title: An approach to detecting species diversity of microfaunas in colonization surveys for marine bioassessment based on rarefaction curves.
abstract: The objective of this study was to measure α-, β- and γ-diversity of microfaunas with different ages in colonization surveys using rarefaction-modeling methods. A dataset was complied based on a microperiphyton survey in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, near Qingdao. The analyses showed that: (1) there was a strong residual influence of sampling effort on β- and γ-diversity after rarefaction, especially for the young communities; (2) the rarefaction curves were well fitted to the Michaelis-Menten equation, and allow modeling and removing the residual influence of sampling effort on β- and γ-diversity; and (3) the estimated values of α-, β- and γ-diversity of a community based on the rarefaction-modeling method were independent of the influence of sampling effort. The results suggest that this approach may be used as a feasible tool to detect α-, β- and γ-diversity without the influence of sampling effort in microfauna colonization surveys for marine bioassessment.
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Guangjian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: College of Fisheries, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoxiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Zhong
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China.
authors.forename: Yangfan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Marine Life Science, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266003, China. Electronic address: henglongxu@126.com.
authors.forename: Henglong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xu
mesh_terms: D059001:Aquatic Organisms / Q000502:physiology; D044822:Biodiversity; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D008954:Models, Biological; D012623:Seawater
keywords: Microfauna; Modeling; Rarefaction curves; Sampling effort; Species diversity