Saproxylic beetles are important bioindicators of forest health but their enormous diversity makes their identification challenging. As an example, the French fauna of saproxylic beetles alone ...contains 2,663 species in 72 families. Recently, DNA barcoding was proposed as a promising tool for the identification and monitoring of saproxylic beetle species. However, the rate of DNA barcode recovery from specimens of natural history collections using standard Sanger sequencing protocols remains low and challenges the construction of reference libraries. In this study, we test the potential of high-throughput sequencing (HTS) technology to reduce this shortfall by increasing sequencing success rate and lowering processing cost per specimen. Using a dual-indexing strategy for library construction and sequencing on the Illumina MiSeq platform, we successfully sequenced the DNA barcodes of 286 dry-pinned saproxylic beetles out of 521 specimens aged from 1 to 17 years and sampled in natural history collections. Age at sequencing did not affect sequence recovery and the success rate (54.9%) of our approach is comparable to that obtained using Sanger sequencing technology in another study targeting beetle specimens from natural history collections, but the cost per specimen is significantly reduced when using HTS. Finally, we shortly discuss how the newly produced DNA barcodes contribute to the existing library and we highlight a few interesting cases in which the new sequences question current species boundaries.
Australian species Epuraea imperialis (Reitter, 1877), previously introduced to New Zealand, is recorded as a new invasive species from the Canary Islands, Continental Spain, Portugal, France, ...Belgium, and Italy. It is redescribed and figured, and its taxonomic position in the genus Epuraea Erichson, 1843 is discussed. A tentative checklist of sap beetles introduced to Europe and the Mediterranean areas is finally included.
Saproxylic beetles - associated with dead wood or with other insects, fungi and microorganisms that decompose it - play a major role in forest nutrient cycling. They are important ecosystem service ...providers and are used as key bio-indicators of old-growth forests. In France alone, where the present study took place, there are about 2500 species distributed within 71 families. This high diversity represents a major challenge for specimen sorting and identification. The PASSIFOR project aims at developing a DNA metabarcoding approach to facilitate and enhance the monitoring of saproxylic beetles as indicators in ecological studies. As a first step toward that goal we assembled a library of DNA barcodes using the standard genetic marker for animals, i.e. a portion of the COI mitochondrial gene. In the present contribution, we release a library including 656 records representing 410 species in 40 different families. Species were identified by expert taxonomists, and each record is linked to a voucher specimen to enable future morphological examination. We also highlight and briefly discuss cases of low interspecific divergences, as well as cases of high intraspecific divergences that might represent cases of overlooked or cryptic diversity.
We present an annotated list of 11 Scolytinae and Platypodinae species newly or recently introduced to France. Four species are recorded for the first time as interceptions: Euplatypus hintzi ...(Schaufuss), Euplatypus parallelus (Fabricius), Xyleborus affinis Eichhoff and Xyleborus ferrugineus (Fabricius). Two are possibly naturalised: Xyleborus bispinatus Eichhoff and Cryphalus dilutus Eichhoff, while Cyclorhipidion distinguendum (Eggers) and Xyloterinus politus (Say) are confirmed as species newly established in Europe. Moreover, an unidentified species of Amasa Lea, collected previously in Spain, is recorded for the first time in France: Amasa sp. near truncata (Erichson). We point out that literature references to Amasa truncata as an invasive species in New Zealand and South America are incorrect, as the photographs of these non-native populations do not match the holotype of A. truncata. For each species we have updated its global distribution, detailed all French records, and summarized biology, ecology, host trees and potential risks as pests.
► European-wide forest biodiversity monitoring networks need to be implemented. ► Subsets of species can be meaningful surrogates of total saproxylic beetle richness. ► High surrogacy, consistency, ...cost-efficiency for the easy-to-identify species subset. ► Internationally validated subsets of monitoring species as biodiversity monitoring tools.
In European forests, large scale biodiversity monitoring networks need to be implemented – networks which include components such as taxonomical groups that are at risk and that depend directly on forest stand structure. In this context, monitoring the species-rich group of saproxylic beetles is challenging. In the absence of sufficient resources to comprehensively survey a particular group, surrogates of species richness can be meaningful tools in biodiversity evaluations. In search of restricted subsets of species to use as surrogates of saproxylic beetle richness, we led a case study in Western Europe.
Beetle data were compiled from 67 biodiversity surveys and ecological studies carried out from 1999 to 2010 with standardised trapping methods in France and Belgium. This large-scale dataset contains 642 forest plots, 1521 traps and 856 species. Twenty-two simplified species subsets were identified as potential surrogates, as well as the number of genera, a higher taxonomic level, taking into account, for each surrogate, the effort required for species identification, the practical monitoring experience necessary, the species conservation potential or the frequency of species occurrence. The performance of each surrogate was analyzed based on the following parameters: overall surrogacy (correlation between subset richness and total species richness), surrogacy vs. identification cost balance, surrogacy variation over a wide range of ecological conditions (forest type, altitude, latitude and bio-geographical area) and consistency with spatial scale. Ecological representativeness and ability to monitor rare species were supplementary criteria used to assess surrogate performance.
The subsets consisting of the identifiable (or only easy-to-identify species) could easily be applied in practice and appear to be the best performing subsets, from a global point of view.
The number of genera showed good prediction at the trap level and its surrogacy did not vary across wide environmental gradients. However, the subset of easy-to-identify species and the genus number were highly sensitive to spatial scale, which limits their use in large-scale studies. The number of rare species or the species richness of single beetle families (even the best single-family subset, the Cerambycidae) was very weak surrogates for total species richness. Conversely, the German list of monitoring species had high surrogacy, low identification costs and was not strongly influenced by the main geographical parameters, even with our French and Belgian data.
In European-wide monitoring networks, such internationally validated subsets could be very useful with regard to the timing and cost-efficiency of field inventories.
•LOLA acquired nearly 7 billion altimetric measurements of the Moon.•The LOLA-defined shape and reference frame enables accurate (<10m) geolocation globally.•The LOLA datasets, including topography, ...slope, roughness, and reflectance, support geological studies of the lunar crust.•The high-resolution polar LOLA maps identified areas in permanent shadow and enable accurate illumination modeling.•Active and passive radiometry data were analyzed to inform surface composition and volatile distribution.
In June 2009 the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft was launched to the Moon. The payload consists of 7 science instruments selected to characterize sites for future robotic and human missions. Among them, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) was designed to obtain altimetry, surface roughness, and reflectance measurements. The primary phase of lunar exploration lasted one year, following a 3-month commissioning phase. On completion of its exploration objectives, the LRO mission transitioned to a science mission. After 7 years in lunar orbit, the LOLA instrument continues to map the lunar surface. The LOLA dataset is one of the foundational datasets acquired by the various LRO instruments. LOLA provided a high-accuracy global geodetic reference frame to which past, present and future lunar observations can be referenced. It also obtained high-resolution and accurate global topography that were used to determine regions in permanent shadow at the lunar poles. LOLA further contributed to the study of polar volatiles through its unique measurement of surface brightness at zero phase, which revealed anomalies in several polar craters that may indicate the presence of water ice. In this paper, we describe the many LOLA accomplishments to date and its contribution to lunar and planetary science.
As of June 19, 2010, the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, has collected over 2.0 × 109 measurements of elevation that collectively represent the ...highest resolution global model of lunar topography yet produced. These altimetric observations have been used to improve the lunar geodetic grid to ∼10 m radial and ∼100 m spatial accuracy with respect to the Moon's center of mass. LOLA has also provided the highest resolution global maps yet produced of slopes, roughness and the 1064‐nm reflectance of the lunar surface. Regional topography of the lunar polar regions allows precise characterization of present and past illumination conditions. LOLA's initial global data sets as well as the first high‐resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) of polar topography are described herein.
The Asteroid Impact & Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission is an international cooperation between NASA and ESA. NASA plans to provide the Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission which will ...perform a kinetic impactor experiment to demonstrate asteroid impact hazard mitigation. ESA proposes to provide the Hera mission which will rendezvous with the target to monitor the deflection, perform detailed characterizations, and measure the DART impact outcomes and momentum transfer efficiency. The primary goals of AIDA are (i) to demonstrate the kinetic impact technique on a potentially hazardous near-Earth asteroid and (ii) to measure and characterize the deflection caused by the impact. The AIDA target will be the binary asteroid (65803) Didymos, which is of spectral type Sq, with the deflection experiment to occur in October, 2022. The DART impact on the secondary member of the binary at ∼6 km/s changes the orbital speed and the binary orbit period, which can be measured by Earth-based observatories with telescope apertures as small as 1 m. The DART impact will in addition alter the orbital and rotational states of the Didymos binary, leading to excitation of eccentricity and libration that, if measured by Hera, can constrain internal structure of the target asteroid. Measurements of the DART crater diameter and morphology can constrain target properties like cohesion and porosity based on numerical simulations of the DART impact.
•DART will be the first space mission to demonstrate asteroid deflection by kinetic impact.•The DART impact on the moon of the binary asteroid Didymos will change the orbital period.
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