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The use of coarser data is an effective strategy for biological assessments

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An Erratum to this article was published on 22 June 2016

Abstract

Ecological studies are usually based on species abundance data per sample. As a consequence, the research can be time-consuming and require a significant amount of financial resources to overcome uncertainties in taxonomic identifications and estimations of relative abundances. We assessed the use of genus-level data as a surrogate for species-level data in studies attempting to describe the beta-diversity patterns of several aquatic communities. Furthermore, we investigated whether presence–absence data is sufficient to describe ecological patterns and whether the spatial variation of rare species can also be described by genus-level data. We used data from five biological aquatic groups sampled over periods of up to 2 years in different sites of the Upper Paraná River floodplain. We found strong evidence that beta-diversity patterns in species-level data can be successfully described using genus-level and presence–absence data in all biological groups, although efficacy of using genus-level data as a surrogate for species-level may depend on the species:genus ratio. Moreover, communities with both taxonomic resolutions had similar responses to environmental variation. Our results indicate ecological studies in floodplains with different biological groups can benefit from strategy based on genus-level or presence–absence data to reduce cost and time.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to CNPq for financial support of the long-term ecological studies in the Upper Paraná River floodplain. We also thank NUPELIA group for gently giving us the data for the elaboration of this manuscript, L.M. Bini and two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions in the previous drafts of the manuscript, and J. A. Nienow for English assistance. A.A.P. acknowledges CNPq and CAPES for constant financial support.

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  1. Pós-graduação em Ecologia e Conservação, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Av. Coronel Francisco H. dos Santos, s/n, P.O. Box 19031, Curitiba, PR, CEP: 81531-990, Brazil

    Luiz Guilherme dos Santos Ribas & André Andrian Padial

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  1. Luiz Guilherme dos Santos Ribas
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Correspondence to André Andrian Padial.

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dos Santos Ribas, L.G., Padial, A.A. The use of coarser data is an effective strategy for biological assessments. Hydrobiologia 747, 83–95 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10750-014-2128-6

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