Data from: Assessing species boundaries in the open sea: an integrative taxonomic approach to the pteropod genus Diacavolinia

To track changes in pelagic biodiversity in response to climate change, it is essential to accurately define species boundaries. Shelled pteropods are a group of holoplanktonic gastropods that have been proposed as bio-indicators because of their vulnerability to ocean acidification. A particularly suitable, yet challenging group for integrative taxonomy is the pteropod genus Diacavolinia, which has a circumglobal distribution and is the most species-rich pteropod genus, with 24 described species. We assessed species boundaries in this genus, with inferences based on geometric morphometric analyses of shell-shape variation, genetic (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, 28S rDNA sequences) and geographic data. We found support for a total of 13 species worldwide, with observations of 706 museum and 263 freshly collected specimens across a global collection of material, including holo‐ and paratype specimens for 14 species. In the Atlantic Ocean, two species are well supported, in contrast to the eight currently described, and in the Indo‐Pacific we found a maximum of 11 species, partially merging 13 of the described species. Distributions of these revised species are congruent with well-known biogeographic provinces. Combining varied datasets in an integrative framework may be suitable for many diverse taxa and is an important first step to predicting species-specific responses to global change.

为追踪远洋生物多样性随气候变化的响应动态，精准界定物种边界至关重要。有壳翼足类（shelled pteropods）是一类全浮游腹足类，因其对海洋酸化（ocean acidification）具有高度脆弱性，被提议作为海洋酸化监测的生物指示物。翼足类下的戴斯翼足属（Diacavolinia）是整合分类学（integrative taxonomy）研究中兼具研究价值与挑战性的类群：该属环全球分布，是物种丰富度最高的翼足类属，目前已描述物种共计24种。本研究针对该属的物种边界展开评估，基于壳形变异的几何形态测量学（geometric morphometric analyses）分析、遗传数据（细胞色素c氧化酶亚基I（cytochrome c oxidase subunit I）与28S核糖体DNA序列）以及地理数据进行物种界定推断。研究结果支持全球范围内该属共计13个有效物种；本次研究共检视了706份馆藏标本与263份新采集标本，涵盖全球多地的馆藏材料，其中包含14个物种的正模（holotype）与副模（paratype）标本。大西洋海域目前已描述该属物种8种，本研究仅支持其中2种为有效物种；印度-太平洋海域则最多可划分出11个有效物种，需对原描述的13个物种进行合并修正。经修正后的各物种分布格局与已知的生物地理分区（biogeographic provinces）高度吻合。采用整合框架整合多源数据集的研究方法，或可适用于众多多样生物类群的分类研究，同时也是预测物种对全球变化的特异性响应的重要基础性步骤。