Seining Effort Needed to Estimate Species Richness of Small Littoral Zone Fishes: A Simulation Study in Three Wyoming Reservoirs

Abstract

AbstractSeining is commonly used to determine species distributions and to estimate species richness of small fishes in littoral zones of lentic habitats. However, little guidance exists on the seining effort required to properly estimate species richness for lentic habitats. Our objective was to determine the seining effort needed to estimate species richness for three Wyoming reservoirs. We conducted a simulation study based on seining data collected from three reservoirs to define the sampling effort needed to estimate species richness. Eighteen to thirty‐eight seine hauls were needed to attain a 90% probability of detecting approximately 90% of the species present, and 42–66 seine hauls were needed to attain a 90% probability of detecting all of the species present. Seining appears to be an effective tool for estimating species richness in Wyoming reservoirs, even though considerable effort is required for precise estimates.