Estimating species relative abundances from museum records

Nicholas J. Gotelli; Douglas B. Booher; Mark C. Urban; Werner Ulrich; Andrew V. Suarez; David K. Skelly; David J. Russell; Rebecca J. Rowe; Matthew Rothendler; Nelson Rios; Sandra M. Rehan; George Ni; Corrie S. Moreau; Anne E. Magurran; Faith A. M. Jones; Gary R. Graves; Cristina Fiera; Ulrich Burkhardt; Richard B. Primack

doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13705

Estimating species relative abundances from museum records

Nicholas J. Gotelli, Douglas B. Booher, Mark C. Urban, Werner Ulrich, Andrew V. Suarez, David K. Skelly, David J. Russell, Rebecca J. Rowe, Matthew Rothendler, Nelson Rios, Sandra M. Rehan, George Ni, Corrie S. Moreau, Anne E. Magurran, Faith A. M. Jones, Gary R. Graves, Cristina Fiera, Ulrich Burkhardt, Richard B. Primack

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

1. Dated, geo-referenced museum specimens are a rich data source for reconstructing species' distribution and abundance patterns. However, museum records are potentially biased towards over-representation of rare species, and it is unclear whether museum records can be used to estimate relative abundance in the field.
2. We assembled 17 coupled field and museum datasets to quantitatively compare relative abundance estimates with the Dirichlet distribution. Collectively, these datasets comprise 73,039 museum records and 1,405,316 field observations of 2,240 species.
3. Although museum records of rare species overestimated relative abundance by 1-fold to over 100-fold (median study = 9.0), the relative abundance of species estimated from museum occurrence records was strongly correlated with relative abundance estimated from standardized field surveys (r² range of 0.10-0.91, median study = 0.43).
4. These analyses provide a justification for estimating species relative abundance with carefully curated museum occurrence records, which may allow for the detection of temporal or spatial shifts in the rank ordering of common and rare species.

Original language	English
Number of pages	13
Journal	Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Volume	Early View
Early online date	7 Sept 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13705
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 7 Sept 2021

Keywords

Biodiversity
Fishes
Invertebrates
Mammals
Museum records
Plants
Relative abundance

Access to Document

10.1111/2041-210X.13705Licence: CC BY-NC

Gotelli_2021_MEE_Estimating-species_CC
Copyright © 2021 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes.
Final published version, 1.88 MBLicence: CC BY-NC

Biodiversity change in the Athropocene: Darwin, Wallace, Bates and biodiversity change in the Athropocene
Magurran, A. (PI)
The Leverhulme Trust
1/04/20 → 31/03/23
Project: Standard

GotelliLab/FAMA: PublishedVersion
Magurran, A. (Creator) & Jones, F. A. (Creator), Zenodo, 10 Aug 2021
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.5177166
Dataset

Cite this

Gotelli, N. J., Booher, D. B., Urban, M. C., Ulrich, W., Suarez, A. V., Skelly, D. K., Russell, D. J., Rowe, R. J., Rothendler, M., Rios, N., Rehan, S. M., Ni, G., Moreau, C. S., Magurran, A. E., Jones, F. A. M., Graves, G. R., Fiera, C., Burkhardt, U., & Primack, R. B. (2021). Estimating species relative abundances from museum records. Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Early View. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13705

@article{cee0f8f733ff4a3099ecf3dda9bc7409,

title = "Estimating species relative abundances from museum records",

abstract = "1. Dated, geo-referenced museum specimens are a rich data source for reconstructing species' distribution and abundance patterns. However, museum records are potentially biased towards over-representation of rare species, and it is unclear whether museum records can be used to estimate relative abundance in the field. 2. We assembled 17 coupled field and museum datasets to quantitatively compare relative abundance estimates with the Dirichlet distribution. Collectively, these datasets comprise 73,039 museum records and 1,405,316 field observations of 2,240 species. 3. Although museum records of rare species overestimated relative abundance by 1-fold to over 100-fold (median study = 9.0), the relative abundance of species estimated from museum occurrence records was strongly correlated with relative abundance estimated from standardized field surveys (r2 range of 0.10-0.91, median study = 0.43). 4. These analyses provide a justification for estimating species relative abundance with carefully curated museum occurrence records, which may allow for the detection of temporal or spatial shifts in the rank ordering of common and rare species.",

keywords = "Biodiversity, Fishes, Invertebrates, Mammals, Museum records, Plants, Relative abundance",

author = "Gotelli, {Nicholas J.} and Booher, {Douglas B.} and Urban, {Mark C.} and Werner Ulrich and Suarez, {Andrew V.} and Skelly, {David K.} and Russell, {David J.} and Rowe, {Rebecca J.} and Matthew Rothendler and Nelson Rios and Rehan, {Sandra M.} and George Ni and Moreau, {Corrie S.} and Magurran, {Anne E.} and Jones, {Faith A. M.} and Graves, {Gary R.} and Cristina Fiera and Ulrich Burkhardt and Primack, {Richard B.}",

