The ECOTROP field school: Inventorying Afro-tropical invertebrate biodiversity through student activities and the use of DNA barcoding.

International audienceTropical ecosystems have been popularized as the most biodiversehabitats on Earth. However, biodiversity research in the tropics hasmainly focused on charismatic vertebrates and higher plants so far,neglecting invertebrates that represent the bulk of local species richness. As a consequence, our knowledge of tropical invertebrate communities remains strongly impeded by both Linnaean and Wallaceanshortfalls, and identifying species in a study site often remains a formidable challenge that inhibits the use of these organisms as indicators for ecological and conservation studies. Here, we present asummary of the results of sampling activities conducted by studentsduring the ECOTROP field-school, a training program in tropical ecology where African and European students gained training in fieldwork and study design, and became involved in the front-endprocessing of samples for DNA barcoding. Most of the activities wereoriented towards local surveys of invertebrate biodiversity in forestand savannah ecosystems of the northern section of Lope NationalPark in Gabon. During five successive editions of the program, a totalof more than 12 500 invertebrates were sampled, and more than11 000 barcodes were generated. More data will be added in the nearfuture through the processing of samples obtained from two Malaisetraps deployed in a forest and a savannah for 12 months in 2014 and2015. A total of nearly 3000 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, as a proxyfor species diversity) have been obtained to date, most of which belongto Lepidoptera (1664) and Coleoptera (709). For many groups of interest, the number of BINs observed exceeded the number of speciesrecorded for the country. This highlights how combining standardized sampling, DNA barcoding, and experimental learning can significantly enhance local knowledge of biodiversity and ecologicalcommunity dynamics, while training young biologists to meet thefuture challenges of biological conservation

The ECOTROP field school: Inventorying Afro-tropical invertebrate biodiversity through student activities and the use of DNA barcoding.

International audienceTropical ecosystems have been popularized as the most biodiversehabitats on Earth. However, biodiversity research in the tropics hasmainly focused on charismatic vertebrates and higher plants so far,neglecting invertebrates that represent the bulk of local species richness. As a consequence, our knowledge of tropical invertebrate communities remains strongly impeded by both Linnaean and Wallaceanshortfalls, and identifying species in a study site often remains a formidable challenge that inhibits the use of these organisms as indicators for ecological and conservation studies. Here, we present asummary of the results of sampling activities conducted by studentsduring the ECOTROP field-school, a training program in tropical ecology where African and European students gained training in fieldwork and study design, and became involved in the front-endprocessing of samples for DNA barcoding. Most of the activities wereoriented towards local surveys of invertebrate biodiversity in forestand savannah ecosystems of the northern section of Lope NationalPark in Gabon. During five successive editions of the program, a totalof more than 12 500 invertebrates were sampled, and more than11 000 barcodes were generated. More data will be added in the nearfuture through the processing of samples obtained from two Malaisetraps deployed in a forest and a savannah for 12 months in 2014 and2015. A total of nearly 3000 Barcode Index Numbers (BINs, as a proxyfor species diversity) have been obtained to date, most of which belongto Lepidoptera (1664) and Coleoptera (709). For many groups of interest, the number of BINs observed exceeded the number of speciesrecorded for the country. This highlights how combining standardized sampling, DNA barcoding, and experimental learning can significantly enhance local knowledge of biodiversity and ecologicalcommunity dynamics, while training young biologists to meet thefuture challenges of biological conservation