In biology, determination is the process of matching a specimen of an organism to a known
taxon
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
, for example identifying a plant. The term is also used in
cellular biology
Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...
, where it means the act of the
differentiation of
stem cell
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type o ...
s becoming fixed.
Various methods are used, for example
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
or
multi-access identification keys.
Overview
![GeorgeBentham](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/GeorgeBentham.jpg)
The need to identify which plant is which has existed for time immemorial. The ability depends to a large extent on what criteria and whose system is used. Determination now relies on modern
taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical classification) is a scheme of classification, especially a hierarchical classification, in which things are organized into groups or types. ...
to define the identify of organisms. Taxonomy is the branch of biology which deals with identity, nomenclature and classification. The term was first coined in 1813 by Swiss botanist
Augustin Pyramus de Candolle.
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
, who began modern taxonomy, used the term 'systematics' himself.
Determination then requires comparisons of certain characteristics and then assigning a particular specimen to a known taxonomic group, hopefully ultimately arriving at a species or
infraspecific name. The characteristics used are usually
morphological, such as colours, numbers, shapes and sizes of particular organs. Where possible, this is traditionally done using
dichotomous key
In phylogenetics, a single-access key (also called dichotomous key, sequential key, analytical key, or pathway key) is an identification key where the sequence and structure of identification steps is fixed by the author of the key. At each point i ...
s. Keys are traditionally found in such works such as
floras,
field guide
A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the "field" or local area where such objects exi ...
s or
monograph
A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject.
In library cataloging, ''monograph ...
s. Botanical or entomological keys have been coded as computer programs. Applications are even available now which use artificial intelligence to identify plants on the basis of photographs. There are not always keys available for certain regions or plant groups, and the person determining the specimen will then have to rely on characteristics in the
species description
A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...
or discovered through comparison of multiple specimens with the
type
Type may refer to:
Science and technology Computing
* Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc.
* Data type, collection of values used for computations.
* File type
* TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file.
* Ty ...
. Using
DNA barcoding is a modern method that does not require the determiner to be highly trained. Another similar method uses the
alkaloid
Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...
profiles of specimens to determine the species. The total weight or length of the
genome
In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...
as measured in
base-pairs can be used to identify species.
Paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
s must be able to identify their specimens based only on the shapes and sizes of fossilised bones. In forestry, especially in the tropics, identifying trees based on the flowers or leaves high up in the crown can be difficult, a method of identifying tree species in this case is called a 'slash', a shallow machete cut to the trunk to expose the colours of the different layers inside, and show the type of sap. The science of identifying plant species using their
pollen
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...
is called
palynology. Geography can also sometimes help in narrowing down the identity of a specimen. Sometimes the determiner will be unable to identify a specimen clearly, and use such additions as ''
cf.'' or ''
aff.'' to convey this.
Reference collections of identified plant specimens are collected into
herbaria. Most plant parts are dried, pressed, mounted on herbarium sheets and stored; succulents and some other types of plants are normally kept in alcohol solution. The sheets are standard size of 16 × 11 inches or 41.25 × 28.75 cm. The identified plant ideally includes all parts including roots, flowers and fruits, strobili, etc. Especially the flowers are important when trying to identify a specimen.
Automated species identification
Automated species identification is a method of making the expertise of Taxonomy (biology), taxonomists available to ecologists, parataxonomy, parataxonomists and others via digital technology and artificial intelligence. Today, most automated ide ...
uses artificial intelligence to identify species based on the images of the species. Projects like
iNaturalist and
Pl@ntNet
Pl@ntNet is a citizen science project for automatic plant identification through photographs and based on machine learning.
History
This project launched in 2009 has been developed by scientists ( computer engineers and botanists) from a co ...
relies on crowdsourced data and assists identification through automatic as well as community input.
See also
*
Alpha taxonomy
In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (s ...
*
Field guide
A field guide is a book designed to help the reader identify wildlife (flora or fauna) or other objects of natural occurrence (e.g. rocks and minerals). It is generally designed to be brought into the "field" or local area where such objects exi ...
*
Plant morphology
*
Pollen DNA barcoding
References
{{Reflist
Further reading
*Tim Jones' (2013) - "A visual identification key utilizing both gestalt and analytic approaches to identification of Carices present in North America (Plantae, Cyperaceae)" in the ''Biodiversity Data Journal'
*John Shaffner's key (1911) in the ''Ohio Naturalist'
External links
Shoot (over 19,000 plants listed)Visual Interactive Kingdom Plantae to division (Louisiana State University)Interactive Plant Identifier (University of Wisconsin)Interactive Plant Identifier (Auburn University)Image-based plant identification system (French Flora, Pl@ntNet project)Plants for identification on iNaturalistAnimals for identification on iNaturalistFungi for identification on iNaturalist
Botany