Marine Taxonomist Rare, ITK-IPB Boosts Interest in Marine Taxonomy Thursday, October 30, 2014

Indonesia’s marine biodiversity is very large, but very few people are working in the field of marine taxonomy in Indonesia. This cannot be separated from the slow recruitment of new taxonomists, against the existing senior experts who are getting older. This is happening not only in Indonesia but also at the level of the world. Therefore, Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity and Biosystematics (LBBK) of the Department of Marine Sciences and Technology of the Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK) IPB is holding training on marine taxonomy, the 3rd Marine Biodiversity and Molecular Ecology Training Course 2014 from 27 to 31 October, 2014. The training is attended by various groups such as students, lecturers and researchers from LIPI.

 

In training, the speaker is Dr. Charles Oliver Coleman from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Germany. He said, "Taxonomy is the art of the correct description and classification of organisms.” Meanwhile Dr. Hawis Madduppa, Head of LBBK ITK said that this training is as an early step of regenerating Indonesian marine taxonomists. “It is expected that Indonesia will have worldwide taxonomists.” he added.

 

This training focuses on using the software Delta (Descriptive language for taxonomy) to help the taxonomist candidates with describing marine biota. Other training materials are sample collection techniques and literature management. (Mtd)