Adapting mark-recapture methods to estimating accepted species-level diversity: a case study with terrestrial Gastropoda.

ABSTRACT: We introduce a new method of estimating accepted species diversity by adapting mark-recapture methods to comparisons of taxonomic databases. A taxonomic database should become more complete over time, so the error bar on an estimate of its completeness and the known diversity of the taxon it treats will decrease. Independent databases can be correlated, so we use the time course of estimates comparing them to understand the effect of correlation. If a later estimate is significantly larger than an earlier one, the databases are positively correlated, if it is significantly smaller, they are negatively correlated, and if the estimate remains roughly constant, then the correlations have averaged out. We tested this method by estimating how complete MolluscaBase is for accepted names of terre

SUBMITTER: Rosenberg G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9231345 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature