Extension of the taxonomic resolution of the marine microcopepod family Oncaeidae and development of an interactive identification system

微型桡足类Oncaeidae科是海洋浮游动物群落中最丰富和多样的后生动物之一。然而，人们对它们在海洋生态系统中的地位和作用还知之甚少。在这个高度多样化的家庭，目前包括100多个物种，物种识别是非常不确定的世界各地，因为在世界海洋的不同区域出现的形态相似的姐妹或兄弟物种的数量是不充分的日期。现有的识别检索表很少，所有这些检索表都有区域局限性，不能涵盖特定区域的整个物种谱，并且/或者由于缺乏分类学专门知识而存在缺陷。这一局限性导致生态学研究中物种鉴定的错误诊断达到惊人的程度，并有可能在其他应用生物学科中传播和放大这些错误。为了能够安全地鉴定世界海洋中的有孔虫物种和/或种群，并在生态学研究中予以适当考虑，有必要汇编迄今为止描述的所有超过100种Oncaeidae的公开形态学数据，以定义明确鉴定所必需的形态学标准，并建立基于这些数据的交互式鉴定系统。迄今为止，Oncaeidae的属分类系统尚未得到充分解决，因此，特别是对于异质的Oncaea s.l.属，本项目的目标是建立一个关系型数据库，并利用该数据库建立一个灵活的、可扩展的系统，用于世界海洋中Oncaeidae科的分类分组和计算机辅助鉴定。需要这一工具来可靠地确定世界海洋中最重要的浮游微型桡足类之一，以便用于基础和应用生态研究、生物多样性分析、监测和环境管理方案。作为一个区域系统的例子，欧洲地中海将被包括在内，这是具有根本意义的Oncaeidae的分类，因为许多（超过40）种已被发现在这里，这个地区代表了许多较小的oncaeid物种的原产地（locus typicus），这仍然是不够的描述。因此，在世界范围内，从这个地区的物种的准确识别是必要的进一步分类和比较区域研究。

The microcopepod family Oncaeidae is one of the most abundant and diverse metazoan families in oceanic zooplankton communities. Their position and function in the pelagic ecosystem is yet insufficiently known, however. The species identification within this highly diverse family, which presently includes more than 100 species, is very uncertain worldwide, because the number of morphologically similar sister or sibling species occurring in different regions of the world ocean is inadequately known to date. There are few identification keys available, all of which which are regionally limited, do not cover the entire species spectrum occurring in a given region and/or are deficient due to the lack of taxonomic expertise. This limitation leads to erroneous diagnoses during species identifications in ecological studies in an alarming extent, coupled with the danger of spreading and magnifying these errors in other applied biological disciplines.In order to enable a secured identification of oncaeid species and/or species groups in the world ocean and an appropriate consideration in ecological studies, it is necessary to compile the published morphological data of all over 100 species of Oncaeidae described to date, to define the morphological criteria which are necessary for an unequivocal identification and to build up an interactive identification system based on these data. The generic classification system of the Oncaeidae is insufficiently resolved so far, therefore a reasonable definition of species groups is necessary in particular for the heterogeneous genus Oncaea s.l., which will be based on phylogenetic relevant characters.The aim of the present project is the development of a relational database, by means of which a flexible and expandible system for the taxonomic grouping and computer-aided identification of the family Oncaeidae in the world ocean shall be build up. This tool is required for a secured identification of one of the most important pelagic microcopepod families in the world ocean to be used in basic and applied ecological studies, in biodiversity analyses, monitoring and environmental management programmes. As an example for a regional system the European Mediterranean Sea will be included, which is of fundamental significance for the taxonomy of Oncaeidae, as many (more than 40) species have been found here and this area represents the original locality (locus typicus) of many of the smaller oncaeid species, which are still insufficiently described. Therefore, in the worldwide context the exact identification of species from this area is essential for further taxonomic and comparative regional studies.