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A comparative analysis of butterfly richness detection capacity of Pollard transects and general microhabitat surveys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2012

Isabelle Létourneau ,
Maxim Larrivée  and
Antoine Morin
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Abstract

Assessing biodiversity is essential in conservation biology but the resources needed are often limited. Citizen science, by which volunteers gather data at low cost, represents a potential solution for the lack of resources if it produces usable data for scientific means. Scientific inventories for butterflies are often performed with a Pollard transect, a standardised surveying technique that generates high-quality data. General microhabitat surveys (GMSs) are potentially more appealing to amateurs participating in citizen science projects because they are less constrained. We compare estimates of butterfly species richness acquired by Pollard transects to those obtained by GMSs. We demonstrate that GMSs allow surveyors to detect more butterfly species and a more complete portrait of local butterfly assemblages for the same number of individuals captured.

Résumé

La quantification de la biodiversité est indispensable en biologie de la conservation mais les ressources nécessaires sont souvent limitées. La participation citoyenne à la science, par laquelle des bénévoles récoltent à peu de frais des données, représente une solution potentielle au manque de ressources si les techniques d'inventaires utilisées par les amateurs peuvent produire des données utilisables à des fins scientifiques. Les inventaires scientifiques de papillons sont généralement effectués avec des transects Pollard, un type d'inventaire standardisé générant des données d'excellente qualité. L'inventaire général des microhabitats n'est pas aussi contraignant et est potentiellement plus approprié pour les amateurs désirant s'impliquer dans des projets de participation citoyenne à la science. Nous comparons les estimés obtenus par des transects Pollard à ceux obtenus par des inventaires généraux des microhabitats afin d’évaluer leur capacité respective à mesurer la richesse spécifique en papillons. Nous démontrons que les inventaires généraux des microhabitats détectent plus d'espèces de papillons et produisent un portrait plus complet de la richesse locale des assemblages de papillons que le transect Pollard pour le même nombre de captures.

Type
Original Article
Information
The Canadian Entomologist , Volume 144 , Issue 5 , October 2012 , pp. 727 - 731
Copyright
Copyright © Entomological Society of Canada 2012

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