained by NERC core funding, and available through the Antarctic Environment Data Centre.

72. NOCS holds an internationally important collection of deep-sea specimens dating back to the 1970s. The specimens are extremely valuable (because they were difficult to collect and include a high proportion of species new to science), but there is no funding for curation or maintenance; there is no obvious organisation to apply to for such funding.

73. The BBSRC-sponsored Institute for Food Research holds the National Collection of Yeast Cultures and is funded from the Core Strategic Grant from BBSRC. The National Collection of Industrial and Marine Bacteria has been partially funded by short-term grants from BBSRC.

Question 9. What progress has been made in developing a web-based taxonomy? How do such initiatives fit in with meeting demand for systematics and taxonomy information? How do UK-led initiatives fit in with international initiatives and is there sufficient collaboration?

74. Considerable progress has been made in developing a web-based taxonomy. There is almost a proliferation of online taxonomic databases, including the Encyclopedia of Life (EoL)[40], the European Register of Marine Species (ERMS)[41], the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)[42] mentioned in answer to Question 3, the International Plant Names Index (IPNI)[43], and the Integrated Taxonomic Information System ITIS[44].

75. Both NERC and BBSRC have continued their support for the GBIF, whose objective is to facilitate the digitisation and global dissemination of biodiversity data (with particular emphasis on developing the tools to share this information through the internet). The software on which the global dissemination of information is based originated from a Bioinformatics Initiative research project funded by BBSRC and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

76. As mentioned in answer to Question 2, NERC is funding, under its e-Science programme, the CATE[45] project—Creating a Taxonomic e-Science. The particular goal of CATE is to test the feasibility of creating a web-based, consensus taxonomy using two model groups, one from the plant and the other from the animal kingdom. The wider aim is to explore practically the idea of "unitary" taxonomy[46] and promote web-based revisions as a source of authoritative information about groups of organisms for specialist and non-specialist users. The project involves scientists at Imperial College London (in NERC's Centre for Population Biology—CPB), the Natural History Museum, the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and the University of Oxford—the last being where Professor Charles Godfrey, former director of the CPB and inspiration for the project[47], is now based.

77. The answer to Question 7 refers to the role of the NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre, in developing web access to genomics, proteomics and metabolomics data.

78. NERC's CCAP website is being developed as a comprehensive protistan knowledge-base and now also provides access to a wider range of related data including images, biogeographical, chemical, literature reference and sequence data. Several online image libraries now exist for difficult-to-identify organisms; eg the communal "micro*scope" website[48], the PLANKTON*NET[49] website sponsored by the European-Commission and German research organisations, and the University of Liverpool's "Harmful Plankton Project on the Internet"[50] site. The Natural History Museum also offers a Microbiology Video Collection[51] online.

79. The Plymouth Marine Laboratory comments that in marine nematode and polychaete taxonomy there have been some limited initiatives towards web-based systems, but that as with all things taxonomic, setting up the necessary databases of known species is an enormous task and has been beyond the funding scope of most UK projects.

Question 10. What needs to be done to ensure that web-based taxonomy information is of high quality, reliable and user-friendly?

80. Close collaboration between taxonomists, web-designers and users is obviously critical.

81. High quality can only be ensured if taxonomists are involved. This places demands upon their already limited time, especially in the context of falling numbers of experts. Information for the databases has to be correct and up to date, but few resources appear to be available to taxonomists to support their involvement in the editing process.

Question 11. How does the taxonomic community engage with the non-taxonomic community? What role do field studies play?

82. As indicated earlier, NERC's interest in systematics and taxonomy is focused on the ways in which these disciplines can contribute to understanding in environmental science. Field studies are a major component of much of the research that NERC funds, and many of these involve work requiring access to taxonomic knowledge, for example the work of the BRC.

SKILLS BASE

Question 12. What are the numbers and ages of trained taxonomists working in UK universities and other organisations?

83. There is taxonomic expertise in some of NERC's Research and Collaborative Centres. Some details are provided below, but not for CEH (which is mainly a user of taxonomy) or CPB. NERC currently funds or has agreed to fund seven fellowships[52] under the science topic of systematics and biodiversity, but this number does not include other academics in Higher Education Institutions who might be working with NERC funding on systematics or taxonomy-related research.

84. Although taxonomy is essential to the research at BAS on the possible impacts of climate change, for example through the warming oceans, it does not have an explicit long-term programme on taxonomy, ie it is a user not a generator, and has no dedicated taxonomists.

85. In the DEEPSEAS Group at NOCS, which studies deep-sea benthic biology, there are five taxonomic experts, with a range of expertise in different taxa. These are defined as; scientists currently working on resolution of alpha taxonomic problems (describing new species, resolving and revising taxonomic groups), rather than "users of taxonomy". Of the five experts, three are already retired (but have access to the collections and to office and laboratory space and computing facilities), and one is only a few years from retirement, whilst the fifth is several years from retirement. The expert close to retirement works part time and is funded to do other work that, while requiring use of taxonomy, does not actually contribute to the advancement of the science.

