Abstract
Citizen science online platforms are increasingly making important sources of biological information available at the click of a button, allowing the interaction of volunteers and scientists to report and identify the world’s diversity. In this work, we combined the data available in citizen science platforms (iNaturalist and GelAvista) and the effort and collaboration of a diverse team of scuba-divers, scientists, and underwater photographers to report for the first time the presence of the stauromedusa Lipkea (Cnidaria: Staurozoa) in Portugal. Based on DNA (COI and 16S), we identified the species as Lipkea ruspoliana. However, the marginal lappets of some Portuguese specimens are similar to those of Lipkea sturdzii, a species described based on a single specimen in 1893 and never reported again. These results suggest that L. sturdzii is a synonym of L. ruspoliana, although further taxon and habitat sampling for genetic studies and investigations of intraspecific morphological variation are necessary. In addition, we provided data on species ecology, reviewed the records of Staurozoa from Portugal, and mapped the world geographic distribution of Lipkea. Staurozoa is a cryptic group of cnidarians, and Lipkea seems to be a particularly rare genus. Citizen science has proved to be a valuable contribution to studies on the group, enabling biological discussions that otherwise would be more challenging.
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Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank Mário Rolim and Sylvie Dias for the collaboration on the field observations on multiple occasions (Table 1), João Pedro Silva for providing more information about the first observation of Lipkea sp. in Portugal, registered on iNaturalist in 2012, and Sandra Costa for assistance in the laboratory with DNA extractions and PCR amplifications. The fieldwork for sample collection and the genetic identification were funded by the Biomares program, a consortium CCMAR-ISPA-ICNF funded by SECIL, BIOMARES20212023 (E.A.S., M.A.G.C., E.J.G., S.T.). This study received funding from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais PRPq/UFMG 11/2017, ADRC: 26048*132 (L.S.M.) and from the Portuguese FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology to the projects UIDB-P/MAR/04292/2020 (E.J.G.), UID/MAR/04292/2018/2019 (E.J.G.), and UIDB-P/04326/2020 and LA/P/0101/2020 (E.A.S., M.A.G.C.). This research was also funded by the Programa Operacional Mar Azul (Direção-Geral de Política do Mar) - BiodivAMP Grant FA_06_2017_045; and through the 2020–2021 Biodiversa+ and Water JPI joint call for research projects, under the BiodivRestore ERA-NET Cofund (GA N°101003777), with the EU and the funding organization FCT (DivRestore/0013/2020 to E.A.S., M.A.G.C.). This research was partially supported by the project HIPERSEA—POCI-01-0247-FEDER-033889 (A.d.S.), funded by the ERDF—European Regional Development Fund, through the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation—COMPETE 2020 Programme. We also thank very grateful to the editor Dr. Miodeli Nogueira Júnior, to the reviewer Dr. Fernanda Azevedo, and to an anonymous reviewer who helped to improve the quality of this manuscript.
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10452_2023_10070_MOESM1_ESM.tif
Fig. S1 Maximum likelihood phylogenetic hypothesis including the specimen from Portugal. Analysis based on mitochondrial markers COI. The tree was rooted on the node Calvadosia campanulata (Amyostaurida). Bootstrap indices under maximum likelihood at each node. See Table 4 for additional information (TIF 540 KB)
10452_2023_10070_MOESM2_ESM.tif
Fig. S2 Maximum likelihood phylogenetic hypothesis including the specimen from Portugal. Analysis based on mitochondrial markers 16S. The tree was rooted on the node Calvadosia campanulata (Amyostaurida). Bootstrap indices under maximum likelihood at each node. See Table 4 for additional information (TIF 591 KB)
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Miranda, L.S., Tavares, S., dos Santos, A. et al. Lipkea ruspoliana Vogt, 1886 (Cnidaria: Staurozoa) in Portugal: the contribution of citizen science to range extension and taxonomic discussion of rare species. Aquat Ecol 58, 31–45 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-023-10070-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10452-023-10070-6