Abstract
Although species identification is a central component on Biological Sciences, misidentifications are quite common generating error cascade effects on other environmental studies, resulting on erroneous population estimates, status, trends, and distribution data. One of the main causes of these errors occurs when dealing with damaged material, immature specimens, sexual dimorphism, intraspecific variation, and species with poor or outdated descriptions. Furthermore, usually there is no material retained as voucher of the specimens studied in scientific collections, hindering confirmation the identified species, in morphoanatomical and genetic scope. Even with this reliance on species identification taxonomy has been in decline for many years. In this study, we present the case study of the crustaceans identified for the Minho River estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula), using a taxonomic approach comparing these results with the biological surveys obtained through various ecology studies performed for 4 decades. A total of 64 species of crustaceans were identified within this study, in which 44 were new records for the Minho River estuary, compared to the 25 species identified on the biological surveys analyzed. Being one of the first studies of this nature in the Minho River, the main objective will be to provide taxonomic support in future projects in this area, contributing to the knowledge of the fauna of Portugal and the Iberian Peninsula.
Highlights
The starting point of modern taxonomy is attributed to Carl Linnaeus’ publications “Species Plantarum” in 1753 (LINNAEUS, 1753) and “Systema Naturae” in 1758 (LINNAEUS, 1758), in which the binomial nomenclature was introduced and subsequentially rules for species descriptions and its terminology were created, laid down the groundwork for the emergence of modern systematics
Species identification is a central component on the elaboration of species distribution models through population surveys based on presence or absence (COSTA et al, 2015)
We present as a case study the crustaceans identified for the Minho River estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula), using a taxonomic approach, and compare those results with the biological surveys obtained through various ecology studies performed during the last 4 decades, in the same study area, with primary or secondary focus based on macroinvertebrate ecology, utilizing the same sampling methodologies
Summary
The starting point of modern taxonomy is attributed to Carl Linnaeus’ publications “Species Plantarum” in 1753 (LINNAEUS, 1753) and “Systema Naturae” in 1758 (LINNAEUS, 1758), in which the binomial nomenclature was introduced and subsequentially rules for species descriptions and its terminology were created, laid down the groundwork for the emergence of modern systematics. We present as a case study the crustaceans identified for the Minho River estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula), using a taxonomic approach, and compare those results with the biological surveys obtained through various ecology studies performed during the last 4 decades, in the same study area, with primary or secondary focus based on macroinvertebrate ecology, utilizing the same sampling methodologies. With a minimum flow of 60m3/s and a maximum of 2500m3/s (ZACARIAS, 2007), various sedimentary islands and with a mesotidal partially mixed system tending towards a salt wedge estuary during the Figure 1- Study area, located at the Minho River estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula), with highlight on the sampling points and methods in the international zone. The exotic species Austrominius modestus (Darwin, 1854) was recorded for the first time on the north region of Portugal
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