Towards a conservation
oriented biodiversity rapid assessment of Mediterranean spiders |
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I'm developing a protocol that intends
to be a future reference for biodiversity assessment of arthropods. In
this first stage it's being developed for Iberian spiders and it will
hopefully be followed by many arachnologists in Portugal and Spain.
Since 2003 it's in the testing phase and it was already applied in
Parque Natural do Vale do Guadiana, Parque Natural da Arrábida and
Parque Nacional da Peneda Gerês, all in Portugal.
During this stage a series of methods, up to ten depending on the year,
are being tested. All of them with what we think to be a very high
effort, mostly inside a delimited 1ha area. This is done during eight to
ten days in a row and by eight to ten collectors, day and night, during
four to six one-hour periods per day. One sample is one period by one
collector. Such high effort should only be needed during the testing
stage.
The purpose is to know the average number of samples required to reach
pre-determined inventory completeness levels. Such levels will be used
to define a limited number of low to high-effort sub-protocols. These
protocols are futurely intended to be applied in the Iberian Peninsula
by researchers, students, or whoever must do standardized fieldwork.
Given that the protocol will be tested and optimized for any kind of
Mediterranean habitat, anyone applying it will be sure to have the most
spider species with least effort. Moreover, given that many people will
be performing it, all results will be comparable in a large scale!
The protocol should be ready to use by 2007. And by then, what will any
Iberian arachnologist have to loose if his purpose is either to do a
full biodiversity assessment of a large region or just a local
inventory? I would say, nothing. It's a win-win situation here. And why
not to apply the same principles for other taxa and/or regions?
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