Delineating closely related species with DNA barcodes for routine biological monitoring

Abstract

DNA barcoding has proven useful for identifying species, and there is increasing interest in this approach to determine species compositions for routine biological monitoring. Generally, DNA barcodes applied to taxa used for monitoring are clearly linked to species, but where taxa are closely related separation using DNA barcodes can be ambiguous. This raises challenges for monitoring, especially if closely related taxa are not recognised as separate species and these species have different environmental responses. Here we examine whether separation of closely related taxa with DNA barcodes is supported by other gene sequences and whether morphological and environmental differences occur amo..