Why is coral taxonomy important and who should use it?

Being able to give names to organisms allows interested parties to communicate with each other and is a key plank of ocean literacy and the aquarium supply chain. In this talk, Russell Kelley, author of the Indo Pacific Coral Finder, provides an overview of coral taxonomy, it’s history, who uses it and why. He then summarises recent changes to coral taxonomy driven by the molecular science revolution. Finally, he introduces Coral Finder 2021, the new, molecular compliant, easy-to-use guide to coral ID and provides advice on how to approach coral ID going forward.

Russell Kelley works as a marine educator, film maker, author and science communicator with a special interest in coral reefs.

He is manager of BYOGUIDES and author of the Indo Pacific Coral Finder and the Reef Finder – the world’s first searchable, smart ID guides – www.byoguides.com – which form the basis of the training courses he runs world wide.

He has trained over a thousand people in coral identification.

Russell is a coral reef geologist and biologist by training and has a passion for telling stories about the natural world. In particular he loves revealing the ‘big picture meaning’ in the smallest of things.

His other published work spans scientific papers, book chapters, educational tools and international natural history television productions.

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