Hyperdiverse Groups Research Articles

El Museo de la Naturaleza y Genoteca del Centro Universitario de Zacapa para la conservación de los recursos zoogenéticos

Guatemala se encuentra dentro de la región Mesoamericana, la cual es considerada como una de las regiones con mayor diversidad biológica del planeta. A pesar de encontrarse en una zona de alta riqueza biológica y con alto potencial de producir recursos genéticos, es uno de los países con mayor pobreza de Latinoamérica y con mayor vulnerabilidad por desnutrición. El estudio de nuevos recursos genéticos y desarrollo de biotecnologías ofrece una oportunidad para el desarrollo económico y social de la región, dichos estudios se pueden visualizar desde los tres niveles de la biodiversidad: ecológico, especies y genético. A pesar de que los tres niveles se encuentran poco estudiados,el nivel genético es del que menos conocimiento existe y es en el que probablemente existan tasas de extinción más altas, en lo que a haplotipos se refiere. El Museo de la Naturaleza y la genoteca del CUNZAC tienen como objetivo principal preservar las especies y haplotipos endémicos de Guatemala, especialmente de grupos hiperdiversos. El Museo de la Naturaleza actualmente cuenta con una colección de especímenes artrópodos de la hojarasca y peces deGuatemala, así mismo, cuenta con la capacidad de extraer, aislar y purificar ADN mediante PCR punto final y realizar almacenamiento de genes completos en plamidos. El estudio de transcriptomas de las especies de vida silvestre permitirá el descubrimiento de nuevos recursos genéticos que contribuyan a incrementar la productividad agropecuaria.

Signal, Uncertainty, and Conflict in Phylogenomic Data for a Diverse Lineage of Microbial Eukaryotes (Diatoms, Bacillariophyta)

Diatoms (Bacillariophyta) are a species-rich group of eukaryotic microbes diverse in morphology, ecology, and metabolism. Previous reconstructions of the diatom phylogeny based on one or a few genes have resulted in inconsistent resolution or low support for critical nodes. We applied phylogenetic paralog pruning techniques to a data set of 94 diatom genomes and transcriptomes to infer perennially difficult species relationships, using concatenation and summary-coalescent methods to reconstruct species trees from data sets spanning a wide range of thresholds for taxon and column occupancy in gene alignments. Conflicts between gene and species trees decreased with both increasing taxon occupancy and bootstrap cutoffs applied to gene trees. Concordance between gene and species trees was lowest for short internodes and increased logarithmically with increasing edge length, suggesting that incomplete lineage sorting disproportionately affects species tree inference at short internodes, which are a common feature of the diatom phylogeny. Although species tree topologies were largely consistent across many data treatments, concatenation methods appeared to outperform summary-coalescent methods for sparse alignments. Our results underscore that approaches to species-tree inference based on few loci are likely to be misled by unrepresentative sampling of gene histories, particularly in lineages that may have diversified rapidly. In addition, phylogenomic studies of diatoms, and potentially other hyperdiverse groups, should maximize the number of gene trees with high taxon occupancy, though there is clearly a limit to how many of these genes will be available.

Stiff upper lip: Labrum deformity and functionality in bees (Hymenoptera, Apoidea)

In hyper-diverse groups such as Hymenoptera, a variety of structures with different, complementary functions are used for feeding. Although the function of the parts such as the mandibles is obvious, the use of others, like the labrum, are more difficult to discern. Here, we discuss the labrum’s function in bees, as well as the implications of deformities to this and associated characteristics.

Counting animal species with DNA barcodes: Canadian insects.

