Estimating biodiversity

Abstract

The species richness and relative abundance of faunas in defined areas are the raw materials in biodiversity science. The research methodology to acquire these data is inventory, and inventory quality depends on a number of parameters, for example collecting methods, season, and collector experience. To assess the ability of rapid inventory techniques to estimate local richness seven collectors sampled the fauna of true bugs in the Ibera watershed (Corrientes, Argentina) with seven methods during early spring, summer, and late summer (December, May, September) of 1 year. Twenty-three families, 225 spp. and 4,678 adults were found. We also applied various statistical techniques to correct the observed data for undersampling bias, which suggested the lower bound of annual heteropteran species richness at Pellegrini was about 250–300 species. Among heteropteran families, the particular inventory methodology was especially efficient in sampling Miridae.