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Accelerated global spider biodiversity reseach -
a blueprint for global biodiversity investigation
Research initiative submitted on behalf of the
Association for the Promotion of Spider Research
and the
Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research
by Wolfgang Nentwig and partners
1
Table of contents
In a nutshell 4
Introduction 5
What is biodiversity? 5
The world’s biodiversity is endangered 6
How many species are there? 7
The problem has many faces 8
The initiative 9
A targeted initiative for accelerated biodiversity research 9
Why spiders? 10
Spiders are diverse, abundant, important, beautiful and socially relevant 10
Spider venoms for pharmaceuticals and bioinsecticides 11
Spider silk for material sciences 12
Spiders are unique bioindicators and biocontrol agents 13
Spiders as a pivotal group for biodiversity research and conservation 14
Precondition 1: All described species are listed in the World Spider Catalog 14
Precondition 2: Availability of the taxonomic literature 15
Precondition 3: Internet based identification key: Spiders of the World 16
What we want to achieve 17
Project structure 17
The Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research 18
Founding partners of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research 19
The Association for the Promotion of Spider Research 20
Grants to accelerate spider taxonomic research 20
One approach yields many solutions 21
Conservation impact and biodiversity hotspots 22
Administration 23
Outcomes 23
The donors and sponsorship possibilities 24
Timescale 24
References 25
Contact
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nentwig
Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Bern, Baltzerstrasse 6
CH 3012 Bern, Switzerland
wolfgang.nentwig@iee.unibe.ch
Tel. ++41 31 631 45 20
In a nutshell Introduction
What is biodiversity?
Globally, animal and plant species and their environments need more protection.This initiative
contains an innovative and much needed approach to accelerate the investigation and conserva- The world’s wealth of species is also called biological diversity and represents the basis for man-
tion of the world’s biodiversity. Habitat protection relates to species protection and knowledge kind’s existence on our planet. Biological diversity comprises not only animals, plants, fungi and
about species diversity and distribution provides critical data for priority decisions. Thus, a first micro-organisms, but also their genetic variability and the ecosystems they form and live in (1).
step towards conservation of biodiversity includes taxonomic research to document species and Usually, many thousand species build up each of the numerous ecosystems around us. The com-
to define hotspots of species diversity and endemism in order to protect such carefully selected plex species assemblage within an ecosystem enables numerous ecosystem functions and ser-
habitats. We concentrate on spiders, the most species-rich terrestrial invertebrate group after in- vices, such as biomass production and degradation, cleaning of our atmosphere and of the water,
sects. This focus is meaningful because spider taxonomy currently faces the unique combination but also pest control, pollination, and many others (2). For humans, only a few species have a
of a large and excellent scientific community, an authoritative database with all nomenclatural direct (as crops, livestock, pets) or indirect positive (for cultural or aesthetic values) or negative
information, and an online collection of all taxonomic literature since the start of taxonomy in impact (as pests or vectors of diseases). World-wide, however, pollination by hundreds of insect
1757. The core of this initiative aims at targeted research projects by the world’s best natural species guarantees the variety of food people rely on (3). Thousands of beneficial spider and
history museums and research institutions, and their experts in spider taxonomy. These projects insect species feed on plant pests and reduce their damaging impact (4, 5). Many plant and fungi
will be granted by the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research, founded in June 2016 by species produce chemical compounds which are used for medical purposes. Also, venomous
34 founding partners, and for which a budget of 30 million Swiss Francs (Euro, US$) is needed. animals such as snakes or spiders provide toxins in their venom which are an important source of
These projects will double to triple the current rate of species descriptions, thus closing the gap current and future pharmaceuticals. For many species, their relevance for ecosystem functioning
between known and existing biodiversity by describing most existing spider species within four is not well known and ecologists believe meanwhile that only a part of the existing species are
decades. Projects will include training young scientists, particularly in developing countries, sup- required to organize and run an ecosystem. However, all other species are not dispensable but
porting local conservation activities, and aims to protect newly discovered small-scale biodiver- important for community assembly processes or considered as an important buffer, as a surplus
sity hotspots. By supporting knowledge and skill development in young scientists, these projects insurance capital, in case other species fail or are lost (6). We know that the security of our com-
will secure the future of taxonomic research worldwide. A successful implementation of such puter world relies on technical redundancy of three or more levels; nature always did the same,
an accelerated approach will have the potential to serve as a blueprint for global biodiversity but relies on a much higher security level.
research.
