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Integrating data from different taxonomic resolutions to better estimate community alpha diversity
  • +2
  • Kwaku Adjei,
  • Claire Carvell,
  • Nick Isaac,
  • Francesca Mancini,
  • Robert O'Hara
Kwaku Adjei
Norwegian University of Science and Technology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Claire Carvell
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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Nick Isaac
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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Francesca Mancini
UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology
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Robert O'Hara
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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Abstract

Integrated distribution models (IDMs), in which datasets with different properties are analysed together, are becoming widely used to model species distributions and abundance in space and time. To date, the IDM literature has focused on technical and statistical issues, such as the precision of parameter estimates and mitigation of biases arising from unstructured data sources. However, IDMs have an unrealised potential to estimate ecological properties that could not be derived from the source datasets if analysed separately. We present a model that estimates community alpha diversity metrics by integrating one species-level dataset of presence-absence records with a co-located dataset of group-level counts (i.e. lacking information about species identity). We illustrate the ability of IDMs to capture the true community alpha diversity through simulation studies and apply the model to data from the UK Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, to describe spatial variation in the diversity of solitary bees, bumblebees and hoverflies. The simulation and case studies showed that the proposed IDM produced more precise estimates of the community diversity than the single models, and the analysis of the real dataset further showed that the alpha diversity estimates from the IDM were averages of the single models. Our findings also revealed that IDMs had a higher prediction accuracy for all the insect groups in most cases, with this performance linked to the information provided by a data source into the IDM.
24 Oct 2023Submitted to Ecography
25 Oct 2023Submission Checks Completed
25 Oct 2023Assigned to Editor
25 Oct 2023Review(s) Completed, Editorial Evaluation Pending
28 Oct 2023Reviewer(s) Assigned
20 Nov 2023Editorial Decision: Revise Minor