scholarly journals INTEGRATIVE TAXONOMY REVEALS CRYPTIC ROBIN LINEAGE IN THE GREATER SUNDA ISLANDS

TREUBIA ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Elize Y. X. Ng ◽  
Arya Y. Yue ◽  
James A. Eaton ◽  
Chyi Yin Gwee ◽  
Bas Van Balen ◽  
...  

Southeast Asian avifauna is under threat from both habitat loss and illegal poaching, yet the region’s rich biodiversity remains understudied. Here, we uncover cryptic species-level diversity in the Sunda Blue Robin (Myiomela diana), a songbird complex endemic to Javan (subspecies diana) and Sumatran (subspecies sumatrana) mountains. Taxonomic inquiry into these populations has previously been hampered by a lack of DNA material and the birds’ general scarcity, especially sumatrana which is only known from few localities. We demonstrate fundamental bioacoustic differences in courtship song paired with important distinctions in plumage saturation and tail length that combine to suggest species-level treatment for the two taxa. Treated separately, both taxa are independently threatened by illegal poaching and habitat loss, and demand conservation action. Our study highlights a case of underestimated avifaunal diversity that is in urgent need of revision in the face of imminent threats to species survival.   

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Zhang ◽  
Daoyuan Yu ◽  
Mark I. Stevens ◽  
Yinhuan Ding

Integrative taxonomic approaches are increasingly providing species-level resolution to ‘cryptic’ diversity. In the absence of an integrative taxonomic approach, formal species validation is often lacking because of inadequate morphological diagnoses. Colouration and chaetotaxy are the most commonly used characters in collembolan taxonomy but can cause confusion in species diagnoses because these characters often have large intraspecific variation. Here, we take an integrative approach to the genus Dicranocentrus in China where four species have been previously recognised, but several members of the genus have been morphologically grouped as a species complex based on having paired outer teeth on unguis and seven colour patterns. Molecular delimitations based on distance- and evolutionary models recovered four candidate lineages from three gene markers and revealed that speciation events likely occurred during the late Neogene (4–13million years ago). Comparison of intact dorsal chaetotaxy, whose homologies were erected on the basis of first instar larva, further validated these candidates as formal species: D. gaoligongensis, sp. nov., D. similis, sp. nov., D. pallidus, sp. nov. and D. varicolor, sp. nov., and increase the number of Dicranocentrus species from China to eight. Our study further highlights the importance of adequate taxonomy in linking morphological and molecular characters within integrative taxonomy.


2004 ◽  
Vol 76 (2) ◽  
pp. 316-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matija Gogala ◽  
Tomi Trilar

Recent bioacoustic investigations have shown that Cicadetta montana Scopoli 1772 is a complex of morphologically similar sister species that are best characterized by their song patterns. At the type locality of C. montana, only mountain cicadas with simple, long lasting song phrases were heard, recorded and collected. Therefore, we have good reasons to suggest that this type of song is characteristic for C. montana s. str. Boulard described a song of C. montana from France with phrases composed of a long and a short echeme; this type of song is characteristic for cicadas morphologically corresponding to C. montana var. brevipennis Fieber 1876; we suggest to raise this taxon to species level. On the basis of specific song, Puissant and Boulard described C. cerdaniensis from Pyrénées. A similar case was the discovery and description of C. montana macedonica Schedl 1999 from Macedonia; since these Macedonian cicadas are sympatric with at least two other cryptic species in the C. montana group and molecular investigations showed substantial genetic differences between C. macedonica and C. montana or C. brevipennis, we conclude that this taxon should also be raised to species level. Songs of closely related C. podolica and Korean mountain cicada are presented as well.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 20180498 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Paraskevopoulou ◽  
Ralph Tiedemann ◽  
Guntram Weithoff

Under global warming scenarios, rising temperatures can constitute heat stress to which species may respond differentially. Within a described species, knowledge on cryptic diversity is of further relevance, as different lineages/cryptic species may respond differentially to environmental change. The Brachionus calyciflorus species complex (Rotifera), which was recently described using integrative taxonomy, is an essential component of aquatic ecosystems. Here, we tested the hypothesis that these (formerly cryptic) species differ in their heat tolerance. We assigned 47 clones with nuclear ITS1 (nuITS1) and mitochondrial COI (mtCOI) markers to evolutionary lineages, now named B. calyciflorus sensu stricto (s.s.) and B. fernandoi . We selected 15 representative clones and assessed their heat tolerance as a bi-dimensional phenotypic trait affected by both the intensity and duration of heat stress. We found two distinct groups, with B. calyciflorus s.s. clones having higher heat tolerance than the novel species B. fernandoi . This apparent temperature specialization among former cryptic species underscores the necessity of a sound species delimitation and assignment, when organismal responses to environmental changes are investigated.


2001 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth R. Hall

AbstractSoutheast Asian sources that report regional connection with the Majapahit and Angkor polities reflect upon a rapidly changing fourteenth and fifteenth century world order, the result of new trading opportunities as Europeans were becoming more direct participants in affairs beyond their Western home-lands. In the face of the individualistic and destructive tendencies of the wider global community circa 1500, in the Strait of Melaka region there was less dislocation and isolation than is supposed by many twentieth century scholars. Despite the number of political and religious transitions underway, in the Southeast Asian archipelago and mainland there was a sense of regional self-confidence and progress among societies who had enjoyed over two hundred years of widespread socio-economic success. These successes were the product of the functional international, regional, and local networks of communication, as well as a common heritage that had developed in the Strait of Melaka region during the pre-1500 era. This study not only addresses the role of Majapahit and Angkor in the shaping of regional inclusiveness circa 1500, but also explores the enduring (and often exclusive) legacy of these two early cultural centers among Southeast Asia's twentieth century polities.


PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e7333 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Maria Cardoso da Silva ◽  
Alessandro Rapini ◽  
Luis Cláudio F. Barbosa ◽  
Roger R. Torres

In a world where changes in land cover and climate happen faster than ever due to the expansion of human activities, narrowly distributed species are predicted to be the first to go extinct. Studies projecting species extinction in tropical regions consider either habitat loss or climate change as drivers of biodiversity loss but rarely evaluate them together. Here, the contribution of these two factors to the extinction risk of narrowly distributed species (with ranges smaller than 10,000 km2) of seed plants endemic to a fifth-order watershed in Brazil (microendemics) is assessed. We estimated the Regional Climate Change Index (RCCI) of these watersheds (areas with microendemics) and projected three scenarios of land use up to the year 2100 based on the average annual rates of habitat loss in these watersheds from 2000 to 2014. These scenarios correspond to immediate conservation action (scenario 1), long-term conservation action (scenario 2), and no conservation action (scenario 3). In each scenario, areas with microendemics were classified into four classes: (1) areas with low risk, (2) areas threatened by habitat loss, (3) areas threatened by climate change, and (4) areas threatened by climate change and habitat loss. We found 2,354 microendemic species of seed plants in 776 areas that altogether cover 17.5% of Brazil. Almost 70% (1,597) of these species are projected to be under high extinction risk by the end of the century due to habitat loss, climate change, or both, assuming that these areas will not lose habitat in the future due to land use. However, if habitat loss in these areas continues at the prevailing annual rates, the number of threatened species is projected to increase to more than 85% (2,054). The importance of climate change and habitat loss as drivers of species extinction varies across phytogeographic domains, and this variation requires the adoption of retrospective and prospective conservation strategies that are context specific. We suggest that tropical countries, such as Brazil, should integrate biodiversity conservation and climate change policies (both mitigation and adaptation) to achieve win-win social and environmental gains while halting species extinction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (02) ◽  
pp. 299-318
Author(s):  
Riska Putri Hariyadi

Increased interstate connectivity has led to the mobility of the COVID-19 outbreak easily spread throughout the world, including Southeast Asia. This outbreak has a multi-dimension effect that encourages countries to take two possibilities, Collaboration to handle the outbreak or by issuing restrictions as protection measures. Through this paper, the author describes the relations that occur in the Southeast Asian region by analyzing Singapore and ASEAN in the face of the outbreak. This paper argues that Singapore and ASEAN show commitment to the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak through regional cooperation such as the Asean COVID-19 Response Fund and solidarity actions with member countries. COVID-19, Singapura, ASEAN, Regional Cooperation


Author(s):  
Julia Astegiano ◽  
Paulo R. Guimarães ◽  
Pierre-Olivier Cheptou ◽  
Mariana Morais Vidal ◽  
Camila Yumi Mandai ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

Author(s):  
Bao Nie ◽  
Bo‐Han Jiao ◽  
Li‐Fei Ren ◽  
Polina D. Gudkova ◽  
Wen‐Li Chen ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 555
Author(s):  
José Luis León de la Luz ◽  
Jon Paul Rebman ◽  
Thomas R. Van Devender ◽  
José Jesús Sánchez-Escalante ◽  
José Delgadillo-Rodríguez ◽  
...  

<p class="Pa1"><strong>Background</strong>: Floristic knowledge of Northwestern (NW) Mexico was mainly carried out by American botanists until the first half of XX century.</p><p class="Pa1"><strong>Question</strong>: Do the ancient and recent botanical explorations carried out in the study area, are already enough to document in a conclusive way both the floristic and structural composition?</p><p class="Pa1"><strong>Methods</strong>: The authors are botanists and managers of the herbaria included in the floristic compilation (BCMEX, HCIB, SD, and USON), each herbarium has been devoted to document the flora of the states of NW Mexico in the last three decades. The floristic information was obtained mainly of the herbaria databases (around 110,000 entries), historic bibliographic information and recent collects from the same authors. The databases consulted are composed by 27,117 collect sites.</p><p class="Pa1"><strong>Results</strong>: The final database obtained consists of 5,865 taxa at the species level and intraspecific categories. By state, Sonora is the most biodiverse with 3,762 taxa, Baja California has 2,583 and Baja California Sur has 2,070. The Mexican NW is relatively poor in total number of species, but the number of endemic taxa is high. Within this region there are 941 endemic species, where 294, 391, and 79 correspond to the states of Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Sonora, respectively; in addition, there are 177 endemic species shared among these three states. The NW region also has 18 endemic genera, included in 10 families.</p><strong>Conclusions</strong>: As result of this review, there is excellent floristic knowledge background for NW Mexico, but there are still geographic areas still inaccessible, which includes all kind of topography, that explored could increase the total flora and endemism rate. Presently, the climate change put into risk the species survival, and hence it is a priority that conservation programs be established especially in terms of endemic species, since many of them have a restricted geographical distribution.


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