ABSTRACT
Taxonomy is at a critical point in its history. The remaining few thousand taxonomists are increasingly concerned about the prospects of the discipline (Agnarsson and Kuntner, 2007; de Carvalho et al., 2007a, b). At the same time, the impact of the growing human population on the biosphere has created a clear and urgent need for an understanding of biodiversity that can be integrated with sociological, historical, economic, geographical, and atmospheric sciences (inter alia) at a scale capable of predicting, and therefore preparing for, change. We look to biodiversity informatics to organize data about the biosphere. Biodiversity informatics may emerge as a discipline that will compete with taxonomy, or it may become a part of taxonomy. If it is adopted by taxonomists, it will bring a relevance to taxonomy that can revitalize the discipline. “Future Taxonomy” refers to a taxonomy that takes responsibility for shaping Biodiversity Informatics.