86. At PML, the really skilled marine invertebrate taxonomists are already in retirement, or close to it. Those who could become skilled are not working on taxonomy or systematics because no funding for this has been obtained. They use their skills as identifiers or to train others to identify organisms for ecological research.

87. Among SAMS scientists, there is expertise in the green and brown algal lineages, for some groups of protozoa (ciliates) and bacterial taxonomy. Also, there is expertise in coastal and deep-sea marine invertebrates. Among the approximately 8 staff with taxonomic expertise, the age profile ranges from 30 to 50.

88. SAHFOS has 15 taxonomic analysts (3 of whom are due to retire within the next 2 years); their ages are; one 20-30, seven 30-40, one 40-50, four 50-60, and two over 60. These include contract analysts. SAHFOS is looking carefully at succession planning for skills transfer.

89. A significant point to note is that much of the taxonomy of the British flora and fauna is done by amateur workers. This is often to a professional standard, but inevitably tends not to include elements which require professional facilities, eg molecular-based investigations. Amateur work makes a major contribution in many areas, for example bryophytes. For it to thrive, such workers need support from professionals in both national and regional museums, both in providing permanent repositories for specimens and also (ideally) a corpus of workers who can collaborate with the amateur taxonomists to provide a professional input. Such partnerships can be very productive and rewarding for both sides. NERC is involved through the BRC, which works with many such amateur taxonomists through its various recording schemes. The BRC acts as a database which may hold the results of taxonomic revisions as records (though not specimens), even though the primary taxonomic support must come from the major collection holders.

Question 13. What is the state of training and education in systematics and taxonomy? Are there any gaps in capacity? Is the number of taxonomists in post, and those that are being trained, sufficient to meet current and future needs across all taxonomic subject areas?

90. There are currently (at 4 February 2008) 42 PhD students registered as holding NERC studentships (including CASE awards) in the science topic or science area of systematics and taxonomy[53]; most of the projects involve using taxonomy; some address taxonomy per se.

91. NERC also supports relevant masters courses[54], ie

— Biodiversity and Taxonomy of Plants at the University of Edinburgh, School of Biological Sciences;

— Advanced Methods in Taxonomy and Biodiversity/Biosystematics at Imperial College/Natural History Museum, Biological Sciences;

— Biodiversity and Conservation at the University of Leeds, Institute for Integrative and Comparative Biology;

— Biodiversity, Conservation & Management at the University of Oxford, School of Geography and the Environment.

92. BBSRC has funded 42 PhD studentships in the area of systematics and taxonomy since 2003.

93. As indicated earlier, the number of trained alpha taxonomists is generally regarded as insufficient to meet current needs, and the imminent retirement of many experts will exacerbate this situation unless the efforts to train new generations of practitioners (preferably in classical and molecular methods) are successful. It may be necessary to consider whether enough PhD projects are focused sufficiently on alpha taxonomy rather than on evolution or population genetics and biogeography, and who should fund them if alpha taxonomy is their principle focus. The ERFF skills needs review mentioned earlier will hopefully help to identify ways in which the training needs can be met.

94. Although increased capacity is probably necessary to cope with the climate-change-related increase in biodiversity and conservation research that requires taxonomic input, the need for taxonomy to support research in these areas can be overstated, especially for environments where there is already good taxonomic knowledge (as opposed to environments where a high proportion of species remain to be described). Where there is already good knowledge, what is needed at least as much is field scientists with a knowledge of taxonomy (able to identify species) who also understand ecology and dispersal, for example.

95. PML and the NOCS DEEPSEAS Group have raised concerns about succession planning for taxonomy in the marine sciences. The latter Group says that there are apparently no plans or resources to replace the taxonomic skills of the retired scientists in the Group when they retire properly. They comment that "the deep-ocean floor is the world's largest reservoir of biodiversity, and we cannot begin arrive at any estimate of the total diversity of life across this vast habitat, or understand macroecological and biogeographic patterns, unless we have more input from trained taxonomists". They cite a 1998 paper stating that "The present level of taxonomic resources is inadequate for the proper documentation of taxa whose existence is known, let alone for the discovery and identification of the taxa whose existence is suspected."[55], and point out that "in 2008 we still do not have the taxonomic resources to properly document the taxa that were known in 1998, let alone those that have been discovered subsequently".

96. CCAP comments that although the aging of UK-based traditional taxonomists in protistan-related disciplines should be highlighted, a pool of talent remains particularly in Eastern Europe. If these skills could be linked to UK skills, there might be opportunities for reciprocal knowledge exchange with significant benefits to both groups.

February 2008