Factors influencing when species are first named and estimating global species richness

Mark J. Costello
Marguerita Lane
Simon Wilson
Brett Houlding

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Publication date

July 2015

DOI

10.1016/j.gecco.2015.07.001

Publisher

Elsevier

ISSN

2351-9894

Journal

issn:2351-9894

Citation count (estimate)

Abstract

Estimates of global species richness should consider what factors influence the rate of species discovery at global scales. However, past studies only considered regional scales and/or samples representing <0.4% of all named species. Here, we analysed trends in the rate of description for all fish species (2% of all named species). We found that the number of species described has slowed for (a) brackish compared to marine and freshwater species, (b) large compared to small sized fish, (c) geographically widespread compared to localised, (d) species occurring in the tropics and northern hemisphere compared to southern hemisphere, and (e) neritic (coastal) species compared to pelagic (offshore) species. Most (68%) of the variation in year of...