Inferring neutral biodiversity parameters using environmental DNA data sets.

ABSTRACT: The DNA present in the environment is a unique and increasingly exploited source of information for conducting fast and standardized biodiversity assessments for any type of organisms. The datasets resulting from these surveys are however rarely compared to the quantitative predictions of biodiversity models. In this study, we simulate neutral taxa-abundance datasets, and artificially noise them by simulating noise terms typical of DNA-based biodiversity surveys. The resulting noised taxa abundances are used to assess whether the two parameters of Hubbell's neutral theory of biodiversity can still be estimated. We find that parameters can be inferred provided that PCR noise on taxa abundances does not exceed a certain threshold. However, inference is seriously biased by the presence of art

SUBMITTER: Sommeria-Klein G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5071827 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature