Trevelin Leonardo Carreira, Simões Matheus Henrique, Prous Xavier, Pietrobon Thadeu, Brandi Iuri Viana, Jaffé Rodolfo
Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, Instituto Tecnológico Vale, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Environmental Licensing and Speleology, Vale S.A., Nova Lima, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
PeerJ. 2021 Apr 16;9:e11271. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11271. eCollection 2021.
Understanding the factors underpinning species abundance patterns in space and time is essential to implement effective cave conservation actions. Yet, the methods employed to monitor cave biodiversity still lack standardization, and no quantitative assessment has yet tried to optimize the amount and type of information required to efficiently identify disturbances in cave ecosystems. Using a comprehensive monitoring dataset for tropical iron caves, comprising abundance measurements for 33 target taxa surveyed across 95 caves along four years, here we provide the first evidence-based recommendations to optimize monitoring programs seeking to follow target species abundance through time. We found that seasonality did not influence the ability to detect temporal abundance trends. However, in most species, abundance estimates assessed during the dry season resulted in a more accurate detection of temporal abundance trends, and at least three surveys were required to identify global temporal abundance trends. Finally, we identified a subset of species that could potentially serve as short-term disturbance indicators. Results suggest that iron cave monitoring programs implemented in our study region could focus sampling efforts in the dry season, where detectability of target species is higher, while assuring data collection for at least three years. More generally, our study reveals the importance of long-term cave monitoring programs for detecting possible disturbances in subterranean ecosystems, and for using the generated information to optimize future monitoring efforts.
了解支撑物种在空间和时间上丰富度模式的因素对于实施有效的洞穴保护行动至关重要。然而，用于监测洞穴生物多样性的方法仍缺乏标准化，且尚未有定量评估尝试优化有效识别洞穴生态系统干扰所需的信息数量和类型。利用一个针对热带铁洞穴的综合监测数据集，该数据集包含了在四年时间里对95个洞穴中33个目标分类群的丰度测量，在此我们提供了首个基于证据的建议，以优化旨在随时间跟踪目标物种丰度的监测计划。我们发现季节性并不影响检测时间丰度趋势的能力。然而，在大多数物种中，旱季评估的丰度估计导致对时间丰度趋势的检测更准确，并且至少需要三次调查才能识别全球时间丰度趋势。最后，我们确定了一个可能作为短期干扰指标的物种子集。结果表明，在我们研究区域实施的铁洞穴监测计划可以将采样工作集中在旱季，此时目标物种的可检测性更高，同时确保至少三年的数据收集。更普遍地说，我们的研究揭示了长期洞穴监测计划对于检测地下生态系统中可能的干扰以及利用所生成的信息优化未来监测工作的重要性。
