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Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort

Parasitoid wasps are a mega-diverse, ecologically dominant, but poorly studied component of global biodiversity. In order to maximise the efficiency and reduce the cost of their collection, the application of optimal sampling techniques is necessary. Two sites in Auckland, New Zealand were sampled i...

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Autores principales: Saunders, Thomas E., Ward, Darren F.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5889912/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29632746
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4642
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author Saunders, Thomas E.
Ward, Darren F.
author_facet Saunders, Thomas E.
Ward, Darren F.
author_sort Saunders, Thomas E.
collection PubMed
description Parasitoid wasps are a mega-diverse, ecologically dominant, but poorly studied component of global biodiversity. In order to maximise the efficiency and reduce the cost of their collection, the application of optimal sampling techniques is necessary. Two sites in Auckland, New Zealand were sampled intensively to determine the relationship between sampling effort and observed species richness of parasitoid wasps from the family Ichneumonidae. Twenty traps were deployed at each site at three different times over the austral summer period, resulting in a total sampling effort of 840 Malaise-trap-days. Rarefaction techniques and non-parametric estimators were used to predict species richness and to evaluate the variation and completeness of sampling. Despite an intensive Malaise-trapping regime over the summer period, no asymptote of species richness was reached. At best, sampling captured two-thirds of parasitoid wasp species present. The estimated total number of species present depended on the month of sampling and the statistical estimator used. Consequently, the use of fewer traps would have caught only a small proportion of all species (one trap 7–21%; two traps 13–32%), and many traps contributed little to the overall number of individuals caught. However, variation in the catch of individual Malaise traps was not explained by seasonal turnover of species, vegetation or environmental conditions surrounding the trap, or distance of traps to one another. Overall the results demonstrate that even with an intense sampling effort the community is incompletely sampled. The use of only a few traps and/or for very short periods severely limits the estimates of richness because (i) fewer individuals are caught leading to a greater number of singletons; and (ii) the considerable variation of individual traps means some traps will contribute few or no individuals. Understanding how sampling effort affects the richness and diversity of parasitoid wasps is a useful foundation for future studies.
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spelling pubmed-58899122018-04-09 Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort Saunders, Thomas E. Ward, Darren F. PeerJ Biodiversity Parasitoid wasps are a mega-diverse, ecologically dominant, but poorly studied component of global biodiversity. In order to maximise the efficiency and reduce the cost of their collection, the application of optimal sampling techniques is necessary. Two sites in Auckland, New Zealand were sampled intensively to determine the relationship between sampling effort and observed species richness of parasitoid wasps from the family Ichneumonidae. Twenty traps were deployed at each site at three different times over the austral summer period, resulting in a total sampling effort of 840 Malaise-trap-days. Rarefaction techniques and non-parametric estimators were used to predict species richness and to evaluate the variation and completeness of sampling. Despite an intensive Malaise-trapping regime over the summer period, no asymptote of species richness was reached. At best, sampling captured two-thirds of parasitoid wasp species present. The estimated total number of species present depended on the month of sampling and the statistical estimator used. Consequently, the use of fewer traps would have caught only a small proportion of all species (one trap 7–21%; two traps 13–32%), and many traps contributed little to the overall number of individuals caught. However, variation in the catch of individual Malaise traps was not explained by seasonal turnover of species, vegetation or environmental conditions surrounding the trap, or distance of traps to one another. Overall the results demonstrate that even with an intense sampling effort the community is incompletely sampled. The use of only a few traps and/or for very short periods severely limits the estimates of richness because (i) fewer individuals are caught leading to a greater number of singletons; and (ii) the considerable variation of individual traps means some traps will contribute few or no individuals. Understanding how sampling effort affects the richness and diversity of parasitoid wasps is a useful foundation for future studies. PeerJ Inc. 2018-04-05 /pmc/articles/PMC5889912/ /pubmed/29632746 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4642 Text en © 2018 Saunders and Ward http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Biodiversity
Saunders, Thomas E.
Ward, Darren F.
Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title_full Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title_fullStr Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title_full_unstemmed Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title_short Variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
title_sort variation in the diversity and richness of parasitoid wasps based on sampling effort
topic Biodiversity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5889912/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29632746
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4642
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