Species-level taxonomy

Dear Sir or Madam,

I would like to learn about JNCC's approach to species-level
taxonomy.

Please could you tell me, for each taxonomic group which it works
with, what approach JNCC uses to ensure that the species-level
taxonomy it uses for that group is up-to-date and accurate? How,
for example, do you ensure that appropriate, consistent and current
species concepts or criteria are applied within and between groups,
and how do you ensure that individual changes proposed in the
scientific literature are evaluated, and if appropriate, adopted?
What processes and information sources are used to support these
approaches, what advisory bodies does JNCC use for this, and are
changes adopted on a periodic or a rolling basis?

Thank you

Dear Sue,

Thank you for your reply. I've taken a look at the NBN species
dictionary, and I have two further questions.

The dictionary does not just contain a single taxonomic treatment
for every taxon, but consists of a number of overlapping lists, and
these different lists use different taxonomic treatments in many
cases. In some cases (e.g. Herring Gull) the dictionary manager has
been able to match entries in one list with those in another,
minimising the number of duplicate entries across all lists, but in
other cases (e.g. European Nightjar) this has not been done.

My two additional questions are:

i) where there is more than one group of matches relating to the
same taxon, what rules does JNCC apply to decide which treatment to
follow?

ii) within a matched group, no "master" taxonomic treatment for
each matched group is listed. What rules does JNCC apply to decide
which taxonomic treatment to follow?

Yours sincerely,

Susan Davis

Dear Sue,

Thanks for this clarification. Could you provide me with a list of
the lists which have Preferred List status, or let me know how I
can find this information out?

Yours sincerely,

Susan

Dear Sue,

Many thanks for your help with this request. I have been in touch
with NHM and they have been able to provide me with the full list
of Preferred lists.

Yours sincerely,

Susan Davis