Fish DNA barcoding around large marine infrastructure for improved biodiversity assessment and monitoring

Abstract

Accurate species-level identification is pivotal for environmental assessments and monitoring. The PERU LNG terminal is composed of large marine infrastructure located on the central coast of Peru. Since construction, taxonomically challenging species such as drum fishes (Sciaenidae) have been attracted to the new hard-bottom habitat. We conducted a DNA barcoding study to investigate fish diversity and constructed a DNA barcode reference library. We examined 56 vouchered specimens and identified 24 unique species. Intra- and interspecific divergence estimates ranged between 0 and 0.64% and 11 and 35.5%, respectively. We assessed the efficiency of the reference library to identify 29 non-vouchered specimens. We had 82.5% efficiency by using both our reference library (n = 17) and GenBank (n = 24). We highlight the importance of implementing molecular barcoding for complementing biodiversity assessments in marine environments. This study represents a first step towards generating a comprehensive DNA barcode reference library for marine fishes in Peru.

Keywords:

• COI
• DNA barcode reference library
• Humboldt current ecosystem
• species identification
• Sciaenidae

Acknowledgements

We thank PERU LNG and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute for funding this study. We are grateful to all field assistants of the marine BMAP, particularly to Aldo Roque, Lesly Llaja, Milly Valle, Renni Pichilingue, Maria Escalante, Anali Jimenez, Fernando Tapia, and Lorena Silva. We want to extend our gratitude to Bruno Vildoso, Karim Ledesma and SNC-Lavalin for its logistic support and to Dr. Monica Santa Maria from BIOAL S.A.C during the processing of samples. We also thank Dr. Jessica Deichmann for improving the final version of the manuscript. This publication is contribution No. 53 of the Biodiversity Monitoring and Assessment Program, implemented by the Center for Conservation and Sustainability of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.