Cargando…

Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects

Although biomass values are critical for diverse ecological and evolutionary analyses, they are unavailable for most insect species. Museum specimens have the potential to address this gap, but the variation introduced by sampling and preservation methods is uncertain. This study quantifies species-...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Hu, Jingchan, Pentinsaari, Mikko, Hebert, Paul D.N.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8785658/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35116199
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12799
_version_ 1784639008854245376
author Hu, Jingchan
Pentinsaari, Mikko
Hebert, Paul D.N.
author_facet Hu, Jingchan
Pentinsaari, Mikko
Hebert, Paul D.N.
author_sort Hu, Jingchan
collection PubMed
description Although biomass values are critical for diverse ecological and evolutionary analyses, they are unavailable for most insect species. Museum specimens have the potential to address this gap, but the variation introduced by sampling and preservation methods is uncertain. This study quantifies species-level variation in the body mass of Canadian Coleoptera based on the analysis of 3,744 specimens representing 3,161 Barcode Index Number (BIN) clusters. Employing the BIN system as a proxy for species allows the inclusion of groups where the taxonomic impediment prevents the assignment of specimens to a Linnaean species. By validating the reproducibility of measurements and evaluating the error introduced by operational complexities such as curatorial practice and the loss of body parts, this study demonstrates that museum specimens can speed the assembly of a mass registry. The results further indicate that congeneric species of Coleoptera generally have limited variation in mass, so a genus-level identification allows prediction of the body mass of species that have not been weighed or measured. Building on the present results, the construction of a mass registry for all insects is feasible.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8785658
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2022
publisher PeerJ Inc.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-87856582022-02-02 Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects Hu, Jingchan Pentinsaari, Mikko Hebert, Paul D.N. PeerJ Biodiversity Although biomass values are critical for diverse ecological and evolutionary analyses, they are unavailable for most insect species. Museum specimens have the potential to address this gap, but the variation introduced by sampling and preservation methods is uncertain. This study quantifies species-level variation in the body mass of Canadian Coleoptera based on the analysis of 3,744 specimens representing 3,161 Barcode Index Number (BIN) clusters. Employing the BIN system as a proxy for species allows the inclusion of groups where the taxonomic impediment prevents the assignment of specimens to a Linnaean species. By validating the reproducibility of measurements and evaluating the error introduced by operational complexities such as curatorial practice and the loss of body parts, this study demonstrates that museum specimens can speed the assembly of a mass registry. The results further indicate that congeneric species of Coleoptera generally have limited variation in mass, so a genus-level identification allows prediction of the body mass of species that have not been weighed or measured. Building on the present results, the construction of a mass registry for all insects is feasible. PeerJ Inc. 2022-01-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8785658/ /pubmed/35116199 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12799 Text en © 2022 Hu et al. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Hu, Jingchan
Pentinsaari, Mikko
Hebert, Paul D.N.
Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title_full Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title_fullStr Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title_full_unstemmed Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title_short Measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of Canadian Coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
title_sort measuring mass: variation among 3,161 species of canadian coleoptera and the prospects of a mass registry for all insects
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8785658/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35116199
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.12799
work_keys_str_mv AT hujingchan measuringmassvariationamong3161speciesofcanadiancoleopteraandtheprospectsofamassregistryforallinsects
AT pentinsaarimikko measuringmassvariationamong3161speciesofcanadiancoleopteraandtheprospectsofamassregistryforallinsects
AT hebertpauldn measuringmassvariationamong3161speciesofcanadiancoleopteraandtheprospectsofamassregistryforallinsects