Recent estimates suggest that the global insect fauna includes fewer than six million species, but this projection is very uncertain because taxonomic work has been limited on some highly diverse groups. Validation of current estimates minimally requires the investigation of all lineages that are diverse enough to have a substantial impact on the final species count. This study represents a first step in this direction; it employs DNA barcoding to evaluate patterns of species richness in 27 orders of Canadian insects. The analysis of over one million specimens revealed species counts congruent with earlier results for most orders. However, Diptera and Hymenoptera were unexpectedly diverse, representing two-thirds of the 46 937 barcode index numbers (=species) detected. Correspondence checks between known species and barcoded taxa showed that sampling was incomplete, a result confirmed by extrapolations from the barcode results which suggest the occurrence of at least 94 000 species of insects in Canada, a near doubling from the prior estimate of 54 000 species. One dipteran family, the Cecidomyiidae, was extraordinarily diverse with an estimated 16 000 species, a 10-fold increase from its predicted diversity. If Canada possesses about 1% of the global fauna, as it does for known taxa, the results of this study suggest the presence of 10 million insect species with about 1.8 million of these taxa in the Cecidomyiidae. If so, the global species count for this fly family may exceed the combined total for all 142 beetle families. If extended to more geographical regions and to all hyperdiverse groups, DNA barcoding can rapidly resolve the current uncertainty surrounding a species count for the animal kingdom. A newly detailed understanding of species diversity may illuminate processes important in speciation, as suggested by the discovery that the most diverse insect lineages in Canada employ an unusual mode of reproduction, haplodiploidy.This article is part of the themed issue ‘From DNA barcodes to biomes’.

Testing the effectiveness of surrogates for assessing biological diversity of arthropods in cereal agricultural landscapes

Agricultural intensification is altering biodiversity patterns worldwide. Rapid and effective methods are needed to monitor these changes in farmland biodiversity, but it becomes both a cost- and time-prohibitive task, particularly for hyper-diverse groups such as arthropods. We evaluated the effectiveness of surrogates in irrigated and rainfed wheat fields in a Mediterranean farmland in NW Spain in order to get a rapid tool to assess arthropod biodiversity. We studied six groups with different ecological needs (i.e. Aphididae, Aphidiinae, Coccinellidae, Formicidae, Heteroptera and Syrphidae) at species level (147 species), genus (105), family (10, only Heteroptera) and order (19) level. Higher taxa, cross-taxa and subset-taxa or total richness approaches were tested as well as the correlation in composition between levels for the selected groups, and the influence of farming regime. Genus richness was a good surrogate of species richness in all six groups studied (R2=0.38–0.60), like family and order were for Heteroptera (R2=0.37 and 0.29, respectively). Cross-taxa analyses showed that Aphididae and Aphidiinae genera (R2=0.19 and 0.30, respectively) and species (R2=0.20 and 0.28, respectively) were good surrogates for Aphidiinae and Aphididae species respectively. Coccinellidae genera (R2=0.26) and species (R2=0.25) were good surrogates for Heteroptera species. Finally, Aphididae and Coccinellidae both at genera (R2=0.14 and 0.20, respectively) and at species levels (R2=0.12–0.22, respectively) were good surrogates for total species richness of all groups. Genera composition was the best surrogate for the species composition within each group. Farming regime had no influence on the relationships between surrogates and species patterns in most cases. Our results suggest that genera level is a useful surrogate for all the studied groups and family is appropriate for Heteroptera. Genus level provided a saving of 15% of identification time in Aphididae and 80% for Coccinellidae. This proves its usefulness to asses and monitor biodiversity in wheat croplands and the possibility to reduce costs.

Plant‐O‐Matic: a dynamic and mobile guide to all plants of the Americas

Summary Advances in both informatics and mobile technology are providing exciting new opportunities for generating, disseminating, and engaging with information in the biological sciences at unprecedented spatial scales, particularly in disentangling information on the distributions and natural history of hyperdiverse groups of organisms. We describe an application serving as a mobile catalog of all of the plants of the Americas developed using species distribution models estimated from field observations of plant occurrences. The underlying data comprise over 3·5 million standardized observations of over 88 000 plant species. Plant‐O‐Matic, a free iOS application, combines the species distribution models with the location services built into a mobile device to provide users with a list of all plant species expected to occur in the 100 × 100 km geographic grid cell corresponding to the user's location. The application also provides ancillary information on species’ attributes (when available) including growth form, reproductive mode, flower color, and common name. Results can be searched and conditionally filtered based on these attributes. Links to externally sourced specimen images further aid in identification of species by the user. The application's ability to assemble locally relevant lists of plant species and their attributes on demand for anywhere in the Americas provides a powerful new tool for identifying, exploring, and understanding plant diversity. Mobile applications such as Plant‐O‐Matic can facilitate dynamic new approaches to science, conservation, and science education.