Three quarters of the currently known 2.07 million species are animals, the rest is composed of
plants, fungi and unicellular organisms such as protozoans and bacteria (7). Among animals, the
small group of vertebrates (mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians) has been more inves-
tigated while most other animals remain poorly known. In aquatic ecosystems, crustaceans and
molluscs constitute the bulk of diversity, whereas in terrestrial ecosystems insects and spiders
are the most important and also abundant organisms.
Keywords
Global biodiversity, species richness, taxonomic impediment, accelerated taxonomy, description
of new species, spiders as model group, small-scale biodiversity hotspots, habitat conservation,
excellence programme, natural history museums, research institutions, Virtual Institute of Spi-
der Taxonomic Research, career of young scientists, developing countries
4
The world’s biodiversity is endangered How many species are there?
During the evolution of life on Earth, over a period of more than 1000 million years, the num- Currently, about 2.07 million species have been documented and formally described (7), but the-
ber of species increased permanently. This process was interrupted by several mass extinction re is a much larger number of species that have not yet been discovered and properly described.
events. Two of them are best known because of the loss of iconic species: at the end of the Per- There are several estimates on the actual number of species and the most realistic ones are in
mian period, 250 million years ago, all trilobites along with over 70% of all marine animal groups the range of ten million species, globally (15). This means that as today, we may know currently
disappeared, and at the transition of the Cretaceous to Tertiary periods, 66 million years ago, all only about 20 % of the extant diversity.
non-avian dinosaurs and ammonites, among many other groups, became extinct. Despite these
remarkable extinction events, the world’s biota always recovered, or even surpassed, previous Thanks to the work of taxonomists, the number of known species is slowly increasing with a
diversity (8). However, the story could be different for the current extinction process, caused by frequency of 18,000 species per year (16). At the same time, however, both recorded and yet
human activities, since it could be too fast to allow for biodiversity recovery in foreseeable future not discovered species go extinct due to human activities. The current anthropogenic extinction
(9, 10). rate is estimated to be up to 1000 times higher than the natural background rate of extinction
(17). The resulting rate of annual species loss is highly debated but is certainly in the range of the
The ever growing human population needs more and more space to produce food and to sup- number of newly described species or even higher (18). The combination of these curves clearly
port larger urban areas with their required infrastructure. Natural ecosystems such as tropical points to the currently observed global species decline which may even affect more than half of
rainforests, woodlands, wetlands and other habitats are, therefore, transformed to serve human the world’s biodiversity within one century.
needs. Such anthropogenic environments are more simply structured and usually house a much
lower number of species than natural habitats. Moreover, anthropogenic habitats such as agri-
cultural fields, meadows, forests, industrial areas and megacities are more similar to each other
than natural habitats are, thus global homogeneity is increasing. Therefore, the current growth
of the human population is paralleled by a loss of natural biodiversity and increasing global ho-
mogenization (11, 12, 13). The amount and speed of this species loss is a matter of debate among
scientists, but there is consensus that we are today facing the largest biodiversity loss ever recor-
ded in Earth’s history (10, 11).
Evolution of global diversity during the last 600 million years with two major natural extinction events and the current Landscapes sculpted by human beings: cities, agriculture and forestry.
anthropogenic extinction of yet unknown dimension (8, 14).
6 7
The initiave proposed here offers solutions for
these problems. Please see page 21
The problem has many faces
• In the last decades, the lack of interest of governments and funding agencies in funding taxo-
nomic research has resulted in a shortage and aging of trained taxonomists, which has been
referred as the taxonomic impediment. Museums even reduced the number of employed
taxonomists and cut research budgets (19, 20). This further reduces the education possibili-
ties for young taxonomists (21).
• Even with modern data technologies it is not possible to obtain a reliable estimate of the The initiative
current size of global biodiversity and its future change because the magnitude of several
million species implies an uncertainty too big to handle precisely. A targeted initiative for accelerated biodiversity research
• Taxonomists are the specialists among biologists who delimit, name, describe and classify
species. Taxonomists are also responsible for providing the tools (e.g. taxonomic revisions, The best approach to tackle the description and documentation of an immense diversity of spe-
identification keys, DNA barcode reference libraries) that allow non-specialists to identify cies that remains unknown in the age of the current extinction is a step-wise approach, with an
species. Professional taxonomists are usually employed at or associated with natural history initial focus on a manageably diverse and abundant group of species that may be used as proof
museums and other research centres, including universities. Unfortunately, during the last of concept or a test case. This selected group has to fulfil several conditions to make maximum
decades, the worldwide number of taxonomists did not increase sufficiently to deal with the progress within a foreseeable project period. Among others, it has to be a major and prominent
magnitude of the task ahead: to name and document every single species before they go group, globally distributed, ecologically and/or economically important and of societal relevance.
