ENVRI FAIR WP11 use case for scientific names
Identifying species using scientific names is a globally accepted practice (de Queiroz and Gauthier 1994; Thines et al. 2020). As research questions are becoming multidisciplinary and data-driven, these names as data points are becoming crucial (Patterson et al. 2010) not just for scientific research but also conservation, trade, and disease management (Hobert et al. 2021). As data points, these names have a few specific attributes. Due to the dynamic nature of taxonomy, species classification changes as new data and knowledge emerge. Therefore the accepted status of the name changes and in turn the related data. These are well known issues within the taxonomy and biodiversity community (see Wheeler et al. 2004; Garnett et al. 2020; Pyle et al. 2021) in particular it is widely accepted that such dynamic nature generates “difficulties for end users to point to single valid names referring unambiguously to single taxonomic concepts” (Grenié et al. 2021:2). Regardless of such ambiguity, the research infrastructures providing ecosystem related data, measurements and services need tools, best practices, and practical solutions to resolve scientific names. As these names are important components in the data ecosystem, the usability of such tools is also important for FAIR implementation. For details regarding FAIR implementation planning see ENVRI FAIR Deliverable D11.1 (“Biodiversity and ecosystem subdomain implementation short term plan” and D11.2 (“Report on FAIRness implementation activities in the Biodiversity and Ecosystem subdomain”).
This notebook is a summary of use case activities on the usage of scientific names within the ENVRI Research Infrastructures.