Ground-Dwelling Arthropod Communities of a Sky Island Mountain Range in Southeastern Arizona, USA: Obtaining a Baseline for Assessing the Effects of Climate Change.

The few studies that have addressed past effects of climate change on species distributions have mostly focused on plants due to the rarity of historical faunal baselines. However, hyperdiverse groups like Arthropoda are vital to monitor in order to understand climate change impacts on biodiversity. This is the first investigation of ground-dwelling arthropod (GDA) assemblages along the full elevation gradient of a mountain range in the Madrean Sky Island Region, establishing a baseline for monitoring future changes in GDA biodiversity. To determine how GDA assemblages relate to elevation, season, abiotic variables, and corresponding biomes, GDA were collected for two weeks in both spring (May) and summer (September) 2011 in the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, using pitfall traps at 66 sites in six distinct upland (non-riparian/non-wet canyon) biomes. Four arthropod taxa: (1) beetles (Coleoptera), (2) spiders (Araneae), (3) grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera), and (4) millipedes and centipedes (Myriapoda) were assessed together and separately to determine if there are similar patterns across taxonomic groups. We collected 335 species of GDA: 192/3793 (species/specimens) Coleoptera, 102/1329 Araneae, 25/523 Orthoptera, and 16/697 Myriapoda. GDA assemblages differed among all biomes and between seasons. Fifty-three percent (178 species) and 76% (254 species) of all GDA species were found in only one biome and during only one season, respectively. While composition of arthropod assemblages is tied to biome and season, individual groups do not show fully concordant patterns. Seventeen percent of the GDA species occurred only in the two highest-elevation biomes (Pine and Mixed Conifer Forests). Because these high elevation biomes are most threatened by climate change and they harbor a large percentage of unique arthropod species (11–25% depending on taxon), significant loss in arthropod diversity is likely in the Santa Catalina Mountains and other isolated mountain ranges in the Southwestern US.

Application of body size spectra to nematode trait-index analyses

Current trait-based indices of soil fauna for assessing soil quality rely on extensive knowledge of life history traits for hyper-diverse groups. We look at the effects of clear-cut forest harvesting and subsequent wood ash application on the free-living nematode community using trait-based indices and body size spectra. We test the hypothesis that body size is a unifying trait and that the body size spectra can be used to demonstrate changes in soil quality while overcoming taxonomic impediments. Undisturbed boreal forest floor soils were compared with clear-cut sites amended with zero, one-half calcium equivalent wood ash, equivalent calcium reintroduction, and twice calcium reintroduction. Total abundance, trait-based metrics for the Maturity Index, and two metrics of body size spectra were calculated. Nematode abundance was not a good indicator of soil disturbance, while traditional trait-based approaches (the summed Maturity Index) demonstrated predicted changes in community structure. Analysis of two types of body size spectra elucidated how the community had changed under disturbance, and revealed that smaller bodied organisms were lost under ash amended treatments compared to both clear-cut and undisturbed forest. Using the body size spectra for nematodes is a simple addition to current trait-based approaches that can supplement soil assessments for disturbance and quality without requiring taxonomic expertise.

A good compromise: rapid and robust species proxies for inventorying biodiversity hotspots using the Terebridae (Gastropoda: Conoidea).

