Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns?
Abstract While studying ecological patterns at large scales, ecologists are often unable to identify all collections, forcing them to either omit these unidentified records entirely, without knowing the effect of this, or pursue very costly and time‐consuming efforts for identifying them. These “ind...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2014-12-01
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| Series: | Ecology and Evolution |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1246 |
| _version_ | 1797742098108121088 |
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| author | Edwin Pos Juan Ernesto Guevara Andino Daniel Sabatier Jean‐François Molino Nigel Pitman Hugo Mogollón David Neill Carlos Cerón Gonzalo Rivas Anthony Di Fiore Raquel Thomas Milton Tirado Kenneth R. Young Ophelia Wang Rodrigo Sierra Roosevelt García‐Villacorta Roderick Zagt Walter Palacios Milton Aulestia Hans ter Steege |
| author_facet | Edwin Pos Juan Ernesto Guevara Andino Daniel Sabatier Jean‐François Molino Nigel Pitman Hugo Mogollón David Neill Carlos Cerón Gonzalo Rivas Anthony Di Fiore Raquel Thomas Milton Tirado Kenneth R. Young Ophelia Wang Rodrigo Sierra Roosevelt García‐Villacorta Roderick Zagt Walter Palacios Milton Aulestia Hans ter Steege |
| author_sort | Edwin Pos |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract While studying ecological patterns at large scales, ecologists are often unable to identify all collections, forcing them to either omit these unidentified records entirely, without knowing the effect of this, or pursue very costly and time‐consuming efforts for identifying them. These “indets” may be of critical importance, but as yet, their impact on the reliability of ecological analyses is poorly known. We investigated the consequence of omitting the unidentified records and provide an explanation for the results. We used three large‐scale independent datasets, (Guyana/ Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador) each consisting of records having been identified to a valid species name (identified morpho‐species – IMS) and a number of unidentified records (unidentified morpho‐species – UMS). A subset was created for each dataset containing only the IMS, which was compared with the complete dataset containing all morpho‐species (AMS: = IMS + UMS) for the following analyses: species diversity (Fisher's alpha), similarity of species composition, Mantel test and ordination (NMDS). In addition, we also simulated an even larger number of unidentified records for all three datasets and analyzed the agreement between similarities again with these simulated datasets. For all analyses, results were extremely similar when using the complete datasets or the truncated subsets. IMS predicted ≥91% of the variation in AMS in all tests/analyses. Even when simulating a larger fraction of UMS, IMS predicted the results for AMS rather well. Using only IMS also out‐performed using higher taxon data (genus‐level identification) for similarity analyses. Finding a high congruence for all analyses when using IMS rather than AMS suggests that patterns of similarity and composition are very robust. In other words, having a large number of unidentified species in a dataset may not affect our conclusions as much as is often thought. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:36:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-50d4bf1906c14267bb197654d6f8e537 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2045-7758 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T14:36:06Z |
| publishDate | 2014-12-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Ecology and Evolution |
| spelling | doaj.art-50d4bf1906c14267bb197654d6f8e5372023-08-17T06:29:14ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582014-12-014244626463610.1002/ece3.1246Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns?Edwin Pos0Juan Ernesto Guevara Andino1Daniel Sabatier2Jean‐François Molino3Nigel Pitman4Hugo Mogollón5David Neill6Carlos Cerón7Gonzalo Rivas8Anthony Di Fiore9Raquel Thomas10Milton Tirado11Kenneth R. Young12Ophelia Wang13Rodrigo Sierra14Roosevelt García‐Villacorta15Roderick Zagt16Walter Palacios17Milton Aulestia18Hans ter Steege19Ecology and Biodiversity Group Utrecht University Utrecht the NetherlandsDepartment of Integrative Biology University of California Berkeley California 94720‐3140IRD UMR AMAP Montpellier FranceIRD UMR AMAP Montpellier FranceThe Field Museum 1400 S. Lake Shore Drive Chicago Illinois 60605‐2496Endangered Species Coalition 8530 Geren Rd. Silver Spring Maryland 20901Universidad Estatal Amazónica Puyo EcuadorUniversidad Central Herbario Alfredo Paredes Escuela de Biología Herbario Alfredo Paredes Ap. Postal 17.01.2177 Quito EcuadorWildlife Ecology and Conservation & Quantitative Spatial Ecology University of Florida 110 Newins‐Ziegler Hall PO Box 110430 Gainesville FloridaDepartment of Anthropology University of Texas at Austin SAC 5.150 2201 Speedway Stop C3200 Austin Texas 78712Iwokrama International Programme for Rainforest Conservation Georgetown GuyanaGeoIS El Día 369 y El Telégrafo 3° Piso Quito EcuadorGeography and the Environment University of Texas Austin Texas 78712Northern Arizona University Flagstaff Arizona 86011GeoIS El Día 369 y El Telégrafo 3° Piso Quito EcuadorInstitute of Molecular Plant Sciences University of Edinburgh Mayfield Rd Edinburgh EH3 5LR UKTropenbos International Lawickse Allee 11 PO Box 232 Wageningen 6700 AE the NetherlandsUniversidad Técnica del Norte Herbario Nacional del Euador Quito EcuadorHerbario Nacional del Ecuador Casilla 17‐21‐1787 Avenida Río Coca E6‐115 Quito EcuadorEcology and Biodiversity Group Utrecht University Utrecht the NetherlandsAbstract While studying ecological patterns at large scales, ecologists are often unable to identify all collections, forcing them to either omit these unidentified records entirely, without knowing the effect of this, or pursue very costly and time‐consuming efforts for identifying them. These “indets” may be of critical importance, but as yet, their impact on the reliability of ecological analyses is poorly known. We investigated the consequence of omitting the unidentified records and provide an explanation for the results. We used three large‐scale independent datasets, (Guyana/ Suriname, French Guiana, Ecuador) each consisting of records having been identified to a valid species name (identified morpho‐species – IMS) and a number of unidentified records (unidentified morpho‐species – UMS). A subset was created for each dataset containing only the IMS, which was compared with the complete dataset containing all morpho‐species (AMS: = IMS + UMS) for the following analyses: species diversity (Fisher's alpha), similarity of species composition, Mantel test and ordination (NMDS). In addition, we also simulated an even larger number of unidentified records for all three datasets and analyzed the agreement between similarities again with these simulated datasets. For all analyses, results were extremely similar when using the complete datasets or the truncated subsets. IMS predicted ≥91% of the variation in AMS in all tests/analyses. Even when simulating a larger fraction of UMS, IMS predicted the results for AMS rather well. Using only IMS also out‐performed using higher taxon data (genus‐level identification) for similarity analyses. Finding a high congruence for all analyses when using IMS rather than AMS suggests that patterns of similarity and composition are very robust. In other words, having a large number of unidentified species in a dataset may not affect our conclusions as much as is often thought.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1246Beta‐diversityFisher's alphaindetslarge‐scale ecological patternsMantel testmorpho‐species |
| spellingShingle | Edwin Pos Juan Ernesto Guevara Andino Daniel Sabatier Jean‐François Molino Nigel Pitman Hugo Mogollón David Neill Carlos Cerón Gonzalo Rivas Anthony Di Fiore Raquel Thomas Milton Tirado Kenneth R. Young Ophelia Wang Rodrigo Sierra Roosevelt García‐Villacorta Roderick Zagt Walter Palacios Milton Aulestia Hans ter Steege Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? Ecology and Evolution Beta‐diversity Fisher's alpha indets large‐scale ecological patterns Mantel test morpho‐species |
| title | Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? |
| title_full | Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? |
| title_fullStr | Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? |
| title_short | Are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns? |
| title_sort | are all species necessary to reveal ecologically important patterns |
| topic | Beta‐diversity Fisher's alpha indets large‐scale ecological patterns Mantel test morpho‐species |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1246 |
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