A can of worms: estimating the global number of earthworm species
Résumé
Estimating the overall number of species for a given taxon is a central issue in ecology and conservation biology. It should be particularly topical in the case of soil organisms, which represent the majority of known species, but still suffer from a considerable taxonomic knowledge deficit. We propose here an estimation of the global number of earthworm species based on the Joppa approach, which models taxonomic effort over time in order to estimate the total number of known and as yet unknown species in a given taxa. Our Bayesian estimation of this model allows us to propose a global diversity of the order of 30,000 species. However, the uncertainty around this estimate is considerable due to severe undersampling and as the model cannot unambiguously decide whether we are describing few species because of a small pool of as yet unknown species, or because of a lack of taxonomic efficiency. This means that the 5,679 species and subspecies already described only represent around 20% of the global number of earthworm species. Considering the current rate of new species description, we calculate that it would take at least 120 years to describe all the species existing on Earth. We discuss the strategies that could be developed to reduce the magnitude of this taxonomic deficit.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.
Auteurs, date et publication :
Auteurs Thibaud Decaëns , George G. Brown , Erin K. Cameron , Csaba Csuzdi , Nico Eisenhauer , Sylvain Gérard , Arnaud Goulpeau , Mickaël Hedde , Samuel W. James , Emmanuel Lapied , Marie-Eugénie Maggia , Daniel F. Marchán , Jérôme Mathieu , Helen R. P. Phillips , Eric Marcon
Publication : bioRxiv
Date : 2024
Pages : 2024.09.08.611896