Devising a reproducible approach for species delimitation of hyperdiverse groups is an ongoing challenge in evolutionary biology. Speciation processes combine modes of passive and adaptive trait divergence requiring an integrative taxonomy approach to accurately generate robust species hypotheses. However, in light of the rapid decline of diversity on Earth, complete integrative approaches may not be practical in certain species-rich environments. As an alternative, we applied a two-step strategy combining ABGD (Automated Barcode Gap Discovery) and Klee diagrams, to balance speed and accuracy in producing primary species hypotheses (PSHs). Specifically, an ABGD/Klee approach was used for species delimitation in the Terebridae, a neurotoxin-producing marine snail family included in the Conoidea. Delimitation of species boundaries is problematic in the Conoidea, as traditional taxonomic approaches are hampered by the high levels of variation, convergence and morphological plasticity of shell characters. We used ABGD to analyze gaps in the distribution of pairwise distances of 454 COI sequences attributed to 87 morphospecies and obtained 98 to 125 Primary Species Hypotheses (PSHs). The PSH partitions were subsequently visualized as a Klee diagram color map, allowing easy detection of the incongruences that were further evaluated individually with two other species delimitation models, General Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC) and Poisson Tree Processes (PTP). GMYC and PTP results confirmed the presence of 17 putative cryptic terebrid species in our dataset. The consensus of GMYC, PTP, and ABGD/Klee findings suggest the combination of ABGD and Klee diagrams is an effective approach for rapidly proposing primary species proxies in hyperdiverse groups and a reliable first step for macroscopic biodiversity assessment.

EVOLUTION OF HABITAT PREFERENCE AND NUTRITION MODE IN A COSMOPOLITAN FUNGAL GENUS WITH EVIDENCE OF INTERKINGDOM HOST JUMPS AND MAJOR SHIFTS IN ECOLOGY

Host jumps by microbial symbionts are often associated with bursts of species diversification driven by the exploitation of new adaptive zones. The objective of this study was to infer the evolution of habitat preference (decaying plants, soil, living fungi, and living plants), and nutrition mode (saprotrophy and mycoparasitism) in the fungal genus Trichoderma to elucidate possible interkingdom host jumps and shifts in ecology. Host and ecological role shifts were inferred by phylogenetic analyses and ancestral character reconstructions. The results support several interkingdom host jumps and also show that the preference for a particular habitat was gained or lost multiple times. Diversification analysis revealed that mycoparasitism is associated with accelerated speciation rates, which then suggests that this trait may be linked to the high number of species in Trichoderma. In this study it was also possible to infer the cryptic roles that endophytes or soil inhabitants play in their hosts by evaluating their closest relatives and determining their most recent ancestors. Findings from this study may have implications for understanding certain evolutionary processes such as species radiations in some hyperdiverse groups of fungi, and for more applied fields such as the discovery and development of novel biological control strategies.