extinct. To serve as a model group, it should ideally comprise a substantial but not too large size. We be-
• The shortage of taxonomists stands in sharp contrast with the large amount of collection lieve that this is in the range of 2-3 percent of the currently known world’s biodiversity, probably
material in museums waiting for scientific study and identification … corresponding to more than 70,000 undescribed species. There should be a large international
• …even if most of this material had been collected unsystematically and is often in bad con- community working with this group and a good documentation of existing species and the corre-
dition, e.g. not suitable for molecular analysis. Additionally, many geographical areas and sponding literature should also be available. Series of targeted and highly structured projects of
taxonomic groups are under-collected, thus expeditions with targeted collecting are urgently 2-3 years shall accelerate the rate of species descriptions to increase the total number of known
needed. Many rare habitats are vanishing, so this is another race against time. species within a short time. Pioneer projects such as the Goblin Spider Planetary Biodiversity In-
• The scientific description of species according to the biological nomenclature started with ventory (24, 25) showed already convincingly, that well-funded, targeted research can triple the
the Swedish scientists Carl Alexander Clerck (1757) and Carolus Linnaeus (1758) who per- species number in a poorly known family within a few years.
formed a scientific revolution by introducing the modern binominal system of naming orga-
nisms, with descriptions published in printed journals and books. While species descriptions Because the knowledge of species richness and its distribution is an important condition for their
of the last decades have reached a high standard, most of the older publications are of poor local conservation, such a taxonomic initiative will also cause a major conservation push. We
quality and difficult to access, because there are few copies available or because it is stored predict that already after the first decade it can be convincingly shown that our approach fulfils
in distant institutions. This is most pronounced outside of established and well-connected the expectations. Then such accelerated taxonomic research can be recommended as a blue-
research institutions and in the developing world. print for other species groups. For the many good reasons explained in detail below, we selected
• Formally describing and naming species is essential to link species to biological, geographical, spiders as the most suitable taxonomic animal group to be tested for the proposed project on
ecological and applied knowledge. Therefore, the Systematics Agenda 2000 listed Mission 1 accelerated biodiversity investigation. While spiders are the largest group for which all taxono-
“to discover and document past and present life on earth” as first and most urgent task. This mic treatments are catalogued, it would currently not be possible to perform such a project with
has been updated to the Systematics Agenda 2020, but due to an overall lack of resources, insects, even though they represent half of all known species, because the management of their
progress with mission 1 was less than expected (22, 23). taxonomy and literature access is much less developed.
• Protection of species needs the identification and naming of species, because one can only
effectively protect what one knows. Because of the poor taxonomic knowledge, megadiverse
groups, those with a large number of species, such as insects and spiders, which make up
more than half of all known species, are often neglected in biodiversity conservation policies.
This lack of knowledge compromises the correct assessment of the representativeness and
complementarity of protected areas, which are essential in establishing conservation priori-
ties.
8 9
Spider venoms for pharmaceuticals and bioinsecticides Taxonomy is crucial!
The venom of one spider species can contain hundreds of components. This corresponds to
many million different components for the large number of all currently known spider species.
Most components are peptides and react with cell membranes and ion channels, primarily of
nerve and muscle tissue. Modern sequencing technologies allow for the identification of such
peptides at reasonable costs, and to modify their amino acid sequence for testing them in biolo-
gical model systems. Such bioactive compounds are highly interesting candidates to control the
activity of ion channels. Ion channels are found throughout the human body and regulate many
Why spiders? physiological processes including cell secretion and pain transmission. Some of the venom com-
ponents also exert an anticancer potential through several pathways (31). Many pharmaceutical
Spiders are diverse, abundant, important, beautiful and socially relevant companies are involved in research projects to investigate the effects of spider derived bioactive
compounds on specific degenerative diseases of muscles or the nerve system (32). Meanwhile, a
By mid-2016, about 46,000 extant spider species are globally known, which represents 2.2 % of few promising substances are available to be tested in clinical trials in humans, but in future, the
the documented planetary species diversity. Recent expert estimates suggest that the total num- interest in spider venoms will increase even more (33, 34).
