Biodiversity Databases in the Future: Reply to Cene Fi？er

Our recently published paper [ 1 Costello M.J. et al. Sustainable biodiversity databasing: international, collaborative, dynamic, centralised. Trends Ecol. Evol. 2018; 33 : 803-805 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (0) Google Scholar ] in which we proposed the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS) as a model for future world databases on organism names provoked much feedback from the scientific community. In a comment on our paper, Cene Fi？er [ 2 Fi？er (2018) A commentary on Costello et al.: the need for taxonomists may increase. Trends Ecol. Evol. xx, 1–2 Google Scholar ] re-emphasized the need for a single, central database driven by taxonomic experts and sharing of data between different databases. He cautions, however, that a strongly increased demand for such experts could be the result. We agree, but suggest this is a good thing. Creating a global database for a diversity of organisms can highlight conflicting classifications, nomenclatural problems, and taxonomic issues. We argue that uncovering these problems will better allow the community to address them. Indeed, such work is already conducted by the community, but takes place in the literature at an irregular pace and uncoordinated manner