Author/Editor		Culver, David C; Christman, Mary C; Sket, Boris; Trontelj, Peter
Title		Sampling adequacy in an extreme environment: species richness patterns in Slovenian caves
Type		članek
Source		Biodivers Conserv
Vol. and No.		Letnik 13
Publication year		2004
Volume		str. 1209-29
Language		eng
Abstract		Caves harbor a rich fauna unique to subterranean environments. Although extensive records of cave animals are available, only a small fraction of known caves in any region have been biologically assessed. We investigated the impact of incomplete sampling using one of the richest, best documented cave faunas in the world-that of the Dinaric karst of Slovenia. We utilized time snapshots (1940, 1970, and 2000) of the caves and cave fauna to analyze stability of hotspots, spatial pattern, and relationship between number of species and number of caves. Using data aggregated into 100 km2 hexagons, the location of hotspots, black-white joins, Moran's I, and spatial autocorrelation all remained constant, at least from 1970 on. The linear regression coefftcient of the relationship between number of caves and number of species declined with time. Most hexagons had been sampled, but there was no indication that any hexagon had been sampled intensively enough for the accumulation curve of number of caves versus number of species within a hexagon to reach an asymptote. This appeared to be the result of a highly skewed distribution of species richness among caves. Number and position of hotspots can be predicted from information on these few high diversity caves.
Descriptors		ECOSYSTEM POPULATION DYNAMICS ANIMALS SAMPLE SIZE SPECIMEN HANDLING LINEAR MODELS SLOVENIA