ber of spider species could be in the range of 120,000 species (24, 26). Spiders are common in all
terrestrial ecosystems of the world and locally can reach densities as high as 10 to more than 100 More generally, the diversity of toxic substances, many of them supposed to be selective to some
individuals per square meter, thus they are a keystone ecosystem component (27). As dominant insect groups, made them also highly attractive sources for investigations into new insecticides
insect predators in all terrestrial habitats, they represent a key regulatory element in the natural (35). The growing interest in spider venoms is also visible in the number of patent applications
control processes of ecosystems and are considered beneficial in an agricultural context, where involving spider venom components (currently 3 to 6 per year) and in the number of scientific
they control numerous agricultural pests. Although spiders may widely suffer from a bad reputa- publications on spider venom: over the last 20 years nearly double as many publications appea-
tion, there is no objective justification for this. red than in the previous 100 years.
Many spiders are not brown and dark hairy critters, but extremely diverse in appearance and co- Initially, pharmaceutical investigations concentrated on big and easy to obtain spider species.
lour, some as beautifully coloured as some insects can be. The many hairs on a spider’s body are Meanwhile, with increasing possibilities of transcriptomic or genomic research and big data ma-
not “fur” but represent a variety of very complex sensory hairs which allow the animals to locate nagement, there is an increasing demand to analyse more spider species. Further taxonomic re-
prey items and enemies via airborne sounds, tactile input and olfactory perception (28). Spiders search would deliver sufficient supply of more spider species, even in specific groups, if desired.
hear, feel, and smell with sensory hairs.
Almost all spiders have one pair of venom glands to produce venom to kill insects, the most
common prey of spiders. Humans are not in the prey spectrum of spiders and the venom of most
spiders is neither quantitatively nor qualitatively suited for humans. Only a few dozen of spider
The increasing number of publications on
species could become dangerous to humans and cause globally between 1 and 10 fatalities per
spider venoms in the last decades indica-
year, mainly due to an anaphylactic shock (29, 30). In comparison, the most dangerous arthro- tes the importance of this research.
pods are scorpions (globally more than 6,000 fatalities per year) and bees or wasps (more than
1,200 cases).
Protein structures from spider
venom compounds could beco-
me important pharmaceuticals.
10 11
Spiders are unique bioindicators and biocontrol agents
Spiders occur in all terrestrial habitats as a species rich and
abundant group of predators, thus they represent a hig-
her trophic ecosystem level. Such species assemblages are
strongly influenced by many aspects of land use change
High-tech solutions like the Viaduc
de Millau in France with biopoly-
and corresponding management, making them ideal indi-
meres from spider silk? cators of such modifications (38). Accordingly, spiders have
Spider silk for material sciences frequently been used for impact assessments or long term
monitoring of environmental transformation. Spiders can,
Spider silk is a proteinaceous biopolymer representing a unique combination of light weight, among others, be recommended as bioindicators for
tensile strength and elasticity making it very attractive for technical applications. Today, spider • deforestation and reforestation processes (39, 40)
silk is available as recombinant fibres and has also been combined with other materials to form • effects of grazing on grassland ecosystems (41, 42)
chimeric proteins. Because spider silk absorbs large quantities of kinetic energy, it is seen as a • a variety of agricultural practices including crop rotati-
material for body armour and protective clothing such as bulletproof vests. Further applications on, soil treatment and fertilization (43)
include safety belts, parachutes, ropes, nets or spider silk fibres to reinforce composite materials.
Spider silk is also highly biocompatible and therefore attractive for many biomedical applica- Spiders are ideal biocontrol agents because
tions. Potential products are capsules as carriers for pharmaceutical applications (36) or films, • almost all spiders are generalist predators, feeding on
foams for tissue engineering and implants, and applications within regenerative medicine (37). insects, many of which are agricultural pests (44, 45)
For some 20 years, several biotechnology companies have been investing in spider silk research. • they are abundant, with estimates of populations appro-
This strong interest in spider silk is also visible in the number of scientific publications on spider aching one million per hectare (46)
silk: over the last 10 years three times more publications appeared than in the 100 years before. • spiders contribute to a density-independent limitation Simplified structure of the
of prey, including self-damping and life cycles that are trophic levels in an ecosystem.
