Lack of knowledge

For most species groups and regions, the proportion of species ranked Undetermined or Not Assessed is variable. For some taxonomic groups such as vertebrates, the information on the status of the species is relatively well known. However, for other taxonomic groups, the amount of information is not as abundant. One purpose of this report is to encourage more information to be collected on species currently ranked as Undetermined or Not Assessed. In this report, a total of 1618 species had these ranks because of a lack of knowledge (table 41). The taxonomic group that had the highest number of species ranked as Undetermined or Not Assessed was the spiders (477 species), representing 29% of all the species with these ranks. Other taxonomic groups, such as ground beetles (260 species), mosses (235 species), and lichens (218 species) had also a large number of species ranked as Undetermined or Not Assessed. As well, approximately 60 000 Canadian species, primarily invertebrates, remain too poorly known for inculsion in this report. We hope that more information will become available for those groups as well.

Without information on the status of these species, it is difficult to judge how the human uses affect the ecosystems and species. As the Wild Species program assesses species groups which are not well-known or not well-studied in Canada, the proportion of species that receive ranks of Undetermined and Not Assessed is likely to rise.