生物系统学面临的难题

随着对生物多样性和可持续发展的全球性关注，对生物系统学的需求愈来愈大。但许多决策者认为生物系统学是一门古老的学科，谁都可以成为分类学家。这严重地影响了生物系统学的发展。论述生物系统学面临的重大科学问题。包括概念、目标和技术等问题，有利于澄清对生物系统学的一些误解，推进学科的发展，为发挥生物系统学的基础与支撑作用营造一个健康的环境。本文提出了生物系统学的六个科学难题：物种定义是概念难题，物种数量和物种间的相互关系是跨世纪的目标难题，信息管理和鉴定手段是两上技术问题，生物系统学家逐渐减少是一个社会性难题。

MAJOR CHALLENGES IN BIOSYSTEMATICS

With the global focuses on biodiversity and sustainable developments, the needs for biosystematics are becoming bigger and bigger. On the other hand, many decision makers think that biosystematics is a traditional discipline and anyone can do systematic researches. This misunderstanding has blocked and will embarrass the biosystematic development. Describing the major scientific problems in biosystematics, involving the concepts, targets, techniques, etc., will be helpful to clarifying the misunderstanding to biosystematics, promoting the developments of biosystematics, and providing a healthy environment for the biosystematics to play its basic and underpinning role in biology. Six major problems for systematics are raised here. Species definition is a conceptual problem. Species number and species relationships are the over century target problems. Information management and identification techniques are technological problems. Decrease of biosystematists is a social problem.