Silk research has concentrated mainly on the silk of the golden orb weaver Nephila because asynchronous to those of prey species (47)
technical production problems were predominant. Meanwhile there is increasing interest in silk • evidence of effective control in agro-ecosystems has
properties from a variety of species and taxonomic research becomes important. been found and benefits to farmers have been measu-
red (48)
For an in depth quantification and understanding of bioindication and biocontrol processes, it
is important to identify the spider species involved. This is only possible when basic taxonomic
studies have investigated and identified all species. While this had been done for most parts of
Europe, such an approach is not yet fully applicable for other continents.
The increasing number of publications on spider silks in the Cape made in 2009 from the yellow silk of the Mada-
last decades reflects the importance of this research. gascar golden orb weaver (Nephila)
Jumping spiders feeding on a cicada, a fly, a grasshopper and a bug.
A three-dimensional spider web. Moon parka (2016) Spiber Inc. and The North Face
commercialize first synthetic spider silk material.
12 13
Spiders as a pivotal group for biodiversity research and conservation Precondition 2: Availability of the taxonomic literature
Spiders are a highly abundant, megadiverse group that represents 2.2 % of Earth’s known biodi- In contrast to other scientific publications, taxonomic publications are “legal” documents ruled
versity. Their presence in all terrestrial ecosystems of the world makes them a globally attractive by international codes of nomenclature (49). The currently (2016) known 46,000 spider species
target and they are ideally suited as a test case for the major biodiversity research initiative have been published in 13,300 publications, starting in 1757. For several reasons, most of these
proposed here. Spiders are a favorite model system organism for many active research groups publications were previously difficult to access for most scientists. This was a relevant impedi-
around the world and the scientific knowledge heritage of the group is well documented and ma- ment for scientific studies, not only in developing countries and outside modern research ins-
naged. This is in remarkable contrast to other species-rich groups such as insects or crustaceans, titutions, but also in the most advanced institutions of the industrialized world. No scientist or
where comparable knowledge (especially literature collection and taxonomic stability) does not institution had access to all (or even most) of these publications. To overcome this problem, the
exist and hence a major, coordinated effort to conduct biodiversity research is not yet feasible. World Spider Catalog Association for the promotion of taxonomic and systematic research in
Below we detail the preconditions fulfilled by spiders that make them specially well-suited for arachnology was founded in 2013. It is responsible for two main activities, to collect all taxonomi-
the research proposed here. cally relevant spider literature and to make it accessible to its members via a password-protected
website. The World Spider Catalog Association is an association under Swiss Civil Law, without
commercial purpose. Within two years, 99 % of the taxonomically relevant spider literature has
Precondition 1: All described species are listed in the World Spider Catalog already been collected. In combination with the taxonomic data from the World Spider Catalog,
this is now an index to all taxonomic treatments in the primary literature and it contains all trait
www.wsc.nmbe.ch data including occurrence records and diversity data. This digital literature storage corresponds
to several million printed pages and is used by more than 3000 registered World Spider Catalog
After many years of paper catalogs, a first HTML version of the all-species catalog was established Association members who access some 500 PDFs daily. This indicates the magnitude of activity of
in 2000, followed in 2014 by the launching of a fully searchable database. It now contains the the involved taxonomic community, but also the need for open literature access (50).
complete taxonomic information for some 46,000 spider species, from the first spider species de-
scription in 1757 until today, including all taxonomic changes, with full reference to the authors.
This corresponds to an estimated 20,000 printed catalog pages. This modern database is freely
accessible and is currently used 500 – 700 times per day, which underlines its importance for the
scientific community world-wide. In the last two decades, the World Spider Catalog (www.wsc.
nmbe.ch) became an authoritative database, providing considerable stability in nomenclature
and taxonomy of spiders.
The number of described new spider species (red lines) and corresponding number of scientific publications (blue Within two years the scientific community collected 99 % of the taxonomically relevant world spider literature and
lines). Left graph: per year, right graph: cumulatively. made it available to all members of the World Spider Catalog Association. This busy collection of publications is illus-
trated in this cartoon published in the scientific journal Nature (50).
