Reproducibility of species recognition in modern planktonic foraminifera and its implications for analyses of community structure
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Published:2018-12-04
Issue:2
Volume:37
Page:519-534
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ISSN:2041-4978
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Container-title:Journal of Micropalaeontology
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language:en
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Short-container-title:J. Micropalaeontol.
Author:
Al-Sabouni Nadia, Fenton Isabel S.ORCID, Telford Richard J.ORCID, Kučera MichalORCID
Abstract
Abstract. Applications of planktonic foraminifera in Quaternary palaeoceanographic and
palaeobiological studies require consistency in species identification. Yet
the degree of taxonomic consistency among the practitioners and the effects
of any potential deviations on community structure metrics have never been
quantitatively assessed. Here we present the results of an experiment in
taxonomic consistency involving 21 researchers representing a range of
experience and taxonomic schools from around the world. Participants were
asked to identify the same two sets of 300 specimens from a modern
subtropical North Atlantic sample, one sieved at >125 µm
and one at > 150 µm. The identification was carried out
either on actual specimens (slide test) or their digital images
(digital test). The specimens were fixed so the identifications could be
directly compared. In all tests, only between one-quarter and one-eighth of
the specimens achieved absolute agreement. Therefore, the identifications
across the participants were used to determine a consensus ID for each
specimen. Since no strict consensus (>50 % agreement) could be
achieved for 20–30 % of the specimens, we used a “soft consensus” based
on the most common identification. The average percentage agreement relative
to the consensus of the slide test was 77 % in the >150 µm
and 69 % in the >125 µm test. These values
were 7 % lower for the digital analyses. We find that taxonomic
consistency is enhanced when researchers have been trained within a taxonomic
school and when they regularly perform community analyses. There is an almost
negligible effect of taxonomic inconsistency on sea surface temperature
estimates based on transfer function conversion of the census counts,
indicating the temperature signal in foraminiferal assemblages is correctly
represented even if only two-thirds of the assemblage is consistently
identified. The same does not apply to measures of diversity and community
structure within the assemblage, and here we advise caution in using compound
datasets for such studies. The decrease in the level of consistency when
specimens are identified from digital images is significant and
species-specific, with implications for the development of training sets for
automated identification systems.
Funder
NERC Environmental Bioinformatics Centre Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
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