FLIES - The Natural History and Diversity of Diptera

Human knowledge will be erased from the world’s archives before we possess the last word that a gnat has to say to us. -Henri Fabre- The new book, FLIES, tells us a lot about what gnats and their relatives have to tell us about nature, would we but listen attentively. The author, Stephen Marshall, began his biological interests in beetles and then somehow went to the dark side, FLIES. This reviewer began his career in beetles and stayed put; that is what qualifies him as a reviewer of this simply superb book Steve Marshall has produced both in text and images. Why? It’s in the subtitle: the Natural History and Diversity of Diptera, the key word being diversity by which Marshall means many different kinds. Beetles and parasitic wasps are universally touted as the hyper-diverse and divergent groups of insects, so why does Marshall claim that Flies also exhibit such diversity in the natural world? In doing so, he sets himself apart from what more focused Dipterists have usually done, that is stay the course, look at one genus, one family, one region at a time; not much diversity displayed on their watch, for sure. Marshall, on the other hand, took on the entire dipteran Order, globally, with hundreds of superb photos (adults and immatures) that he took in the field over years of searching out fly species richness. He added an up-to-date text covering all taxa of the entire Order at the subfamily and tribal levels with hundreds of examples and images named at the genus and/or species level. Marshall’s FLIES is written and imaged for both the academic and the enthusiastic layperson. It contains some 2000 color images of flies in their natural environment, nearly all taken by the author. He has selected (out of some 160,000 named species of flies), those that he finds especially fascinating and those essential for demonstrating global dipteran diversity in form and function. The latter, form and function, speak directly to the astounding diversity and divergence of dipterans and justify including them along with the celebrated richness and abundance of beetles and parasitic wasps. Marshall, in FLIES, has justified that leap with his broad coverage and excellent story telling about flies’ lives. Such dipteran diversity is a mixed blessing for the public and for scientists alike. Who wants to see a blow fly from your neighbor’s garbage bin walking around on your chocolate cake, or a dozen mosquitos landing on you when you are trying patiently to photograph a hummingbird at a tropical flower in an Amazonian Heliconia patch? On the other hand, colorful hover flies on a yellow flower (Marshall’s book cover jacket) are part of nature’s exquisite beauty. While many groups of flies are vectors of devastating human and animal diseases and pests of crops and forests, others are important pollinators, recyclers, and beneficial control agents of insect pests. Marshall’s text tells compelling stories about all these kinds of flies that are easily read by citizen naturalists and high-schoolers in science class, as well as professional biologists of all walks of study. While Marshall’s introduction claims that “flies rule!” and his book sets out to prove that claim, Coleopterists and Hymenopterists certainly will argue that point. However, this reviewer has to agree that in the Amazon Basin during the rainy season there is more fly abundance by far in the rain forest canopy than any other group of insects (except relatively species-poor but abundant ants). This is thanks to one family of dipterans, the fungus gnats, Mycetophilidae (see Marshall’s pages 139-140) that emerge by the multimillions, as fungi reach their fruiting peak. While flies might not truly “rule,” gnats do have a lot to say about temperate and tropical fly abundance, something that Henri Fabre would appreciate. Without a doubt, Marshall sets high standards with this and his previous book, Insects: Their Natural History and Diversity, (also, Firefly Books). These treatments offer a challenge to entomologists of other ordinal taxa to produce similar books. Should that come to pass, and considering that insect and their relatives constitute three-fourths of life on earth, we humans would have a far better understanding of the natural world and our place in it.

Integrative taxonomy on the fast track - towards more sustainability in biodiversity research.

BackgroundA so called “taxonomic impediment” has been recognized as a major obstacle to biodiversity research for the past two decades. Numerous remedies were then proposed. However, neither significant progress in terms of formal species descriptions, nor a minimum standard for descriptions have been achieved so far. Here, we analyze the problems of traditional taxonomy which often produces keys and descriptions of limited practical value. We suggest that phylogenetics and phenetics had a subtle and so far unnoticed effect on taxonomy leading to inflated species descriptions.DiscussionThe term “turbo-taxonomy” was recently coined for an approach combining cox1 sequences, concise morphological descriptions by an expert taxonomist, and high-resolution digital imaging to streamline the formal description of larger numbers of new species. We propose a further development of this approach which, together with open access web-publication and automated pushing of content from journal into a wiki, may create the most efficient and sustainable way to conduct taxonomy in the future. On demand, highly concise descriptions can be gradually updated or modified in the fully versioned wiki-framework we use. This means that the visibility of additional data is not compromised, while the original species description -the first version- remains preserved in the wiki, and of course in the journal version. A DNA sequence database with an identification engine replaces an identification key, helps to avoid synonyms and has the potential to detect grossly incorrect generic placements. We demonstrate the functionality of a species-description pipeline by naming 101 new species of hyperdiverse New Guinea Trigonopterus weevils in the open-access journal ZooKeys.SummaryFast track taxonomy will not only increase speed, but also sustainability of global species inventories. It will be of great practical value to all the other disciplines that depend on a usable taxonomy and will change our perception of global biodiversity. While this approach is certainly not suitable for all taxa alike, it is the tool that will help to tackle many hyperdiverse groups and pave the road for more sustainable comparative studies, e.g. in community ecology, phylogeography and large scale biogeographic studies.