14 15
Precondition 3: Internet based identification key: Spiders of the World What we want to achieve
A next important and much needed step after cataloguing the species and collecting literature is Project structure
to provide easily accessible identification tools to enable species identification even by non-spe-
cialists. In principle, each single taxonomic publication represents an individual piece of a big With the aim of overcoming current limitations on documenting the diversity of life and accom-
puzzle, which is the global key. Currently, such a comprehensive key is not yet available but the plishing the goal of describing all extant spider diversity before any further species goes extinct
global initiative proposed here will cover a significant distance towards this goal. In parallel to undocumented, we established the globally acting Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Rese-
the increasing number of described spider species, this will contribute to our aim of Spiders of arch. Its partners are natural history museums, universities and comparable research institu-
the World. tions, and their leading spider taxonomy experts from all continents. This Virtual Institute will
be financed by the Association for the Promotion of Spider Research which has been set up
A good example, however, is already available for Europe with its approximately 4,500 species, under the Swiss Civil Law. The main purpose of the Association is to support young researchers,
representing 10% of the world’s known spider species richness. Each species is illustrated with such as PhD students and postdocs, with grants to conduct taxonomic research, which will be
a description and a distribution map, comprising a total of 35,000 figures and 3,500 photos. administered via the Virtual Institute. This will speed up the number of described spider species
Dichotomous keys allow identification to all families, within families to nearly all genera and considerably, will support museums and taxonomists, especially in developing countries, and will
within all genera to most species. This information is taken from 2,100 publications and, with enhance local conservation initiatives. Furthermore, the project will be fundamental to secure a
individual copyright agreements from some 200 authors and publishers, made available to the new generation of professional taxonomist by supporting the knowledge and skill development
scientific community. Spiders of Europe developed from a precursor book (1991) via HTML pa- of young scientists.
ges (2000) to a freely available database (2010) (www.araneae.unibe.ch) and is available in
English and German. It is used by some 300 arachnologists daily (85 % from Europe, 15 % from
the rest of the world).
In addition to this comprehensive website, there are a series of other databases reflecting a va-
riety of local initiatives. Some websites are devoted to the global coverage of single spider fami-
lies (e.g. on jumping spiders) or representing local faunas (e.g. Spiders of the Iberian Peninsula,
of the Caucasus, Iran, Turkey).
www.araneae.unibe.ch
Founding partner institutions of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research (June 2016). A detailed partner
description can be found at the website of the Virtual Institute at vinst.org.
16 17
The Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research Founding partners of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research
Argentina Prof. Dr. Martín J. Ramírez Prof. Dr. Martín J. Ramírez
www.vinst.org Australia Dr. Barbara Baehr Queensland Museum, Brisbane
Dr. Volker Framenau Phoenix Environmental Sciences Pty Ltd, Perth
The Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research was founded in June 2016 to accelerate taxo-
Belgium Dr. Rudy Jocqué Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren
nomic research on spiders. Natural history museums and other scientific institutions with lea-
ding spider taxonomists are expert partners of the Virtual Institute. This partnership is dynamic, Brazil Prof. Dr. Alexandre Bragio Bonaldo Goeldi Museum, Belèm
meaning it can incorporate new partners as information becomes available. There is no upper Dr. Antonio D. Brescovit Butantan Institute, São Paulo
or lower limit to the number of partners, but a meaningful proportion among continents and Dr. Cristina Rheims Butantan Institute, São Paulo
between industrialized and the developing world shall be achieved. The Virtual Institute is ma- Prof. Dr. Adalberto J. Santos Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte
naged by a small Board of Directors, elected from the partners of the Institute, working in an Burundi Benoît Nzigidahera National Institute for Environment and Nature Conser-
honorary capacity, and a secretary-general (part time employed, which encompasses the only vation, Bujumbura
major administrative costs of the Virtual Institute). The legal seat of the Virtual Institute is in China Prof. Dr. Shuqiang Li Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei-
Bern, Switzerland. All activities of the Virtual Institute are published transparently via its website. jing
Currently, the Virtual Institute comprises 34 founding partners. Short CVs of these leading spider Ecuador Nadine Dupérré Otonga Foundation, Quito
taxonomists can be found on the website of the Virtual Institute. Germany Dr. Bernhard A. Huber Alexander Koenig Museum of Zoology, Bonn
Dr. Peter Jäger Senckenberg Research Institute, Frankfurt
Dr. Peter Michalik University of Greifswald
Hungary Dr. Tamás Szűts University of West Hungary, Szombathely
India Prof. Dr. Pothalil Antony Sebastian Sacred Heart College, Kochi, Kerala
Iran Alireza Zamani University of Tehran, Tehran
Italy Dr. Marco Isaia University of Torino, Torino
Japan Dr. Ken-ichi Okumura Nagasaki Prefectural Nagasaki Kakuyo Senior High
School, Nagasaki
Netherlands Dr. Jeremy A. Miller Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden
New Zealand Dr. Cor J. Vink Canterbury Museum, Christchurch
Peru Prof. Dr. Diana Silva Dávila University of San Marcos, Lima
Russia Dr. Yuri M. Marusik Institute for Biological Problems of the North, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Magadan
Dr. Kirill G. Mikhailov Zoological Museum, Lomonosov Moscow State Univer-
sity, Moscow
Dr. Andrei Tanasevitch Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution, Russian
Academy of Sciences, Moscow
Slovenia Dr. Matjaž Kuntner Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences
and Arts, Ljubljana
South Africa Dr. Charles Haddad University of the Free State, Bloemfontein
Spain Dr. Miquel A. Arnedo University of Barcelona, Barcelona
Dr. Carles Ribera University of Barcelona, Barcelona
Sri Lanka Prof. Dr. Suresh P. Benjamin National Institute of Fundamental Studies, Kandy
Switzerland Prof. Dr. Christian Kropf Natural History Museum Bern, Bern
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nentwig University of Bern, Bern
Organisation of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research and its collaborators.
