'Fauna Ibérica' Series

Volume 0 -Coleoptera, Ptinidae, Gibbiinae

Author(s):
Xavier Bellés

Forward:
Edward O. Wilson

Preface:
María Angeles Ramos

ISBN:
Madrid 2003. 440pp.84-00-08198-6

Forward

by Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University (December, 1989)

During the 1980s the world witnessed and awakening to the great problems facing the enviroment, and ecology attained new prominence as a scientific discipline. Against this background, a second and more surprising development ocurred: recognition of the biodiversity crisis. Everywhere evidence has come to light that the degradations of habitats, through pollution and outright removal, is causing the destruction of large numbers of species. It seems problable that unless corrective measures are taken, as many as one-quarter of all species of the world biota will disappear by the year 2050. And many of the species that do survive will lose some of their genetic variability. Bilogists who study biodiversity agree that the extinction spasm now occurring is the most severe since the end of the Mesozoic Era 65 millions years ago.

The biodiversity crisis gives special urgency to the Iberian Fauna project, in recognition that something very ancient and precious is being lost. Each country can be said to have three kinds of wealth: material, cultural, and biological. We trend to think of the first two as all that matters in our lives. But biological wealth is also extremely important. The fauna and flora are essential to enviromental balance and smooth cycling of water, minerals and nutrients. The native animal and plant species, specially that found nowhere else, must be regarded as part of the national heritage of each country. They offer us priceless economic and aesthetic benefits.

It is a common misconception that the classification of organism, of the kind exemplified by the Iberian Fauna, is an old fashioned, nearly completed discipline. Nothing could be further from the thruth. At the present time about 1.4 million species of animals, plants and microorganisms are known to science, that is, have been given formal scientific names. But the actual number is not known to the nearest order of magnitude. Estimates range according to method of analysis and author from 5 to 30 million. Even the European and North American biotas are still imperfectly known. New species are discovered on the Iberian Peninsula each year. Apart from the first step of discovery, vast amounts of research are needed to delinate the distributions,origins, and relationships of the knonw species. It should furthermore be kept in mind that basic ecology and the practice of enviromental management depend on a sound taxonomic knowledge of local biotas.

The Iberian Fauna series can be expected not only to illuminate the Iberian biota more fully than ever before but to set the stage for an expanding array of ecological and other biological studies in the future. It is as much a part of modern science, and as important for humanity, as studies in participle physics and molecular biology.

 

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