TY - JOUR A1 - Thormann, Birthe A1 - Raupach, Michael J. A1 - Wagner, Thomas A1 - Wägele, Johann W. A1 - Peters, Marcell K. T1 - Testing a Short Nuclear Marker for Inferring Staphylinid Beetle Diversity in an African Tropical Rain Forest JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Background: The use of DNA based methods for assessing biodiversity has become increasingly common during the last years. Especially in speciose biomes as tropical rain forests and/or in hyperdiverse or understudied taxa they may efficiently complement morphological approaches. The most successful molecular approach in this field is DNA barcoding based on cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) marker, but other markers are used as well. Whereas most studies aim at identifying or describing species, there are only few attempts to use DNA markers for inventorying all animal species found in environmental samples to describe variations of biodiversity patterns. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this study, an analysis of the nuclear D3 region of the 28S rRNA gene to delimit species-like units is compared to results based on distinction of morphospecies. Data derived from both approaches are used to assess diversity and composition of staphylinid beetle communities of a Guineo-Congolian rain forest in Kenya. Beetles were collected with a standardized sampling design across six transects in primary and secondary forests using pitfall traps. Sequences could be obtained of 99% of all individuals. In total, 76 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) were found in contrast to 70 discernible morphospecies. Despite this difference both approaches revealed highly similar biodiversity patterns, with species richness being equal in primary and secondary forests, but with divergent species communities in different habitats. The D3-MOTU approach proved to be an efficient tool for biodiversity analyses. Conclusions/Significance: Our data illustrate that the use of MOTUs as a proxy for species can provide an alternative to morphospecies identification for the analysis of changes in community structure of hyperdiverse insect taxa. The efficient amplification of the D3-marker and the ability of the D3-MOTUs to reveal similar biodiversity patterns as analyses of morphospecies recommend its use in future molecular studies on biodiversity. KW - DNA barcodes KW - Biological identifications KW - Species richness KW - Taxonomy KW - Conservation KW - Coleoptera KW - Parataxonomy KW - Assemblages KW - Madagascar Y1 - 2011 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-142666 VL - 6 IS - 3 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Thormann, Birthe A1 - Ahrens, Dirk A1 - Armijos, Diego Marín A1 - Peters, Marcell K. A1 - Wagner, Thomas A1 - Wägele, Johann W. T1 - Exploring the Leaf Beetle Fauna (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) of an Ecuadorian Mountain Forest Using DNA Barcoding JF - PLoS ONE N2 - Background Tropical mountain forests are hotspots of biodiversity hosting a huge but little known diversity of insects that is endangered by habitat destruction and climate change. Therefore, rapid assessment approaches of insect diversity are urgently needed to complement slower traditional taxonomic approaches. We empirically compare different DNA-based species delimitation approaches for a rapid biodiversity assessment of hyperdiverse leaf beetle assemblages along an elevational gradient in southern Ecuador and explore their effect on species richness estimates. Methodology/Principal Findings Based on a COI barcode data set of 674 leaf beetle specimens (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) of 266 morphospecies from three sample sites in the Podocarpus National Park, we employed statistical parsimony analysis, distance-based clustering, GMYC- and PTP-modelling to delimit species-like units and compared them to morphology-based (parataxonomic) species identifications. The four different approaches for DNA-based species delimitation revealed highly similar numbers of molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) (n = 284–289). Estimated total species richness was considerably higher than the sampled amount, 414 for morphospecies (Chao2) and 469–481 for the different MOTU types. Assemblages at different elevational levels (1000 vs. 2000 m) had similar species numbers but a very distinct species composition for all delimitation methods. Most species were found only at one elevation while this turnover pattern was even more pronounced for DNA-based delimitation. Conclusions/Significance Given the high congruence of DNA-based delimitation results, probably due to the sampling structure, our study suggests that when applied to species communities on a regionally limited level with high amount of rare species (i.e. ~50% singletons), the choice of species delimitation method can be of minor relevance for assessing species numbers and turnover in tropical insect communities. Therefore, DNA-based species delimitation is confirmed as a valuable tool for evaluating biodiversity of hyperdiverse insect communities, especially when exact taxonomic identifications are missing. KW - leaf beetle KW - Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae KW - Podocarpus National Park KW - DNA-based species delimitation KW - biodiversity Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-167253 VL - 11 IS - 2 ER -