Extinct and extant rove beetles meet in the matrix: Early Cretaceous fossils shed light on the evolution of a hyperdiverse insect lineage (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Staphylininae).

Description of the Early Cretaceous (Yixian Formation, China) fauna of Staphylininae and Paederinae rove beetles, and a rigorous (maximum parsimony, maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference) phylogenetic analysis of both extinct and extant taxa resulted in the following discoveries: a stem lineage sister to Staphylininae + Paederinae; a new tribe for Staphylininae, Thayeralinini trib. n.; several extinct species of the extant tribe Arrowinini; extinct basal lineages of the extant tribe Staphylinini; two stem genera of the "Xantholinine-lineage" (Staphylininae); and recovery of Mesostaphylinus in Paederinae with several new species. It is demonstrated that by the Early Cretaceous, Paederinae and Staphylininae were already diversified into groups, some of which now represent extant tribes but not the branches dominating in the modern biota. While the study of the Early Cretaceous rove beetle fauna pushes the estimated divergence time between Paederinae and Staphylininae down into the Jurassic, it also suggests that presently hyperdiverse groups of Staphylininae originated some time later than the Early Cretaceous. In addition to one new tribe, five new genera (Paleothius, Cretoprosopus, Thayeralinus, Paleowinus and Durothorax) and 17 new species are described in Staphylininae, and three new species of Mesostaphylinus are described in Paederinae. Mesostaphylinus fraternus (incertae sedis) is moved to the genus Thayeralinus (Staphylininae).

Large‐scale species delimitation method for hyperdiverse groups

Accelerating the description of biodiversity is a major challenge as extinction rates increase. Integrative taxonomy combining molecular, morphological, ecological and geographical data is seen as the best route to reliably identify species. Classic molluscan taxonomic methodology proposes primary species hypotheses (PSHs) based on shell morphology. However, in hyperdiverse groups, such as the molluscan family Turridae, where most of the species remain unknown and for which homoplasy and plasticity of morphological characters is common, shell-based PSHs can be arduous. A four-pronged approach was employed to generate robust species hypotheses of a 1000 specimen South-West Pacific Turridae data set in which: (i) analysis of COI DNA Barcode gene is coupled with (ii) species delimitation tools GMYC (General Mixed Yule Coalescence Method) and ABGD (Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery) to propose PSHs that are then (iii) visualized using Klee diagrams and (iv) evaluated with additional evidence, such as nuclear gene rRNA 28S, morphological characters, geographical and bathymetrical distribution to determine conclusive secondary species hypotheses (SSHs). The integrative taxonomy approach applied identified 87 Turridae species, more than doubling the amount previously known in the Gemmula genus. In contrast to a predominantly shell-based morphological approach, which over the last 30 years proposed only 13 new species names for the Turridae genus Gemmula, the integrative approach described here identified 27 novel species hypotheses not linked to available species names in the literature. The formalized strategy applied here outlines an effective and reproducible protocol for large-scale species delimitation of hyperdiverse groups.

Biology needs cyberinfrastructure to facilitate specimen-level data acquisition for insects and other hyperdiverse groups

