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

微型桡足类Oncaeidae是海洋浮游动物群落中种类最丰富、种类最多的后生动物之一。然而，它们在远洋生态系统中的地位和作用还不够清楚。这个高度多样化的家族目前包括100多个物种，世界范围内的物种鉴定非常不确定，因为迄今为止，世界海洋不同区域出现的形态相似的姐妹或兄弟物种的数量尚不充分。现有的识别检索表很少，所有这些检索表都受区域限制，不能涵盖某一特定区域的全部物种谱，和/或由于缺乏分类学专门知识而存在缺陷。这一局限性导致了生态学研究中物种鉴定的错误诊断，并有可能在其他应用生物学学科中传播和放大这些错误。为了能够在世界海洋中安全地鉴定钉螺科物种和/或物种群，并在生态学研究中适当地考虑，有必要汇编迄今为止所描述的所有100多种钉螺科的形态数据，定义明确鉴定所需的形态标准，并建立基于这些数据的交互式鉴定系统。到目前为止，Oncaeidae的属分类系统还没有得到充分的解决，因此需要一个合理的物种组的定义，特别是对于异质的Oncaeea s.l属，这将基于系统发育相关特征。本项目的目的是开发一个关系数据库，通过这个数据库，建立一个灵活和可扩展的系统，用于世界海洋Oncaeidae科的分类和计算机辅助识别。为了安全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学研究、生物多样性分析、监测和环境管理方案，这一工具是必需的。作为区域系统的一个例子，欧洲地中海将被包括在内，这对钉螺科的分类具有基本意义，因为在这里发现了许多(40多种)物种，这一地区代表了许多较小的钉螺科物种的原始地点(典型位置)，这些物种仍然没有得到充分的描述。因此，在世界范围内，准确识别这一地区的物种对于进一步的分类学和比较区域研究是至关重要的。

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.