Taxonomic impediment, the lack of enough taxonomists to effectively describe the remaining biodiversity on earth, is one of the major blocks to overcome in dealing with the biodiversity crisis. This crisis is particularly serious in the biodiversity-rich countries in the developing world. The last decade has seen rapid increase in the growth of taxonomic force in the developing world. This is in one way reflected in the number of authors in Zootaxa; the top 10 countries and number of authors are (as of 9 April 2010):
USA 1,098
Brazil 1,046
China 595 (mainland only)
Germany 322
Australia 305
Argentina 301
United Kingdom 211
Mexico 204
France 192
Spain 183
It is obvious that biodiversity-rich countries in the developing world (Brazil, China, Argentina, Mexico) now have large bases of taxonomists and contributed greatly to the understanding of biodiversity. This is very encouraging!
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