The Internet has revolutionized the field of systematics by allowing for large scale cyberinfrastructure projects that (1) facilitate our work, such as ScratchPads (Smith et al. 2009), (2) provide outlets for the results of systematic work, such as the Tree of Life Web Project (Maddison et al. 2007), the Encyclopedia of Life (Wilson 2003), GenBank, MorphBank, MorphoBank, and (3) provide novel ways of online publishing (Blagoderov et al. 2010, Penev 2008). These efforts have greatly enhanced the field of systematics and are therefore enormously beneficial for understanding global biodiversity. However, specimen-level data are noticeably absent from most large-scale biodiversity cyberinfrastructure projects. This situation is rapidly changing. For example, the NSF-sponsored “National Digital Biological Collections Resource” aims to digitize specimens held in natural history collections throughout North America in the next 10 years. This initiative will provide support for curatorial staff to digitize specimen-level data associated with their holdings. Meeting this goal for megadiverse groups, such as insects, will come with unique challenges. As a general rule, many specimens in most insect collections are not identified to the species level, while many are only identified to the family level. For diverse families of insects, like carabid beetles with well over 35,000 described species, most experts are capable of making species level identifications of only a fraction of this diversity. In general they are too time-limited to meet this demand for large-scale ecological projects and initiatives such as the National Digital Biological Collections Resource (Anonymous 2000, Hopkins and Freckleton 2002). Not only is species identification an activity for which systematists receive little or no professional credit (McDade et al. 2011), it is also an activity for which the field has received criticism for not being able to provide this service to end users in a timely fashion. In the face of the biodiversity crisis, global climate change, and dwindling numbers of professional systematists, there is an overwhelming need to facilitate the acquisition of validated specimen-level data for biological research and science-informed conservation planning, and to disseminate these data broadly. In fact, the imbalance between limited expertise and the great need for expert identifications has led to efforts that attempt to meet these goals without the aid of expert systematists, such as the use of parataxonomists to identify morpho-species or operational taxonomic units (OTUs) or recognizable taxonomic units (RTUs) (Oliver and Beattie 1993, 1996), and the Barcode of Life project which is building a database of sequence data with the goal of allowing users to quickly and easily identify species molecularly in the future (Stockle and Hebert 2008). While both initiatives have their strengths, they have both been strongly criticized and both have been shown to fail in many instances (Barcode of Life: Will et al. 2005, Ebach 2011, Song et al. 2008; parataxonomists identifying morphospecies: Krell 2004). The Internet provides an opportunity to develop creative solutions that do not sidestep, but enhance, the field of systematics. In order to accelerate the pace at which we can capture and disseminate validated specimen-level data for megadiverse groups such as insects, we need new cyberinfrastructure tools designed specifically for this purpose. Ideally these tools would be designed in such a way that they could easily be adopted by any interested working group of systematists and enhance the field of systematics. While there are few cyberinfrastructure projects that focus at the specimen-level in entomology, AntWeb (www.antweb.org) is a notable exception and it serves as an example of the great potential of such a system. AntWeb is an online database that treats all species of ants worldwide focusing on specimen-level data and images contributed by a team of remote “curators.” AntWeb provides specimen-level data on ants to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) that, in turn, provides open access to biodiversity data. Here, I describe a concept for such a system which would simultaneously add validated specimen-level data to existing cyberinfrastructure projects, track the contributions of data contributors and editors, and help to train the next generation of systematists. It would also promote the “publication” of specimen-level data as systematists acquire them. It would function much like AntWeb but it would allow working groups of systematists to adopt a pre-built, yet modifiable, cyberinfrastructure system and tailor it to their study group. For carabidologists, the time to move forward with a cyber-infrastructure solution could not be better. The National Ecological Observation Network (NEON) has chosen to monitor carabid beetles at 60 sites (20 core sites and 40 relocatable sites) throughout North America over the next 30 years. Therefore our field will soon be flooded with specimen-level data and requests for species identifications. There are not nearly enough carabidologists to perform the needed identifications of these specimens, especially when this activity is not a gold standard for promotion in most of the jobs we hold.

Combining genetic and geospatial analyses to infer population extinction in mygalomorph spiders endemic to the Los Angeles region

AbstractAlthough hyperdiverse groups like terrestrial arthropods are almost certainly severely impacted by habitat fragmentation and destruction, few studies have formally documented such effects. In this paper, we summarize the results of a multifaceted research approach to assess the magnitude and importance of anthropogenic population extinction on the narrowly endemic trapdoor spider genus Apomastus. We used geographical information systems modeling to reconstruct the likely historical distribution of Apomastus, and used molecular phylogeographic data to discern population genetic structure and detect genetic signatures of population extinction. In combination, these complementary lines of inference support direct observations of population extinction, and lead us to conclude that population extinction via urbanization has played an important role in defining the modern‐day distribution of Apomastus species. This population loss implies coincident loss of genetic and adaptive diversity within this genus, and more generally, suggests a loss of ground‐dwelling arthropod population diversity throughout the Los Angeles Basin. Strategies for minimizing this loss are proposed.

