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Abstract Cryptic ecologies, the Wallacean Shortfall of undocumented species’ geographical ranges and the Linnaean Shortfall of undescribed diversity, are all major barriers to conservation assessment. When these factors overlap with drivers of extinction risk, such as insular distributions, the number of threatened species in a region or clade may be underestimated, a situation we term ‘cryptic extinction risk’. The genusLepidodactylusis a diverse radiation of insular and arboreal geckos that occurs across the western Pacific. Previous work onLepidodactylusshowed evidence of evolutionary displacement around continental fringes, suggesting an inherent vulnerability to extinction from factors such as competition and predation. We sought to (1) comprehensively review status and threats, (2) estimate the number of undescribed species, and (3) estimate extinction risk in data deficient and candidate species, inLepidodactylus. From our updated IUCN Red List assessment, 60% of the 58 recognized species are threatened (n = 15) or Data Deficient (n = 21), which is higher than reported for most other lizard groups. Species from the smaller and isolated Pacific islands are of greatest conservation concern, with most either threatened or Data Deficient, and all particularly vulnerable to invasive species. We estimated 32 undescribed candidate species and linear modelling predicted that an additional 18 species, among these and the data deficient species, are threatened with extinction. Focusing efforts to resolve the taxonomy and conservation status of key taxa, especially on small islands in the Pacific, is a high priority for conserving this remarkably diverse, yet poorly understood, lizard fauna. Our data highlight how cryptic ecologies and cryptic diversity combine and lead to significant underestimation of extinction risk.
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Ribbon worms (phylum Nemertea) from Bodega Bay, California: A largely undescribed diversity
The diversity of nemerteans along the Pacific coast of the United States is regarded as well characterized, but there remain many cryptic, undescribed, and “orphan” species (those known only in their larval form). Recent sampling of nemerteans in Oregon and Washington has begun to fill in these taxonomic gaps, but nemertean diversity in California has received relatively little attention over the past 60 years. During the summers of 2019 and 2020, nemertean specimens were collected from 20 locations in the Bodega Bay region of northern California, USA, including rocky intertidal shores, sandy beaches, mudflats, and other habitats. Based on morphological assessment and DNA sequence analysis (partial Cytochrome Oxidase I and 16S rRNA genes), our surveys identified 34 nemertean species. Only 13 of these (38%) can be confidently assigned to described species. Another 11 represent species that are new to science, including members of the generaRiserius,Nipponnemertes,Poseidonemertes,Zygonemertes,Nemertellina,Oerstedia, and three species of uncertain affiliation. The remaining ten species include undescribed or cryptic species of uncertain status that have been found previously along the Pacific Coast of North America. Our surveys also document extensions of known geographic ranges for multiple species, including the first records in California ofAntarctonemertes phyllospadicola,Cephalothrix hermaphroditica, andMaculaura oregonensis. This is the first report of the genusNemertellinain the northeast Pacific andRiseriusin California. Overall, our findings highlight how much remains to be learned about the diversity and distribution of nemerteans in the northeast Pacific.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1856363
- PAR ID:
- 10525604
- Publisher / Repository:
- Pensoft
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ZooKeys
- Volume:
- 1204
- ISSN:
- 1313-2989
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 15 to 64
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Fish biodiversity is an important indicator of ecosystem health and a priority for the National Park Service in Drakes Estero, a shallow estuary within Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California. However, fish diversity has yet to be described following the removal of oyster aquaculture infrastructure within Drakes Estero from 2016 to 2017. We used environmental DNA (eDNA) to characterize fish biodiversity within Drakes Estero. We amplified fish eDNA with MiFish primers and classified sequences with a 12S rRNA reference database. We identified 110 unique operational taxonomic units (OTUs, at 97% similarity) within the estuary from 40 samples across 4 sites. From these 110 OTUs, we identified 9 species and 13 taxonomic groups at the genus, family, order, or class level within the estuary. Species‐level assignments are limited by a lack of representative sequences targeted by the MiFish primers for 42% of eelgrass fishes in our region that we identified from a literature review in the Northeast Pacific (NEP) from Elkhorn Slough to Humboldt Bay. Despite this limitation, we identified some common Drakes Estero fishes with our eDNA surveys, including the three‐spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus), Pacific staghorn sculpin (Leptocottus armatus), surfperches (Embiotocidae), gobies (Gobiidae), and a hound shark (Triakidae). We also compared fish biodiversity within the estuary with that from nearby Limantour Beach, a coastal site. Limantour beach differed in community composition from Drakes Estero and was characterized by high relative abundances of anchovy (Engraulissp.) and herring (Clupeasp.). Thus, we can distinguish estuarine and non‐estuarine sites (<10 km away) with eDNA surveys. Further, eDNA surveys accounted for greater fish diversity than seine surveys conducted at one site within the estuary. Environmental DNA surveys will likely be a useful tool to monitor fish biodiversity across eelgrass estuaries in the Northeast Pacific, especially as reference databases become better populated with regional species.more » « less
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1204.117869
