Leponce, M.1, Pascal, O.2, Novotny, V.3,4 & Y. Basset5 (1) Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium (Maurice.Leponce@naturalsciences.be); (2) Pro-Natura International, France; (3) University of South Bohemia, Czech Rep.; (4) Czech Academy of Sciences; (5) Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Republic of Panama. Background: IBISCA is an international and informal network of biodiversity experts conducting large-scale biotic inventories in various regions of the World (www.ibisca.net). Each IBISCA project is a collective effort addressing a global ecological question. IBISCA-Panama (2003-2004) aimed at estimating the overall arthropod diversity of a lowland rainforest while the Papua New Guinea survey (2012-2014), conducted in the framework of the “Our Planet Reviewed” programme, aimed at assessing the diversity generated by the elevational factor, from sea level up to the tree line. Methods: All projects are multi-taxa (with an emphasis on plants and arthropods), multi-strata and multi-methods. A central database (DB) is at the heart of each project. Results: The data flow follows a 10 step standard process: (1) sampling design which is often a trade-off between sampling effort and representativeness; (2) pre-printing of permanent labels with unique codes for samples and specimens; (3) collection of specimens with standardized mass collection methods; (4) on-site pre-sorting of material by helpers (para-taxonomists, students) to Order level; (5) further sorting to Family level by Taxonomic Working Group (TWIG) leaders and dispatching of specimens to experts; (6) identification of the material to (morpho-)species level by taxonomic experts who send afterwards the results to their TWIG leader; (7) control of the quality of data by TWIG leaders who fill a data entry template and send it to the database administrator; (8) import and cleaning of the data by the database administrator; (9) analysis and publication of the data by participants, either collectively or individually; (10) export of the DB to a public repository of data. Assisted data entry with high tech equipment (barcode scanner, PDA) reduces the risk of errors. Discussion/conclusion: Our experience shows that the main bottleneck in the data flow is the processing of the huge quantity of specimens collected. Solutions include securing enough funds for this critical step, training research technicians (para-taxonomists/ecologists) to assist main investigators and focusing on a limited number of informative yet tractable taxa. An additional benefit is that providing employment to local research assistants supports initiatives of local communities to conserve their forests.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Ostracods presently occur in almost all aquatic habitats, be they freshwater, brackish or marine, surface or groundwater, stagnant or flowing, in large lakes and small phytothelmata, in permanent or temporary pools, as well as in (semi-) terrestrial habitats. Some of these habitats are species-poor, other habitats harbour large numbers of species. Some of these species can be wide-spread (cosmopolitan and even ubiquitous), but others are endemic to a single lake or watershed. Why did speciation in certain ostracod lineages lead to large numbers of species in certain habitats, while other “ostracod lineage vs habitat type” combinations did not lead to such, often spectacular, morphological speciation events? A speciose lineage of ostracods which derived from a single ancestor is called a species flock. In ancient lakes such as Lake Baikal (Siberia, Russia), Lake Tanganyika and Lake Malawi (East Africa), several such ostracod species flocks exist side by side. These ancient lakes are excellent examples where ostracod radiations, including several species flocks, can be studied in situ, in the cradle in which they originated, namely in ostracod lineages such as Cyprideis s.l.and Cytherissa (Cytherideinae) (in Tanganyika and Baikal, respectively) , Gomphocythere (Timiriaseviinae) and Cypridopsis s.l., (Cypridopsinae) (in both Tanganyika and Malawi) to name only a few. Other examples of ostracod radiations are in the subfamily Candonidae in groundwaters in Pilbara (Australia), Texas (USA) and in Benin (West Africa). Several lineages in the family Cyprididae radiated in temporary water bodies on various continents, for example the genus Bennelongia (Cyprididae) in Australia, the genus Sclerocypris in the Megalocypridjnae in Africa and Cypretta and Strandesia in the southern Hemisphere (excluding Antarctica) as a whole. A special case are the species of the genus Elpidium (Timiriaseviinae) occurring in bromeliad phytothelmata in South and Central America. A new field of diversity discovery is in the identification of genetic species, which might not be identifiable based on the phenotype, aka “cryptic species”. Various intrinsic (pertaining to the specific biology) or extrinsic (habitat-related) factors can contribute to large speciation events resulting in ostracod radiations and species flocks. Yet, in some habitats where at least some of the extrinsic factors are present, no vast ostracod species flocks can be found. This is mostly due to historic events, such as in the African lakes Kivu and Turkana.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
