Estimating sample representativeness in a survey of stream caddisfly fauna

¹ Plant Protection Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-1525 Budapest, POB. 102, Hungary
² Balaton Limnological Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, H-8237 Tihany, Klebelsberg Kuno u. 3, Hungary

Corresponding author: schmera@julia-nki.hu

Abstract

Obtaining an adequate and representative sample is a continuing challenge of community ecology. The present study focuses on what sample area represents adequately the structural composition of the caddisfly fauna of a riffle, at a given sampling occasion. Sixty-two Surber samples were collected from a riffle in a second-order reach of the Bernecei Stream (Börzsöny Mountains, Hungary). This data set was used to estimate sample representativeness at different sample sizes (from 1 to 31 Surber samples, 0.09 m² - 2.79 m²) generated a re-sampling procedure. Sample representativeness was measured with mean Jaccard Coefficient and Bray-Curtis Index between samples for species presence-absence data and abundance data, respectively. We found that a sample size of 2.25 m² represented well (mean similarity 0.998) the species composition of the caddisfly fauna if rare species were excluded from the analysis. In contrast, sample representativeness of species composition proved to be relatively low (0.719) if rare species were included in the analysis. Curves of sample representativeness based on both raw-, or transformed abundance data were less sensitive to the presence of rare species and showed lower representativeness than sample representativeness based on presence/absence data.