Redução de esforço amostral vs. retenção de informação em inventários de pteridófitas na Amazônia Central

Abstract

The large area covered by the Amazonian domain and the limited financial support for biodiversity studies demand efficient research programs. Aiming to evaluate the consequences of reduced sampling effort on the retention of ecological information, we tested how differences in plot width affect the perceived relationship between environmental variation and the composition of the pteridophyte community in Central Amazonia. Measures of slope, canopy openness and soil clay content were taken in 37 terra-firme forest plots. All pteridophyte individuals were identified and mapped according to three sample strips. We tested the effects of environmental variables on pteridophyte composition of 250 x 2.5 meters-plots and on sub-samples of reduced width. The reduction of plot width from 2.5 to 1 m (60% reduction in sampling effort) corresponded to a reduction of 24% of the project's costs concerning field work expenses. This would reduce the number of sampled species from 52 to 44. The reduction of 20% plot width (from 2.5 to 2 m) would cause a reduction of two (4%) sampled species and a reduction of 8% of the costs. For all tested plot widths, community composition was associated with soil clay content and was not associated with the terrain slope. The effect of canopy openness on pteridophyte species composition was not consistent among sample sizes. These may be related to the relatively lower importance of light availability in determining community structure at the studied spatial scale. We concluded that the smallest plots were informative enough to detect the main gradients of composition and their association to environmental factors. This would allow a reduction in total costs, or the allocation of available budget to more plots, which could increase the power of the statistical analyses, reduce the confidence intervals and increase probability of detecting more species.Keywords: community, environmental gradients, ferns, sampling protocol, species richness, soil texture, tropical forest. A extensa área coberta pelo domínio amazônico e os recursos financeiros limitados para estudos da biodiversidade exigem programas de pesquisa que obtenham o máximo de informação com os menores custos. Com o objetivo de avaliar as conseqüências da redução do esforço amostral sobre a retenção da informação ecológica, testou-se como diferentes larguras de parcela afetam os resultados da relação entre variação ambiental e composição da comunidade de pteridófitas da Amazônia Central. Foram feitas medidas da inclinação do terreno, abertura do dossel e do teor de argila do solo, em 37 parcelas de floresta de terra-firme. Todos os indivíduos de pteridófitas foram identificados e mapeados com relação a três faixas de amostragem. Foram testados os efeitos das variáveis ambientais sobre a composição de pteridófitas em parcelas de 250 x 2,5 m e em sub-amostras com a largura da parcela reduzida. A redução de 2,5 para 1 m na largura da parcela (60% de redução no esforço amostral) correspondeu a uma redução de 24% no custo do projeto, conside...

Efficiency in inventories of ants in a forest reservein Central Amazonia

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