Inferring Total Species Richness and the Exhaustive Hierarchical Structuring of Species Abundances in Tropical Sea-stars Communities (Asteroidea), Using Numerical Extrapolation of Partial Inventories

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25
Author(s):  
Jean Béguinot
Author(s):  
Jean Béguinot

The role of coral reef architecture on species richness and the internal structuration of the associated fish communities has already been addressed several times. The reported results, however, usually remain controversial, possibly because they are based upon incomplete field data issued from partial inventories. Indeed, incomplete samplings are almost unavoidable in practice with such species-rich communities having very uneven distribution of abundances. In this context, the numerical extrapolation of incompletely sampled communities may serve as a reliable surrogate. Accordingly, numerical extrapolations were implemented, here, to compare two fish-communities respectively associated to coral reefs that sharply differ from each-other by their topographic architectures. Both a higher total species richness and a sharper unevenness of species abundances were found to characterize the fish community associated to the more tormented reef habitat exhibiting the more complex architecture. Yet, paradoxically, the true intensity of the underlying process of hierarchical structuring of abundances proves being insensitive to the architecture of coral habitats. This apparent opposition between the unevenness pattern and the underlying structuring process results, in fact, from the additional negative dependence of abundance unevenness upon species richness.


Author(s):  
Jean Béguinot

The internal organization of reef-fish communities, particularly the species richness and the hierarchical structuring of species abundances, depends on many environmental factors, including fishing intensity and proportion of macroalgal cover which are expected to have determinant influences. However, reported studies on this topic are generally based on incomplete samplings (almost unavoidable in practice when dealing with highly uneven and species-rich communities), so that the derived results can be appreciably skewed. To overcome this difficulty, the incomplete samplings involved in this study were completed numerically through a reliable extrapolation procedure. This precaution provided a safe confirmation that reduced fishing activity and increased macroalgae cover both contribute to enhance the total species richness and to reduce the abundance unevenness in these reef fish communities.  Yet, it is shown that this reduction of abundance unevenness is almost entirely attributable to the increase in species richness.


Author(s):  
Kazi Kaimul Islam ◽  
Somchai Anusontpornperm ◽  
Irb Kheoruenromne ◽  
Suphicha Thanachit

The Distribution of Species Abundances within natural communities – when properly analysed – can provide essential information regarding general aspects of the internal organisation of these communities. In particular, true species richness on the one hand and the intensity of the process of hierarchical structuring of species abundances on the other hand may be estimated independently and, thereby, can provide truly complementary information. In turn, specific issues may thereby be addressed. For example, whether one unique dominant factor or numerous combined factors are involved in the structuring process of a community can be tested contradictorily. Although these methods are not new conceptually, their implementation in common practice remains scarce. The reason is that the relevant implementation of these methods requires to be sure that virtually all member-species in the community have been sampled. As exhaustive samplings often reveal difficult to achieve in practice, an appropriate, least-biased procedure of numerical extrapolation of incomplete inventories is imperatively required. Considering the steadily increasing threats to the environment and biodiversity, especially facing the on-going climatic change, time has come now with ever greater urgency to go beyond the apparent limits of non-exhaustive sampling and make the most of what is available in terms of recorded field data, whatever the degree of incompleteness of species inventories. As a modest and limited attempt to concretise this wish at the local level, I try, hereafter, to highlight the importance of additional information that may be unveiled  through adequate post-analysis of a set of eight frog communities, recently inventoried by Katwate, Apte & Raut in an amphibian hot-spot in the north-western Ghats of India. At last, the likely variations of both total species richness and the intensity of hierarchical structuring of species abundance are simulated as an answer to the steadily increasing influence of the ongoing climatic change.


Author(s):  
Jean Béguinot

Growing complexity of coral habitat is expected to increase resource partitioning among co-occurring reef fish and, thereby, reduce to some extent the mean competitive intensity. This will have associated consequences on the internal structuring of species in reef fish communities, in particular regarding species richness and evenness of species abundances. Accumulating dedicated case studies are necessary, however, to get further empirical confirmations. The present analysis aims to contribute in this respect, comparing reef fish communities associated to two coral-reef settings that markedly differ in their degree of morphological complexity, at Itaipu Sound, Brazil. As the available samplings of these communities remained incomplete, numerical extrapolations were implemented, thereby providing least-bias estimates for both total species richness and the exhaustive distribution of species abundances in both compared reef fish communities. As expected, total species richness increases with greater degree of coral habitat complexity, while the unevenness of species abundances decreases. This decrease in abundance unevenness – reflecting the corresponding relaxation of the mean level of competitive intensity – is partly due to the direct, negative influence of species richness on abundance unevenness, as an overall trend.  Beyond that, however, the relaxation is further strengthened by an additional “genuine” contribution – this time independent from the variation in species richness – and, as such, directly and idiosyncratically attached to the improvement in habitat complexity.


2008 ◽  
Vol 38 (7) ◽  
pp. 1807-1816 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Nordén ◽  
Frank Götmark ◽  
Martin Ryberg ◽  
Heidi Paltto ◽  
Johan Allmér

Partial cutting is increasingly applied in European temperate oak-dominated forests for biofuel harvesting, and to counteract succession in protected stands. Effects on biodiversity of these measures need to be carefully evaluated, and species-rich but neglected taxa such as fungi should be considered. We studied the effects of partial cutting on fungal fruiting bodies on woody debris. In 21 closed canopy forests rich in large oaks in Sweden, on average 25%–30% of the basal area was cut. Fruiting bodies were counted and some were collected in treated and control plots before and after treatment. We found 334 basidiomycete and 47 ascomycete species. Species richness of basidiomycetes declined significantly more in treated plots (on average 26%) than in control plots (on average 13%) between seasons. Species richness of ascomycetes increased by 17% in control plots and decreased by 2% in treated plots. Total species richness was significantly reduced on fine woody debris (1–10 cm in diameter), but not on coarse woody debris (>10 cm). Overall species composition did not change significantly as a result of partial cutting, but red-listed species tended to decrease more in treated plots. We suggest that approximately 30% of the stands should not be thinned, and dead stems and fallen branches should not be removed, to favor saproxylic fungi and their associated fauna.


2007 ◽  
Vol 50 (6) ◽  
pp. 1033-1042 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yzel Rondon Súarez ◽  
Sabrina Bigatão Valério ◽  
Karina Keyla Tondado ◽  
Alexandro Cezar Florentino ◽  
Thiago Rota Alves Felipe ◽  
...  

The influence of spatial, temporal and environmental factors on fish species diversity in headwater streams in Paraguay and Paraná basins, Brazil was examined. A total of 4,605 individuals were sampled, distributed in 60 species. The sampled streams in Paraná basin presented a larger total species richness (42) than Paraguay streams (40). However the estimated richness was larger in Paraguay basin (53) than Paraná streams (50). The streams of Paraná basin had a greater mean species richness and evenness, while more individuals per sample were found in the Paraguay basin. Difference between the sub-basins were found in the Paraguay basin, while for the basin of Paraná, richness and evenness vary significantly between the sub-basins, but the number of individuals varied seasonally. The most important environmental factors to species diversity and abundance were altitude, water temperature, stream width and stream depth for both the basins.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanya A. Petruff ◽  
Joseph R. McMillan ◽  
John J. Shepard ◽  
Theodore G. Andreadis ◽  
Philip M. Armstrong

Abstract Historical declines in multiple insect taxa have been documented across the globe in relation to landscape-level changes in land use and climate. However, declines have either not been universally observed in all regions or examined for all species. Because mosquitoes are insects of public health importance, we analyzed a longitudinal mosquito surveillance data set from Connecticut (CT), United States (U.S.) from 2001 to 2019 to identify changes in mosquito community composition over time. We first analyzed annual site-level collections and metrics of mosquito community composition with generalized linear/additive mixed effects models; we also examined annual species-level collections using the same tools. We then examined correlations between statewide collections and weather variables as well as site-level collections and land cover classifications. We found evidence that the average trap night collection of mosquitoes has increased by ~ 60% and statewide species richness has increased by ~ 10% since 2001. Total species richness was highest in the southern portion of CT, likely due to the northward range expansion of multiple species within the Aedes, Anopheles, Culex, and Psorophora genera. How the expansion of mosquito populations in the northeast U.S. will alter mosquito-borne pathogen transmission in the region will require further investigation.


2007 ◽  
Vol 144 (3) ◽  
pp. 465-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHRISTOPHER J. CLEAL

The South Wales Coalfield has the most complete Westphalian macrofloral record anywhere on the Variscan Foreland or adjacent basins, with 135 biodiversity-meaningful morphospecies having been recognized. All of the standard macrofloral biozones of the Westphalian Stage have been recognized, although a detailed comparison with the Central Pennines Coalfields has indicated some discrepancies in the relative positions of the biozonal boundaries. Total Species Richness progressively increases through the Langsettian Substage, and then remains relatively stable through most of the Duckmantian and Bolsovian substages. There is a distinct reduction in Total Species Richness towards the top of the Bolsovian Substage, but this partially recovers in the middle Asturian Substage with the appearance of a range of marattialean ferns, and medullosalean and callistophytaleans pteridosperms. There is no evidence of any significant drop in Total Species Richness towards the top of the succession, indicating that conditions at this time were relatively stable. The change from coastal floodplain to alluvial braidplain conditions in middle Bolsovian times correlates with a marked increase in the proportion of medullosalean remains being preserved in the adpression record, reflecting an expansion of the clastic-substrate habitats.


2019 ◽  
Vol 88 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard A. Huber ◽  
Anne Chao

Ratio-like approaches for estimating global species richness have been criticised for their unjustified extrapolation from regional to global patterns. Here we explore the use of cumulative percentages of ‘new’ (i.e., not formally described) species over large geographic areas (‘megatransects’) as a means to overcome this problem. In addition, we take into account undetected species and illustrate these combined methods by applying them to a family of spiders (Pholcidae) that currently contains some 1,700 described species. The raw global cumulative percentage of new species (‘new’ as of the end of 2008, when 1,001 species were formally described) is 75.1%, and is relatively constant across large biogeographic regions. Undetected species are estimated using the Chao2 estimator based on species incidence data (date by species and locality by species matrices). The estimated percentage of new species based on the date by species matrices is 76.0% with an estimated standard error (s.e.) of 2.6%. This leads to an estimated global species richness of about 4,200 with a 95% confidence interval of (3,300, 5,000). The corresponding values based on locality by species matrices are 84.2% (s.e. 3.0%) and 6,300 with a 95% confidence interval of (4,000, 8,600). Our results suggest that the currently known 1,700 species of Pholcidae may represent no more than about 25–40% of the total species richness. The impact of further biasing factors like geography, species size and distribution, cryptic species, and model assumptions needs to be explored.


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