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MEPS 284:1-8 (2004)

Abstract

Estimation of species richness: analysis of the methods developed by Chao and Karakassis

Karl I. Ugland, John S. Gray*

Section of Marine Biodiversity, Department of Biology, University of Oslo, Pb 1066 Blindern, 316 Oslo, Norway

*Corresponding author. Email: j.s.gray@bio.uio.no

ABSTRACT: The number of studies on marine biological diversity is increasing rapidly. One of the primary goals of such studies is to estimate how many species occur in a given area. Both parametric and non-parametric methods have been developed to make such estimates. Here, we examine 2 categories of methods: one proposed by Chao (1984) Scand J Statist 11:265–270 and one by Karakassis (1995) Mar Ecol Prog Ser 120:299–303. Foggo et al. (2003) Mar Ecol Prog Ser 248:15–26 recently compared these methods. By examining the bases for the methods, we show that both give large underestimates of the likely number of species in a given area, and an alternative solution is suggested.

KEY WORDS: Species richness · Extrapolation · Accumulation · Large samples · Sampling effort

Full text in pdf format

Published in MEPS Vol. 284 (2004) on December 21
Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599. Copyright © Inter-Research, Oldendorf/Luhe, 2004

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