Cost of Identifying Every Animal Species

Antonio Marques and Fernando Carbayo, two biologists from the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil, estimated that the cost of discovering, naming, and scientifically describing the remaining animals on Earth would cost nearly $263 billion. This number is strictly an estimate for animal species, and does not account for other life forms. In order to come up with this number, Marques, a jellyfish specialist, and Carbavo, a flatworm expert, surveyed 44 Brazilian taxonomists to determine their rate of describing new animal species. This rate took into account their education, lifetime salaries, laboratory equipment, and expeditions. They estimated that there were an estimated 5.4 million animal species that are yet to be discovered.

These biologists, along with the rest of the science community, feel that it is urgent to discover these animals, considering their role in crop pollination, clean air, along with other aspects of human well being. However, the global shortage of taxonomists is a huge obstacle that is difficult to overcome. On average, taxonomists are identifying and cataloging nearly 16,000 new animal species per year. At this rate, it will take about 360 years to complete this task.

As technological advancements in areas such as image matching software, electronic publishing, and photography are being developed, costs are slowly declining. These advancements could potentially reduce costs and speed up the process of identifying species.

I chose this article simply because I was interested in the final cost that the scientists came up with, in addition to what they took into account when calculating this cost. I do agree with the notion that it would be beneficial to document all the existing species of global biodiversity as soon as we can. Knowing about the various life forms around us and understanding how they impact our daily activities is invaluable knowledge. In order to complete the job of identifying every single species of organisms, I feel that it would be advantageous to have IT savvy individuals who could work on the technological side of things. Although this would require intensive training, it would allow taxonomists to focus on the technical identification of these organisms; it would also create more jobs and potentially reduce the costs of identifying foreign species.

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/03/how-much-would-it-cost-to-identi.html?ref=hp

Long Lost Terraces Were Found

The White and Pink Terraces that were once located on Lake Rotomahana in New Zealand, were often referred to as the Eighth Wonder of the World.

These Terraces were silica deposits; scientists suspect that the Pink Terraces obtained their color from either the elements such as iron and manganese dissolving in the hot spring waters, or from a type of bacteria that thrives off of hot water, and typically lives in warm pools.

In June of 1886, volcanic activity near Mount Tarawera altered the landscape and raised the water level of the lake drastically, and destroyed these Terraces. The molten rock generated steam explosions that blasted holes into the bottom of Lake Rotomahana. This caused rock and sediment debris to block the stream flowing from the lake, which resulted in water levels rising nearly 100 meters.

Cornel de Ronde, a New Zealand geologist, along with his research team, recently completed a field expedition that discovered remnants of the Terraces. During the two week field study, the team used an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) to probe the lake. This AUV was essentially a torpedo filled with sensors and equipped with a camera, and scanned the lake using sonar technology. It discovered long crescent-shaped objects nearly 60 meters deep, in an area where the Terraces were once located. For New Zealanders, this discovery was equivalent to the discovery of the Titanic.

The expedition discovered no signs of the upper levels of Pink Terraces or any of the White Terraces. Researchers believe that they were either destroyed in the volcanic eruption, or they are now covered in sediment, which was too thick for sonar to detect.

I chose this article because I was familiar with the once existing White and Pink Terraces, and was curious as to what researchers found in their expedition. I also found the method in which scientists used to find these Terraces to be quite fascinating. The data collected during this expedition could possibly be used to aid future researchers in understanding hot springs and geysers, and help them respond to geological disasters such as the one at Lake Rotomahana in 1886.

Source: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/02/new-zealands-lost-and-found-pink.html