USA Prof. Dr. Ingi Agnarsson University of Vermont, Burlington
Dr. Paula Cushing Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Denver
18 19The Association for the Promotion of Spider Research One approach yields many solutions
The Association for the Promotion of Spider Research was set up in 2016 under Swiss Civil Law Supply of the Virtual Institute and engagements of supervisors and grantees
and its legal set is in Bern, Switzerland. The Board of the Association consists of a small group of
scientists and its statutes can be found at the website of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic We expect that calls of the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Research will receive wide at-
Research (www.vinst.org). The Association founded the Virtual Institute of Spider Taxonomic Re- tention and will result in many applications. By providing strong application guidelines and conti-
search and its main purpose is to serve as a financial backbone for the Virtual Institute and the nuously selecting the best proposals, we will be able to provide sustainable solutions for most of
grants that it will assign to young scientists. It is intended to stock the Association in the range of the problems mentioned on page 8.
30 million Swiss Francs (equalling approximately to US$ or Euro) to enable its proposed function
for several decades. The annual interest on such a sum will allow the initiation of at least 10 to 20 • The here proposed initiative is ideal to mitigate the taxonomic impediment and to face the
three-year project grants per year. worldwide lack of taxonomists. We begin with PhD student grants but also offer postdoc
grants, to keep the young scientists in science and to support their career. We are also aware
of the difficult situation many senior scientists face which cannot reach staff position. A spe-
Grants to accelerate spider taxonomic research cial programme for such experienced scientists is much needed.
• Though moderately, we will contribute to general research expenses, to enable high quality
research also in less well-equipped institutions.
The purpose of the Virtual Institute is to announce highly competitive research grants to PhD • An excellent education of taxonomists should also include field work for targeted spider col-
students and postdocs to accelerate spider taxonomic research. A special programme for senior lecting in priority areas. This shall meaningfully complement existing museum material. We
researchers who have not yet reached a permanent staff position is also highly needed. Submis- will provide financial support for such expeditions.
sions will be evaluated according to criteria such as the quality of the applicant and supervisor, • Results have to be published in peer-reviewed international journals. This makes species
former publication output of the candidate, quality of the project, suitability of the project to more easily recognisable and in combination with the associated data, such publications will
fulfil the criterion of accelerated taxonomy, and involvement of conservation issues. Grants will increase the importance of the new species for conservation issues.
cover the salary of the applicant but also a proportion for field collections, research expenses and • This underlines the relationship between spider habitats, high biodiversity and local conser-
related local conservation issues. Ideally, we expect at least 30 to 40 newly described species per vation issues within the framework of local diversity hotspots. Therefore, we will also provide
3 year PhD grant and some 15 species per postdoc year (or equivalent achievements). The super- some financial support for involved local conservation structures or organizations, especially
visor of a grantee must be a member of a partner institution of the Virtual Institute to guarantee in developing countries, e.g. to support visitor centres, to inform about the specific project
optimal performance. As illustrated here, such a programme will double or triple the current and to raise public awareness.
description rate of new species from 4,000 or 8,000 to 16,000 species per decade and thus close • To further enhance the quality and career possibilities of young scientists, successful appli-
the gap to the possibly existing 120,000 spider species (24, 26) within four decades. cations include field and lab work, morphological and molecular techniques, and a variety of
useful techniques. This will be supported by the respective supervisor but also by the net-
work of partners. This can include regional meetings and method workshops.
