Taxonomic sufficiency and the increasing insufficiency of taxonomic expertise

Taxonomic sufficiency (TS) involves the identification of taxa only to a level of taxonomic resolution sufficient to permit the detection of changes in stressed assemblages. Recently, however, TS has been proposed also for conservation issues as a tool to estimate biodiversity over large areas and in poorly known environments. This paper briefly reviews the use of TS in environmental impact studies and the effects of TS on sampling procedures and data analyses. The risk of possible loss of information depending on TS and the studied environment are discussed. Concluding remarks deal with the dangers of loss of taxonomic expertise in marine biological studies and assess critically the proposal of TS as a tool to describe biodiversity at a taxonomic level higher than species. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.