More species, less effort: Designing and comparing sampling strategies to draft optimised floristic inventories

D’Antraccoli, Marco; Bacaro, Giovanni; Tordoni, Enrico; Bedini, Gianni; Peruzzi, Lorenzo

doi:10.1016/j.ppees.2020.125547

Cited by 14 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 71 publications

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“…Although our maximum median geographical distance (MMGD) approach optimized all of our selections, differences arising from using distinct approaches were evident. Perhaps the major takeaway lesson is that explicit exploration of existing environmental conditions can give a better idea of the challenge of designing a system of sites that allows efficient biodiversity inventory and monitoring (D'Antraccoli et al, 2020; Hortal & Lobo, 2005; Velásquez‐Tibatá, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These methods require certain knowledge of the biodiversity in the region such that application in areas where biodiversity data are scarce could be difficult. More recently, D'Antraccoli et al (2020) proposed an approach that combines considerations of geographical and environmental distances to select areas for sampling based on considerations of both dimensions. Although no previous knowledge of sampling in the area was required to select sampling localities, the authors demonstrated that the considerations made effectively led to more species being sampled.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selection of sampling sites for biodiversity inventory: Effects of environmental and geographical considerations

et al. 2022

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1. Biodiversity inventory is among the major challenges for conservation biology in the face of global change. Species exist in two spaces that are linked in the so-called Hutchinsonian Duality: distributions in geographical space and ecological niches in environmental space. We explore implications of using distinct methods to select locations for biodiversity inventories, based on this idea of two-space distributions.2. We combined empirical and statistical methods to facilitate selecting localities for biodiversity inventory based on either or both of geographical and environmental considerations. These approaches were applied to select sites for inventory in four example countries. For one of our examples, we tested how effective distinct methods were in sampling biodiversity.3. Random and geographically uniform selections are generally biased towards the most common environments in the regions; selections aiming for uniform sampling of environments are concentrated spatially in areas of high heterogeneity in geographical context. Considering disparate geographical distributions of environments helped to cover geographical areas more broadly when selections were environmentally uniform. Generally, sets of sites selected considering environmental conditions perform better in sampling known biodiversity in regions of interest. 4. Our results underline the benefits of considering environmental and geographical conditions when selecting sites on the effectiveness of resulting inventories.Our tools, implemented in the r package biosurvey, will help researchers to design biodiversity survey systems taking into account the Hutchinsonian Duality and the crucial considerations that it suggests.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Selection of sampling sites for biodiversity inventory: Effects of environmental and geographical considerations

et al. 2022

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“…Our experience is that physical collections are not often considered by ecological principal investigators as essential to their field protocols (despite substantial movement in this direction by, e.g., the National Ecological Observatory Network). This is partly because it is no small task to integrate the disparate training, project planning, data curation, and analyses implemented in floristic botany and ecology [71][72][73]. Thus, cross-disciplinary partnerships across non-profit, governmental, and academic institutions are key.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Combining botanical collections and ecological data to better describe plant community diversity

2021

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In this age of rapid biodiversity loss, we must continue to refine our approaches to describing variation in life on Earth. Combining knowledge and research tools from multiple disciplines is one way to better describe complex natural systems. Understanding plant community diversity requires documenting both pattern and process. We must first know which species exist, and where (i.e., taxonomic and biogeographic patterns), before we can determine why they exist there (i.e., ecological and evolutionary processes). Floristic botanists often use collections-based approaches to elucidate biodiversity patterns, while plant ecologists use hypothesis-driven statistical approaches to describe underlying processes. Because of these different disciplinary histories and research goals, floristic botanists and plant ecologists often remain siloed in their work. Here, using a case study from an urban greenway in Colorado, USA, we illustrate that the collections-based, opportunistic sampling of floristic botanists is highly complementary to the transect- or plot-based sampling of plant ecologists. We found that floristic sampling captured a community species pool four times larger than that captured using ecological transects, with rarefaction and non-parametric species estimation indicating that it would be prohibitive to capture the “true” community species pool if constrained to sampling within transects. We further illustrate that the discrepancy in species pool size between approaches led to a different interpretation of the greenway’s ecological condition in some cases (e.g., transects missed uncommon cultivated species escaping from nearby gardens) but not others (e.g., plant species distributions among functional groups were similar between species pools). Finally, we show that while using transects to estimate plant relative abundances necessarily trades off with a fuller assessment of the species pool, it is an indispensable indicator of ecosystem health, as evidenced by three non-native grasses contributing to 50% of plant cover along the highly modified urban greenway. We suggest that actively fostering collaborations between floristic botanists and ecologists can create new insights into the maintenance of species diversity at the community scale.

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“…Some studies did use the measure over broader, near-continental extents (Yang et al 2015;Poisot et al 2017;Taranu, Pinel-Alloul, and Legendre 2020), but the total number of sites in these studies were relatively small (maximum 51 sites). Recent studies also investigated LCBD and beta diversity on sites distributed in contiguous grids or as pixels, hence uniform sampling intervals and no spatial gaps, but these did not cover large extents and a high number of sites (up to 1250 sites and 6 km 2 , Tan et al 2017Tan et al , 2019Legendre and Condit 2019;D'Antraccoli et al 2020). Two recent studies have, however, adopted promising predictive approaches on regional extents.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating ecological uniqueness over broad spatial extents using species distribution modelling

Dansereau

Legendre

Poisot

2022

Oikos

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Aim: Local contributions to beta diversity (LCBD) can be used to identify sites with high ecological uniqueness and exceptional species composition within a region of interest. Yet, these indices are typically used on local or regional scales with relatively few sites, as they require information on complete community compositions difficult to acquire on larger scales. Here, we investigated how LCBD indices can be predicted over broad spatial extents using species distribution modelling and citizen science data and examined the effect of scale changes on beta diversity quantification.Location: North America. Time period: 2000s.Major taxa studied: Parulidae. Methods: We used Bayesian additive regression trees (BARTs) to predict warbler species distributions in North America based on observations recorded in the eBird database. We then calculated LCBD indices for observed and predicted data and examined the sitewise difference using direct comparison, a spatial association test, and generalized linear regression. We also investigated the relationship between LCBD values and species richness in different regions and at various spatial extents and the effect of the proportion of rare species on the relationship.Results: Our results showed that the relationship between richness and LCBD values varies according to the region and the spatial extent at which it is applied. It is also affected by the proportion of rare species in the community. Species distribution models provided uniqueness estimates highly correlated with observed data with a statistically significant spatial association Main conclusions: Sites identified as unique over broad spatial extents may vary according to the regional richness, total extent size, and the proportion of rare species. Species distribution modelling can be used to predict ecological uniqueness over broad spatial extents, which could help identify beta diversity hotspots and important targets for conservation purposes in unsampled locations.

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More species, less effort: Designing and comparing sampling strategies to draft optimised floristic inventories

Cited by 14 publications

References 71 publications

Selection of sampling sites for biodiversity inventory: Effects of environmental and geographical considerations

Selection of sampling sites for biodiversity inventory: Effects of environmental and geographical considerations

Combining botanical collections and ecological data to better describe plant community diversity

Evaluating ecological uniqueness over broad spatial extents using species distribution modelling

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