• Therefore, we encourage and support financially the exchange of people, material, techniques
and ideas among partners. Details of applications will be provided in separate documents.
• To facilitate enhanced taxonomic research, the Virtual Institute will, in close cooperation
with the partners, set up a list of useful tools and implement them. Such tools include coor-
dination of taxonomic work among partners, declaration and exchange of material, pre-fabri-
cated text elements and image-based delineation of character states for species descriptions
and manuscript templates, following the standard set by the goblin spider PBI (25).
• Such a close cooperation between the partners of the Virtual Institute and scientists in de-
veloping countries is also the key to fulfil the conditions and solve the problems which derive
from the Nagoya protocol on access and benefit-sharing, an international agreement which
aims at sharing the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources in a fair and
equitable way among countries (51).
On the basis of the average numbers of newly described species in the last 20 years, the number of known spider
species will increase in the next 10 years to a range of 50,000 to 54,000 species. The grants proposed here aim to
accelerate taxonomic spider research and will, in the middle and most realistic scenario, double or triple this amount,
to 62,000 to 66,000 species.
20 21Conservation impact and biodiversity hotspots Administration
The concept of biodiversity hotspots describes the distribution peaks of species richness globally The administration of the Virtual Institute and of the Association will be performed as efficiently
and combines this with the portion of endemic species among them, i.e. species only occurring as possible. We envisage not more than one part-time position, needed to administer the Virtu-
at this location. Combining this with threat status allows the identification of areas of highest al Institute, including maintenance of the website and organization of the announcements of
biodiversity concern which deserve the highest protection. This concept had been developed grants, their reviews and the payments. Reviewing will be done by the international scientific
primarily with plants and some vertebrates and usually comprises very large areas (52, 53). As a community at no extra costs and the final decisions will be made by the Board of Directors, also
consequence, a hotspot is often too large of an area to be completely and efficiently protected, at no extra costs. Therefore, administrative costs will be kept at a minimum and most financial
and thus not very helpful to policy makers and conservation managers, because current and fu- resources will be used for the core purpose of the Virtual Institute. Finances will be audited ex-
ture human population and land use pressure does not allow for large conservation areas with ternally.
high protection intensity, i.e. without human influence. Furthermore, such global maps are far
from being comprehensive because when including further species groups, further biodiversi- Outcomes
ty hotspots appear. Downscaling the concept of biodiversity hotspots to smaller geographical
units by including the fine scale geographical biodiversity pattern of spiders, will allow for the Besides knowledge increase, the main outcomes of the Virtual Institute include new generations
delimitation of much smaller areas of high conservation value, which could then be managed of well-trained young researchers, experts in spider taxonomy and equipped with a wide spec-
much more effectively. Our vision for accelerating taxonomic research will deliver useful data for trum of scientific skills. This will foster research in taxonomy and biodiversity in general, but will
such areas and will be provided to the national and/or local conservation authorities. Such local also support natural history museum research, especially in developing countries. Spiders, as the
biodiversity hotspots are a valuable means to support local conservation activities and are much most important terrestrial invertebrate predator group, will become the taxonomic group with
easier to manage. Therefore, accelerated taxonomic research on spiders will become a powerful the highest percentage of described species and the one with the easiest access to taxonomic in-
conservation tool because, like an umbrella, it will also protect other groups with comparable formation such as species descriptions, nomenclatural catalogues and literature access. This will
small-scale distributions. increase the cooperation between scientists and institutions. It also supports conservation ac-
tions, especially regarding local habitat protection. We expect this project to become an icon for
documenting biodiversity and we will report regularly on its success, via the website of the Virtu-
al Institute, in publications and at scientific conferences. We anticipate that the development of
our project will be followed by experts in other taxonomic groups and scientists in general. We
are also convinced that this project will serve as a blueprint for further taxonomic research, thus
having a major impact on global biodiversity research and conservation.
Red dots and lines indicate the biodiversity hotspots according to plants and vertebrates (52, 53). For spiders and other
invertebrates we will downscale this concept to much smaller areas of high conservation value.
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Illustration sources
Pages cover, 9, 10 © araneae.unibe.ch
Page 5, 7, 11, 12 (web, cape) from Wikipedia
Page 11 (3D structure) http://www.rcsb.org/pdb/home/home.do
Page 12 (top) © Viaduc de Millau, France
Page 12 (moon parka) ©The North FaceUniversity of Bern, Switzerland International Society of Arachnology European Society of Arachnology
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