ARTS: Increasing the pace of biodiversity discovery: development and use of molecular, morphological and bioinformatics tools to revise the Bembidiina beetles of North America

地球上的许多物种对科学家来说都是未知的，在一些物种中，比如甲虫，许多已知的物种记录得很少。该项目将建立工具和方法，以提高物种发现和记录的速度，并将这些工具应用于美国一组拥有300多个物种的地面甲虫(Bembidiina)。研究人员将使用基于种群遗传学理论开发的新方法，通过分析DNA序列来发现和界定物种。甲虫的照片及其明确的物理特征将被捕获，并与DNA结果一起实时呈现，因为它们被收集在一个开放的在线数据库中，其他生物学家可以免费向该数据库提供信息。研究人员将开发工具来创建平板电脑应用程序、按需打印、定制现场指南和科学专著。除了增加对这些常见甲虫的了解外，该项目还将生产许多工具，这些工具将使生物多样性科学家广泛受益，无论他们研究的生物是什么。新的DNA分析方法将使专家能够提高他们的物种发现速度，数据收集与传播的改进整合将确保有效的文件记录与发现速度保持同步。

Many species on Earth are unknown to scientists, and in some groups, such as beetles, many known species are poorly documented. This project will build tools and methods to increase the rate of species discovery and documentation, and it will apply these tools to a group of ground beetles (Bembidiina) having over 300 species in the United States. The researchers will discover and delimit species by analyzing DNA sequences using new methods they will develop based on population genetic theory. Photographs of the beetles and their defining physical characteristics will be captured and presented with the DNA results live as they are gathered in an open, online database to which other biologists can freely contribute. The researchers will develop tools to create tablet-apps and print-on-demand, custom-build field guides and scientific monographs. In addition to increasing knowledge about these common beetles, this project will produce many tools that will broadly benefit biodiversity scientists, regardless of their organisms of study. The new DNA analysis methods will allow experts to increase their rate of species discovery, and the improved integration of data collection with dissemination will ensure that effective documentation keeps pace with the rate of discovery.