How many species of arthropods? Erwin's estimate revised

Abstract Erwin's much debated estimate of 30 million species of arthropods is revised. The original estimate is based on the evaluation of host specificity of guilds in beetle samples, and subsequent hierarchical ratio extrapolations. The growing number of studies including mass sampling of arthropods have provided several data sets suitable for obtaining an empirical basis of this estimate. The structure in this modified version is somewhat changed compared to the original estimate in order to make each hierarchical step more easily testable. Plant species are separated into different growth forms, and host specificity measures are based only on phytophagous species. Effective specialization is applied as a measure of host specificity to correct for the fauna shared between plant species. A between community correction factor is applied to correct for differences in host specificity at different spatial scales. There are still great uncertainties attended with such estimates. The largest problems refer to the between community correction factor and the proportion of canopy species to total species. Further work on host specificity and the least known hyperdiverse groups are also needed. The revised version of the estimate does not support hyperestimates of 30–100 million species. Rather, it compares nicely with estimates derived from other estimation methods, indicating a global arthropod species richness of 5–10 million species.

How many species of arthropods? Erwin's estimate revised

Erwin's much debated estimate of 30 million species of arthropods is revised. The original estimate is based on the evaluation of host specificity of guilds in beetle samples, and subsequent hierarchical ratio extrapolations. The growing number of studies including mass sampling of arthropods have provided several data sets suitable for obtaining an empirical basis of this estimate. The structure in this modified version is somewhat changed compared to the original estimate in order to make each hierarchical step more easily testable. Plant species are separated into different growth forms, and host specificity measures are based only on phytophagous species. Effective specialization is applied as a measure of host specificity to correct for the fauna shared between plant species. A between community correction factor is applied to correct for differences in host specificity at different spatial scales. There are still great uncertainties attended with such estimates. The largest problems refer to the between community correction factor and the proportion of canopy species to total species. Further work on host specificity and the least known hyperdiverse groups are also needed. The revised version of the estimate does not support hyperestimates of 30–100 million species. Rather, it compares nicely with estimates derived from other estimation methods, indicating a global arthropod species richness of 5–10 million species.

Comparison of antioxidant assays for flavanoid containing supplements

Protected areas worldwide are important to maintaining biodiversity and providing recreational opportunities to society. However, many protected areas are affected by unprecedented, large and severe natural disturbances, like bark beetle outbreaks. Due to the contrasting responses of different taxonomic groups to disturbance events and largely negative human perceptions of disturbed landscapes, there are conflicting opinions about the appropriate way of managing affected stands. Aligning these different objectives and understanding the responses of biodiversity and visitors' perceptions to different disturbance severities is a prerequisite for disturbance management in protected areas. We conducted multi-taxon biodiversity surveys – including meta-barcoding hyperdiverse groups such as insects and fungi – and analysed the restorativeness (i.e. the landscape's ability to renew personal cognitive capacities for forest visitors) using visitor surveys in five national parks throughout Europe. Response curves of biodiversity and restorativeness were analysed along a continuous gradient of bark beetle infestation severities in Norway spruce forests on the same study plots. Arthropod biomass and the diversity of primary producers and pollinators increased linearly with increasing disturbance severity, while overall multi-diversity (an index of the average scaled species richness per taxonomic group) did not change. Restorativeness decreased linearly with increasing disturbance severity; however, even heavily disturbed forests still had high restorativeness. In spite of the ongoing debates about disturbance management, the high biodiversity and restorativeness that accompany disturbance suggest that major goals of protected areas are not threatened by bark beetle disturbances.