Barcoding fishes from the Argentine Antarctic Peninsula and adjacent Islands: towards an integrative taxonomic approach

DÍAZ DE ASTARLOA, J. M.

Buenos Aires

Workshop; Workshop for the intensification of cooperation between The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) and the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET); 2014

AWI-CONICET

The Antarctic fish fauna has a remarkably biological relevance due to the high endemism (c.a 95% of around 320 of the species recorded are endemic). The present project tries to respond the problems in identifying Antarctic fish fauna by means of integrating different taxonomic and biological tools that will help to elucidate specific entities that the traditional identification methods can not be resolved. As part of a global project conducted by CONICET on systematic and biology of Antarctic organisms the objectives are: to seek complementary tools to those traditional used in taxonomy for the identification and description of new fish species, to respond to taxonomic problems that can not be easily cleared through traditional methods, to contribute to the conservation of species through the accurate identification of the natural resources and to provide information for discussing phylogenetic relationships and life histories of fish contributing valuable information for biodiversity studies. With regard to biological studies, the project will focus primarily on those characteristics (e.g., life cycles) which allow establishing relationships among species and with the environment they inhabit, and the implication that these studies have in integrative taxonomic approaches. Addressing how species are to be delineated is the real challenge for the future of taxonomy.