Species diversity of freshwater decapod crustaceans (crabs and shrimps) from Colombia

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to characterize the species diversity of freshwater decapod crustaceans (crabs and shrimps) from Colombia by using a dataset containing 964 digitized records and 13 881 specimens collected between 1910 and 2016, information that has been assembled with data from 21 museums and other institutions worldwide. The characterization of species diversity is based on the estimation of relative abundance of species and it is calculated in three separate analyses in which the data were partitioned as follows: (a) by decapod families (six in Colombia) (b) the unpartitioned dataset of all 139 Colombian species and (c) by the five biogeographic regions in the country. In each case, Campos & Isaza’s species diversity index and the Shannon entropy index were calculated. The calculations performed here also allowed the identification of predominant species and those that are least represented in collections and might therefore be at greater risk of extinction.