Abstract
As a less time-consuming procedure, subsampling technology has been widely used in biological monitoring and assessment programs. It is clear that subsampling counts affect the value of traditional biodiversity indices, but its effect on taxonomic distinctness (TD) indices is less well studied. Here, we examined the responses of traditional (species richness, Shannon-Wiener diversity) and TD (average taxonomic distinctness: Δ +, and variation in taxonomic distinctness: Λ + ) indices to subsample counts using a random subsampling procedure from 50 to 400 individuals, based on macroinvertebrate datasets from three different river systems in China. At regional scale, taxa richness asymptotically increased with fixed-count size; ≥250–300 individuals to express 95% information of the raw data. In contrast, TD indices were less sensitive to the subsampling procedure. At local scale, TD indices were more stable and had less deviation than species richness and Shannon-Wiener index, even at low subsample counts, with ≥100 individuals needed to estimate 95% of the information of the actual Δ + and Λ + in the three river basins. We also found that abundance had a certain effect on diversity indices during the subsampling procedure, with different subsampling counts for species richness and TD indices varying by regions. Therefore, we suggest that TD indices are suitable for biodiversity assessment and environment monitoring. Meanwhile, pilot analyses are necessary when to determine the appropriate subsample counts for bioassessment in a new region or habitat type.
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Acknowledgement
The authors are greatly indebted to Drs. HUANG Zhenli, TANG Tao, LU Yajing, CHU Zhenhao, GUO Shuhan, WANG Zhuo, REN Jiaying for their helps in the field sampling in CR.
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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 31400469, 41571495, 31770460), the National Science and Technology Basic Research Program (No. 2015FY110400-4), the China Three Gorges Corporation Research Project (No. JGJ/0272015), the Key Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Comprehensive Assessment Technology of River Ecology and Environment for the Water Source Region of “South-to- North Water Diversion Central Route”), and the Program for Biodiversity Protection (No. 2017HB2096001006)
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Wang, J., Li, Z., Song, Z. et al. Responses of different biodiversity indices to subsampling efforts in lotic macroinvertebrate assemblages. J. Ocean. Limnol. 37, 122–133 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-7339-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00343-019-7339-2