Abstract
Checklists and atlases are important tools for knowledge of the biodiversity of a geographic unit. Nevertheless, they often suffer from bias due to preferential sampling. It is important to assess the level of completeness of the data collected during such research to allow comparison of the biodiversity of different areas, or to use them for macroecology, biogeography or conservation purposes. This assessment is not trivial, especially when information from heterogeneous sources is used (e.g., herbaria specimens, field observations, literature data). The author suggests some simple methods to assess the completeness of floristic database and to represent the distribution of the completeness at a scale level appropriate to the size of the studied area or, on another hand, to the precision level of the available data. Such information is useful to direct the surveys identifying less explored areas or habitats and thereby correcting the sampling biases. Adding information about sampling effort or completeness could be very useful to make floristic research more objective.
Publisher
Wildlife Information Liaison Development Society
Subject
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law,Nature and Landscape Conservation,Animal Science and Zoology,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics