Is it sufficient? Assessment of two sampling methods for urban plant species richness investigations

Abstract

Determining adequate sample size (ASS) and minimum plot size (MPS) are two fundamental issues in urban vegetation investigations. To estimate the ASS and MPS of urban plants, we introduced sampling completeness to the MPS calculation based on 54 samples in the urban area of Chongqing, China. Then, we examined the performance of the species-area curve method and CVJack1 (coefficient of variation (CV) for the first-order jackknife estimator (Jack1)) curve extrapolation method. We also tested the effectiveness and error distribution of extrapolating the ASS from CVJack1 curves using 180 samples from the urban area of Chongqing, China, and 222 samples from the urban area of Xiamen, China. The results of the urban plant analyses showed that (1) the constructed species-area accumulation curves fit a logistic function (R2 > 0.990); (2) the MPS increased with sampling completeness, whereas unrecorded species exhibited the opposite trend; (3) the CVJack1 curves fit the allometric1 function (R2 > 0.960) but might fail to reach a CV value of 0.05 for the calculation of ASS if the sample size was too small; and (4) the relative error values were below 5% when the error curves of extrapolation (by CVJack1 curve) approached a horizontal asymptote. The species-area accumulation curve with sampling completeness and the CVJack1 curve extrapolation method were promising approaches for determining the MPS and ASS of urban plants. The results and methods in this study provide a reference for determining the appropriate plot size and sample size for urban plant species richness investigations.