ACCELERATED RESEARCH
With LINNE, research on some of the most fundamental questions in biology will be accelerated:
- What are Earth's species, and how do they vary?
- How are species distributed in geographical and ecological space?
- What is the history of life on Earth, and how are species interrelated?
- How has biological diversity changed through space and time?
- What is the history of character transformations?
- What factors lead to speciation, dispersal, and extinction?
TAXONOMY
Taxonomic knowledge, knowing the name of an organism and how it is classified, is essential to biology. Classifications make millions of kinds of organisms identifiable and provide a necessary frame of reference. Scientific names enable precise, efficient communication and retrieval of knowledge. Phylogenetic analyses (those that explore relationships among organisms) permit predictions about the properties of living things. Managing billions of facts about the millions of species on earth is impossible without taxonomy, yet the most fundamental taxonomic questions could not be answered until now. The vast numbers of species, fragmented literature, dispersed experts, and isolated collections of specimens combine to make the exploration of biological diversity slow and inefficient. The need to accelerate exploration of the biosphere has become critical in the face of rapidly changing environments and the imminent threat of a mass extinction event. We are the last generation with the opportunity to explore, discover, and document many of the species and evolutionary lineages of the world.
LINNE WILL:
- Provide vastly improved capabilities for species identifications.
- Improve research on environmental issues such as habitat destruction, human health,
climate change, invasive species, and emerging infectious diseases.
- Improve our understanding of the history of life and our ability to address questions
in comparative biology such as those related to the origin, persistence, and extinction of
lineages and biogeographic patterns.
- Recognize important new areas of scientific research such as those related to biosecurity
and biotechnology.
- Provide information instantly on species identifications, distributions, habitat preferences,
and other data required by natural resource managers, conservationists, public health workers,
agricultural sciences, and industry.
- Create a legacy of knowledge through accelerated exploration and classification of life
on earth. Rapidly changing environments mean that opportunities to discover and describe
Earth's species are limited and that future generations will benefit from a baseline understanding
of the diversity and distribution of life on Earth. LINNE will document existing historical
and environmental patterns through research and collection development for the immediate and
enduring benefit of society, and bequeath a legacy of knowledge and understanding to our descendants.
LINNE WILL ADDRESS MAJOR IMPEDIMENTS TO TAXONOMIC RESEARCH
By creating research environments in which access to specimens, data, and analytical tools is available to researchers through high-performance networks, LINNE will dramatically reduce the isolation of taxonomic research and fragmentation of resources, including expertise, collections, literature, and instrumentation, that currently slow research and inhibit collaborations.
With LINNE, new generations of taxonomists will be educated and supported in the exploration and documentation of the world's species and the production of modern taxonomic revisions, including many diverse groups of organisms that few or no current taxonomists have the expertise to identify.
LINNE will provide improvements in collection facilities, from environmentally controlled buildings to archival tissue storage; provide the technical assistance necessary to properly manage collections; and ensure that the information in collections is accurate and accessible.
