Document of bibliographic reference 207499

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

How many species are there on Earth and in the Ocean?

Abstract

The diversity of life is one of the most striking aspects of our planet; hence knowing how many species inhabit Earth is among the most fundamental questions in science. Yet the answer to this question remains enigmatic, as efforts to sample the world's biodiversity to date have been limited and thus have precluded direct quantification of global species richness, and because indirect estimates rely on assumptions that have proven highly controversial. Here we show that the higher taxonomic classification of species (i.e., the assignment of species to phylum, class, order, family, and genus) follows a consistent and predictable pattern from which the total number of species in a taxonomic group can be estimated. This approach was validated against well-known taxa, and when applied to all domains of life, it predicts ~8.7 million (±1.3 million SE) eukaryotic species globally, of which ~2.2 million (±0.18 million SE) are marine. In spite of 250 years of taxonomic classification and over 1.2 million species already catalogued in a central database, our results suggest that some 86% of existing species on Earth and 91% of species in the ocean still await description. Renewed interest in further exploration and taxonomy is required if this significant gap in our knowledge of life on Earth is to be closed.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000294483000009

Bibliographic citation

Mora, C.; Tittensor, D.P.; Adl, S.; Simpson, A.G.B.; Worm, B. (2011). How many species are there on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biology 9(8): e1001127. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.1001127

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true