Assessment of methods to estimate aquatic macrophyte species richness in extrapolated sample sizes

Abstract

We evaluated six methods to estimate species richness in extrapolated sample size using presence–absence data for aquatic macrophyte assemblages. Methods suitable for assemblages involving terrestrial and non-clonal (unitary) organisms may not be valid for aquatic macrophytes. The extrapolation of a species accumulation curve using a logarithmic function or using a linear model on the log of accumulated sampling units consistently overestimated species richness. The newly proposed Total-Species method gave similar results. The Negative Binomial and Logarithmic Series methods and the recently proposed Binomial Mixture Model were unbiased and accurate. We conclude that current extrapolation techniques are valid for estimation of species richness in macrophyte assemblages, and recommend the Logarithmic Series, Binomial Negative or Binomial Mixture Model methods.