101 years of systematics in UPLB - from Copeland to the present era of climate change and the need to revitalize the discipline to cope up with new demands and challenge in the environment
2010
Lit, I.L. Jr., (Philippines Univ., Los Baños, College, Laguna (Philippines). Inst. of Biological Sciences
Systematics or Systematic Biology is among, if not, the most basic of the biological sciences. The period covered by the last 101 years of research, instruction and related activities in the field of systematics in the UPLB Campus is historically reviewed and critically appraised. Systematists are among the prominent pioneering faculty of UPLB including Dr. Edwin B. Copeland, a fern systematist, who was the founding dean of the UP College of Agriculture, the forerunner of the present UPLB autonomous university. From the founding years up to the early 80s, instruction and research in the systematics of plants, insects and other arthropods, fungi, algae (cyanobacteria) and some vertebrate wildlife groups proved to be among the strengths of UPLB. From the late 80s up to the present, the number of systematists has sharply declined due to the continuing lack of replacements for deceased and retired specialists in their respective fields and groups. Thus, Filipino systematists and the study of the systematics of Philippine plants, animals (including insects and other arthropods) and microorganisms are both endangered. It is hoped that the remaining members of the local corps of systematists will hold on and that support from administrators, planners, funding agencies etc. will soon realize that support for systematists and systematics matters a lot in this era of mounting climate change events, invasive species, environmental degradation, rapid population growth etc. The pressures forward heightened biological research continue to increase and everything begins with the need to identify, to know _ the raison d'etre of systematics.
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