Coralline algae perform important ecological roles in nearshore marine ecosystems globally by promoting the settlement of invertebrate larvae and enhancing biodiversity by creating habitat. However, these roles are severely threatened by global environmental changes. Most coralline algae are extremely difficult to identify, and DNA sequencing has revealed rampant inaccuracy of morpho-anatomical approaches to distinguish species, and even genera. If appropriate identification methods are not reported, or even used, we will be left with an uninterpretable body of literature where the species-specific biology of coralline algae cannot be validated. This will make it difficult to determine the impact a changing ocean may have on these ecologically important species. We reveal the magnitude of the issue in coralline algal research — both the identification methods used and the reporting of identification protocols. An analysis of 341 articles over the past decade revealed that only 7.6% used molecular methods, with over 70% not reporting any details of how species were identified. While many coralline algal taxonomists understand that the majority of species cannot be identified morphologically, this message has not disseminated to the ecological and physiological community. We provide a series of guidelines for conducting DNA-based identifications and strongly recommend the use of these methods over less informative morpho-anatomical techniques. Most importantly, the methods of identification should be adequately reported. Without following these guidelines, research on coralline algae runs the risk of collecting uninterpretable data, and conducting irreproducible science, slowing our ability to determine how these important species will respond to future ocean conditions.

中文翻译：

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需要在珊瑚藻研究中采用可靠和可重复的物种鉴定

珊瑚藻通过促进无脊椎动物幼虫的定居和通过创造栖息地来增强生物多样性，在全球近岸海洋生态系统中发挥着重要的生态作用。然而，这些角色受到全球环境变化的严重威胁。大多数珊瑚藻极难识别，DNA 测序揭示了形态解剖学方法在区分物种甚至属方面的严重不准确。如果没有报告或什至没有使用适当的识别方法，我们将留下无法解释的大量文献，其中珊瑚藻的物种特异性生物学无法得到验证。这将使确定不断变化的海洋可能对这些具有重要生态意义的物种产生的影响变得困难。我们揭示了珊瑚藻研究中问题的严重性——所使用的识别方法和识别协议的报告。对过去十年中 341 篇文章的分析显示，只有 7.6% 的文章使用了分子方法，超过 70% 的文章没有报告任何物种识别方式的细节。虽然许多珊瑚藻分类学家明白大多数物种无法在形态上识别，但这一信息尚未传播到生态和生理社区。我们提供了一系列用于进行基于 DNA 的识别的指南，并强烈建议使用这些方法而不是信息较少的形态解剖技术。最重要的是，应充分报告识别方法。如果不遵循这些准则，