Most soil and litter arthropods are unidentifiable based on current DNA barcode reference libraries.

ABSTRACT: We are far from knowing all species living on the planet. Understanding biodiversity is demanding and requires time and expertise. Most groups are understudied given problems of identifying and delimiting species. DNA barcoding emerged to overcome some of the difficulties in identifying species. Its limitations derive from incomplete taxonomic knowledge and the lack of comprehensive DNA barcode libraries for so many taxonomic groups. Here, we evaluate how useful barcoding is for identifying arthropods from highly diverse leaf litter communities in the southern Appalachian Mountains (USA). We used 3 reference databases and several automated classification methods on a data set including several arthropod groups. Acari, Araneae, Collembola, Coleoptera, Diptera, and Hymenoptera were well repr

SUBMITTER: Recuero E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11502157 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature