To obtain a reliable description of spider communities, robust sampling protocols are crucial. However, it remains unclear if descriptions of spider communities in tropical habitats require both day and night sampling. Here we tested whether sampling both day and night in high and low vegetation strata would lead to better diversity estimates of spider communities than sampling at only one period of the day. We determined spider taxonomic diversity in a network of 12 plots in French Guiana along a vegetation gradient. We found high alpha diversity of spiders as expected for a tropical area at every site. We showed strong differences in spider alpha and beta diversity between high and low vegetation strata, while they were similar between day and night sampling. Our results suggest that collecting spiders at only one period is sufficient to describe the diversity of spider communities across land use types in the neotropics.
How to translate text using browser tools
1 November 2015
Day-time vs. night-time sampling does not affect estimates of spider diversity across a land use gradient in the Neotropics
Vincent Vedel,
Axel Cerdan,
Quentin Martinez,
Christopher Baraloto,
Fréderic Petitclerc,
Jérôme Orivel,
Claire Fortunel
ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE
The Journal of Arachnology
Vol. 43 • No. 3
November 2015
Vol. 43 • No. 3
November 2015
Araneae
community
day
night
sampling protocol