Forums & ConferencesREPORT - Taxonomy Research & Information Network
Annual Research Forum, 15-17 April 2009
TRIN’s Annual Research Forum was held at Murramarang on the south coast of New South Wales April 15 to 17
Participants - about 50 attendees
- TRIN participants from across the country
- some members of the Steering Committee
- end-users and collaborators
- officers from the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) and
- State agencies, including NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change and Queensland Department of Primary Industries.
- Two experts in cyber-taxonomy (one from the US) shared different approaches to the issues TRIN is addressing.
The program for the meeting took the form of brief project presentations of research activities, mainly by early career researchers and students, illustrating how their particular research addresses TRIN goals. These were followed by substantial discussion sessions in which delegates freely tossed around some of the big issues in taxonomy that TRIN is tackling. A presentation on “Taxonomy and Policy” by two Steering Committee members stimulated discussion and generated ideas for future interactions.
In addressing progress against the goals of TRIN the Forum focussed on three main areas exemplified by specific research projects:
- Addressing the Knowledge Gaps – where the issues and complexities concerning cryptic mammals confound the taxonomy; how ancient DNA is contributing to information on the history of extinct mammals thus informing future conservation planning; and revisional level treatment of the large ant genus Iridomyrmex.
- Accelerating Taxonomy – examples included the use of barcodes in studying aquatic macroinvertebrates; genetic analyses and combined dataset approaches to sorting within-taxon complexities; several tools and applications to speed the taxonomic process.
- Legacy from Taxonomic Research and Delivery – focussed on ways of developing a framework for large complex genera (e.g. ant genus Camponotus) providing opportunities for future research; overcoming taxonomic and genetic impediments to environmental weed management; and a community information model based on the mangrove community.
The two broader projects – Knowledge Exchange and Biodiversity Informatics – brought participants up-to-date on recent activities:
- KE around the survey and focus groups teasing out what taxonomic information users want, how they want it and where from; and
- Informatics group concentrated on collaborative communication tools such as activities taking place via the Wiki.
Communications and interactions between hub members stimulated enthusiastic sharing of ideas and different approaches to the science. Getting together face to face provided welcome opportunity for not only sharing the results of research so far, but also raising awareness of activities across all projects, identifying options for expanding the network, learning skills from others and enabling project participants to prepare work plans and progress reports together. Most agreed there was a strong feeling of a TRIN team with acceptance of shared goals and some urgency to make a difference.
Collaborations – further opportunities developed for collaboration and research ideas were teased out taking advantage of knowledge and methodologies identified in different projects.
Through wide-ranging discussions a number of future priorities and actions were identified to progress TRIN’s aims. These include some training options such as working with media, workshops around applications for key generation software (e.g. Lucid), and various means of growing the network.
