Using larval barcoding to estimate stomatopod species richness at Lizard Island, Australia for conservation monitoring

Sitara Palecanda,Megan L Porter,Kathryn D Feller

doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67696-x

Sitara Palecanda, Megan L Porter + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-67696-x

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Abstract

Stomatopods (Crustacea, Stomatopoda) are well studied for their aggressive behavior and unique visual system as well as their commercial importance in Asian and European countries. Like many crustaceans, stomatopods undergo indirect development, passing though several larval stages before reaching maturity. Adult stomatopods can be difficult to catch due to their inaccessible habitats and cryptic coloration. By sampling larvae from the planktonic community, less effort is required to obtain accurate measures of species richness within a region. Stomatopod larvae were collected between 2006 and 2015 from the waters around the Lizard Island reef platform in Eastern Australia. Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) mitochondrial DNA sequences were generated from each larval sample and compared to a database of COI sequences tied to adult specimens. Of the 20 species collected from Lizard Island as adults which have COI data available, 18 species were identified from larval sampling. One additional species identified from larval samples, Busquilla plantei, was previously unknown from Lizard Island. Nine larval OTUs were found not to match any published adult sequences. Sampling larval stomatopod populations provides a comparable picture of the adult population to benthic sampling methods and may include species richness beyond what is measurable by sampling adult populations.

Highlights

Stomatopods (Crustacea, Stomatopoda) are well studied for their aggressive behavior and unique visual system as well as their commercial importance in Asian and European countries
Cytochrome oxidase I (COI) was used to perform DNA barcoding of larval stomatopods for identification and quantification of stomatopod species richness at Lizard Island
Using our pre-determined 5% cut off, 252 of 306 larval samples obtained during this study from the Lizard Island reef platform were identified to species

Summary

Introduction

Stomatopods (Crustacea, Stomatopoda) are well studied for their aggressive behavior and unique visual system as well as their commercial importance in Asian and European countries. In this paper we argue that sampling from the plankton provides an accurate method of estimating coral reef species richness and has the potential to be more efficient and cost-effective than attempting to catch adult representatives of each species in a group. We use the marine crustacean order Stomatopoda to present a case study of species richness estimates from planktonic sampling in the Lizard Island reef platform (Queensland, Australia). In this context we are not using barcoding to definitively prove the existence of new species, but rather to generate a fast and inexpensive estimate of stomatopod species richness in a localized region. We cannot be sure of the strengths or weaknesses surrounding each method in the context of quantifying species diversity

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