The Mercantour/Alpi Marittime All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI): achievements and prospects

The first large-scale All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in Europe: description of the Mercantour National Park ATBI datasets

Background

An All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory (ATBI) is a comprehensive inventory of all species in a given territory. In 2007, the French Parc national du Mercantour and the Italian Parco Naturale Alpi Marittime started the first and most ambitious ATBI in Europe with more than 350 specialists and dozens of technicians and data managers involved.

New information

The ATBI datasets from the Parc national du Mercantour in France are now publicly available. Between 2007 and 2020, 247,674 occurrences were recorded, checked and published in the INPN information system. All this information is available in open access in the GBIF web site. With 12,640 species registered, the ATBI is the most important inventory in France. This data paper provides an overview of main results and its contribution to the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage. It includes a list of 52 taxa new to science and 53 species new to France, discovered thanks to the ATBI.

Plant scientists' research attention is skewed towards colourful, conspicuous and broadly distributed flowers

Scientists' research interests are often skewed toward charismatic organisms, but quantifying research biases is challenging. By combining bibliometric data with trait-based approaches and using a well-studied alpine flora as a case study, we demonstrate that morphological and colour traits, as well as range size, have significantly more impact on species choice for wild flowering plants than traits related to ecology and rarity. These biases should be taken into account to inform more objective plant conservation efforts.

Integrating Multiple Lines of Evidence to Explore Intraspecific Variability in a Rare Endemic Alpine Plant and Implications for Its Conservation

We studied the ecology, distribution, and phylogeography of Tephroseris balbisiana, a rare plant whose range is centered to the South-Western Alps. Our aim was to assess the extent of intraspecific variability within the nominal species and the conservation status of isolated populations. We studied genetic diversity across the whole species range. We analyzed leaf traits, which are distinctive morphological characters within the Tephroseris genus. A clear pattern of genetic variation was found among populations of T. balbisiana, which clustered according to their geographic position. On the contrary, there was a strong overlap in the morphological space of individuals across the species' range, with few peripheral populations diverging in their leaf morphology. Studying habitat suitability by means of species distribution models, we observed that T. balbisiana range is primarily explained by solar radiation and precipitation seasonality. Environmental requirements could explain the genetic and morphological uniformity of T. balbisiana in its core distribution area and justify genetic, morphological, and ecological divergences found among the isolated populations of the Apennines. Our findings emphasize the need to account for the whole diversity of a species, comprising peripheral populations, in order to better estimate its status and to prioritize areas for its conservation.

Discovery of a new species of the genus Stygepactophanes from a groundwater-fed spring in southern France (Crustacea, Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Canthocamptidae)

A new species of the genus Stygepactophanes Moeschler & Rouch, 1984 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida, Canthocamptidae) is established to accommodate a small canthocamptid population collected from a spring system in the “Parc du Mercantour”, Var catchment, southern France. The population analysed in the present study is defined by a set of morphological characters of the female, namely a very large maxilliped, a rudimentary mandibular palp, P1 with 3-segmented exopod and 2-segmented endopod, a falcate terminal claw of the P1 endopod, dorsal seta of caudal rami inserted on the inner margin, and anal operculum not overreaching the insertion of the caudal rami, thus supporting its assignment into the genus Stygepactophanes. The new species Stygepactophanesoccitanus shows marked differences with the nominotypical species of the genus that was originally described by monotypy with the species Stygepactophanesjurassicus Moeschler & Rouch, 1984. The main diagnostic traits of S.jurassicus are the absence of the P5 and a falcate outer terminal claw of P1 endopod. Stygepactophanesjurassicus also shows a reduced armature of the antennal exopod, bearing one seta, 1-segmented P2–P4 endopods, a reduced armature of P2–P4 exopodal segments 3 (3,4,4 armature elements, respectively), P6 bearing only one long seta, a rounded short and smooth anal operculum. Conversely the female of S.occitanus Galassi & Fiers, sp. n. has a well-developed P5, with rudimentary intercoxal sclerite, together with a falcate outer terminal claw of P1 endopod, antennal exopod bearing two elements, P4 endopod 1-segmented versus 2-segmented in P2–P3, P2–P4 exopodal segment 3 with five armature elements, P6 with three setae of different lengths, rounded anal operculum, bearing 3–4 strong spinules.

According to our present knowledge, S.occitanus Galassi & Fiers, sp. n. is assigned to the genus Stygepactophanes as the most conservative solution, waiting for the male to be discovered. The genus Stygepactophanes represents a distinct lineage within the harpacticoid family Canthocamptidae that colonised southern European groundwater, the genus being known only from the saturated karst in Switzerland and a fissured saturated aquifer in southern France. Both species of the genus are stygobites and narrow endemics, the nominotypical species being known from the type locality Source de la Doux in Délemont (Switzerland), and S.occitanus Galassi & Fiers, sp. n. described herein from a spring system of the Var catchment (France).

Unexpected diversity in the relictual European spiders of the genus Pimoa (Araneae : Pimoidae)

Pimoidae is a small family of araneoid spiders, hitherto represented in Europe by two species with disjunct distribution in the Alps and in the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. Here we report the description of two additional European species of Pimoa, discovered within the range of the only former alpine species, P. rupicola: P. graphitica sp. nov. and P. delphinica sp. nov. The new species are distinguished from the latter by genitalic characters as well as by molecular characters. On the basis of the re-examination of old and recent abundant material collected in caves and other subterranean habitats, we revise the distribution patterns of the genus Pimoa in the Alps and outline the species distribution ranges. Molecular data suggest the existence of gene flow between populations of the two new species when in sympatry. The different species probably originated in the alpine region as a result of range contractions following dramatic climatic changes in the Alps since the mid Miocene. We interpreted the present-day overlapping distribution in light of a possible postglacial expansion. Finally, we provide insights on the natural history and life cycles of the new species and discuss their phylogenetic relationships within Pimoidae.