Document of bibliographic reference 287873

BibliographicReference record

Type

Bibliographic resource

Type of document

Journal article

BibLvlCode

AS

Title

Planktonic protists: little bugs pose big problems for biodiversity assessments

Abstract

The view that current species inventories (lists of binomial species) of planktonic protists significantly underestimate true diversity is widespread. However, the existence of synonyms in species lists, due to repeated descriptions of the same form, and polymorphism in which different “forms” or life-history stages are but one species, are generally underappreciated. Recent studies have shown that synonyms are probably common, significantly inflating species lists, and taxa previously thought to be distinct species based on morphology have been revealed to be simple variants of single species. Given here are examples from among tintinnid ciliates, dinoflagellates and foraminifera. The commonality of synonyms and the phenomena of both polymorphism and crypticism underscore a need for taxonomic reviews as well as species-focused studies involving molecular biologists, taxonomists and ecologists.

WebOfScience code

https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000381692300022

Bibliographic citation

Dolan, J.R. (2015). Planktonic protists: little bugs pose big problems for biodiversity assessments. J. Plankton Res. 38(4): 1044-1051. https://dx.doi.org/10.1093/plankt/fbv079

Topic

Marine

Is peer reviewed

true

Access rights

open access

Is accessible for free

true