Deichmann Jessica L, Mulcahy Daniel G, Vanthomme Hadrien, Tobi Elie, Wynn Addison H, Zimkus Breda M, McDiarmid Roy W
Center for Conservation and Sustainability, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, National Zoological Park, Washington, DC, United States of America.
Global Genome Initiative, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2017 Nov 13;12(11):e0187283. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0187283. eCollection 2017.
Development projects in west Central Africa are proceeding at an unprecedented rate, often with little concern for their effects on biodiversity. In an attempt to better understand potential impacts of a road development project on the anuran amphibian community, we conducted a biodiversity assessment employing multiple methodologies (visual encounter transects, auditory surveys, leaf litter plots and pitfall traps) to inventory species prior to construction of a new road within the buffer zone of Moukalaba-Doudou National Park, Gabon. Because of difficulties in morphological identification and taxonomic uncertainty of amphibian species observed in the area, we integrated a DNA barcoding analysis into the project to improve the overall quality and accuracy of the species inventory. Based on morphology alone, 48 species were recognized in the field and voucher specimens of each were collected. We used tissue samples from specimens collected at our field site, material available from amphibians collected in other parts of Gabon and the Republic of Congo to initiate a DNA barcode library for west Central African amphibians. We then compared our sequences with material in GenBank for the genera recorded at the study site to assist in identifications. The resulting COI and 16S barcode library allowed us to update the number of species documented at the study site to 28, thereby providing a more accurate assessment of diversity and distributions. We caution that because sequence data maintained in GenBank are often poorly curated by the original submitters and cannot be amended by third-parties, these data have limited utility for identification purposes. Nevertheless, the use of DNA barcoding is likely to benefit biodiversity inventories and long-term monitoring, particularly for taxa that can be difficult to identify based on morphology alone; likewise, inventory and monitoring programs can contribute invaluable data to the DNA barcode library and the taxonomy of complex groups. Our methods provide an example of how non-taxonomists and parataxonomists working in understudied parts of the world with limited geographic sampling and comparative morphological material can use DNA barcoding and publicly available sequence data (GenBank) to rapidly identify the number of species and assign tentative names to aid in urgent conservation management actions and contribute to taxonomic resolution.
中西部非洲的开发项目正以前所未有的速度推进，而人们往往很少关注这些项目对生物多样性的影响。为了更好地了解一个道路开发项目对无尾两栖动物群落的潜在影响，我们在加蓬穆卡拉巴-杜杜国家公园缓冲区的一条新道路建设之前，采用多种方法（目视相遇样带法、听觉调查法、落叶层样地法和陷阱诱捕法）进行了生物多样性评估，以清点物种。由于该地区观察到的两栖动物物种在形态鉴定方面存在困难且分类存在不确定性，我们将DNA条形码分析纳入该项目，以提高物种清单的整体质量和准确性。仅根据形态学，在野外识别出了48个物种，并收集了每个物种的凭证标本。我们使用从野外采集的标本的组织样本、加蓬其他地区和刚果共和国采集的两栖动物的现有材料，建立了一个中西部非洲两栖动物的DNA条形码文库。然后，我们将我们的序列与GenBank中记录在研究地点的属的材料进行比较，以协助鉴定。由此产生的细胞色素氧化酶亚基I（COI）和16S条形码文库使我们能够将研究地点记录的物种数量更新为28种，从而对多样性和分布情况进行更准确的评估。我们提醒，由于GenBank中保存的序列数据往往由原始提交者整理得很差，第三方无法修改，这些数据在鉴定方面的用途有限。然而，DNA条形码的使用可能会有益于生物多样性清查和长期监测，特别是对于仅根据形态学难以识别的分类群；同样，清查和监测计划可以为DNA条形码文库和复杂类群的分类学贡献宝贵的数据。我们的方法提供了一个范例，说明在世界上研究不足、地理采样有限且比较形态学材料有限的地区工作的非分类学家和准分类学家如何能够使用DNA条形码和公开可用的序列数据（GenBank）快速识别物种数量并赋予暂定名称，以协助开展紧急保护管理行动并促进分类学解析。