note = "Funding: C.F., U.B. and D.J.R. acknowledge COST Action {\textquoteleft}European Soil-Biology Data Warehouse for Soil Protection{\textquoteright} (EUdaphobase), CA18237, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). AEM thanks the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2019-401). D.B.B. was supported by an NSF Postdoc Research Fellowship in Biology (NSF 000733206), S.M.R. was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant Author Contributions, A.V.S. was supported by NSF 1755336, C.S.M was supported by NSF 1398620 and N.J.G was supported by NSF 2019470.",

year = "2021",

month = sep,

day = "7",

doi = "10.1111/2041-210X.13705",

language = "English",

volume = "Early View",

journal = "Methods in Ecology and Evolution",

issn = "2041-210X",

publisher = "John Wiley & Sons, Ltd",

}

Gotelli, NJ, Booher, DB, Urban, MC, Ulrich, W, Suarez, AV, Skelly, DK, Russell, DJ, Rowe, RJ, Rothendler, M, Rios, N, Rehan, SM, Ni, G, Moreau, CS, Magurran, AE, Jones, FAM, Graves, GR, Fiera, C, Burkhardt, U & Primack, RB 2021, 'Estimating species relative abundances from museum records', Methods in Ecology and Evolution, vol. Early View. https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.13705

TY - JOUR

T1 - Estimating species relative abundances from museum records

AU - Gotelli, Nicholas J.

AU - Booher, Douglas B.

AU - Urban, Mark C.

AU - Ulrich, Werner

AU - Suarez, Andrew V.

AU - Skelly, David K.

AU - Russell, David J.

AU - Rowe, Rebecca J.

AU - Rothendler, Matthew

AU - Rios, Nelson

AU - Rehan, Sandra M.

AU - Ni, George

AU - Moreau, Corrie S.

AU - Magurran, Anne E.

AU - Jones, Faith A. M.

AU - Graves, Gary R.

AU - Fiera, Cristina

AU - Burkhardt, Ulrich

AU - Primack, Richard B.

N1 - Funding: C.F., U.B. and D.J.R. acknowledge COST Action ‘European Soil-Biology Data Warehouse for Soil Protection’ (EUdaphobase), CA18237, supported by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology). AEM thanks the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2019-401). D.B.B. was supported by an NSF Postdoc Research Fellowship in Biology (NSF 000733206), S.M.R. was supported by an NSERC Discovery Grant Author Contributions, A.V.S. was supported by NSF 1755336, C.S.M was supported by NSF 1398620 and N.J.G was supported by NSF 2019470.

PY - 2021/9/7

Y1 - 2021/9/7

N2 - 1. Dated, geo-referenced museum specimens are a rich data source for reconstructing species' distribution and abundance patterns. However, museum records are potentially biased towards over-representation of rare species, and it is unclear whether museum records can be used to estimate relative abundance in the field. 2. We assembled 17 coupled field and museum datasets to quantitatively compare relative abundance estimates with the Dirichlet distribution. Collectively, these datasets comprise 73,039 museum records and 1,405,316 field observations of 2,240 species. 3. Although museum records of rare species overestimated relative abundance by 1-fold to over 100-fold (median study = 9.0), the relative abundance of species estimated from museum occurrence records was strongly correlated with relative abundance estimated from standardized field surveys (r2 range of 0.10-0.91, median study = 0.43). 4. These analyses provide a justification for estimating species relative abundance with carefully curated museum occurrence records, which may allow for the detection of temporal or spatial shifts in the rank ordering of common and rare species.

AB - 1. Dated, geo-referenced museum specimens are a rich data source for reconstructing species' distribution and abundance patterns. However, museum records are potentially biased towards over-representation of rare species, and it is unclear whether museum records can be used to estimate relative abundance in the field. 2. We assembled 17 coupled field and museum datasets to quantitatively compare relative abundance estimates with the Dirichlet distribution. Collectively, these datasets comprise 73,039 museum records and 1,405,316 field observations of 2,240 species. 3. Although museum records of rare species overestimated relative abundance by 1-fold to over 100-fold (median study = 9.0), the relative abundance of species estimated from museum occurrence records was strongly correlated with relative abundance estimated from standardized field surveys (r2 range of 0.10-0.91, median study = 0.43). 4. These analyses provide a justification for estimating species relative abundance with carefully curated museum occurrence records, which may allow for the detection of temporal or spatial shifts in the rank ordering of common and rare species.

KW - Biodiversity

KW - Fishes

KW - Invertebrates

KW - Mammals

KW - Museum records

KW - Plants

KW - Relative abundance

U2 - 10.1111/2041-210X.13705

DO - 10.1111/2041-210X.13705

M3 - Article

SN - 2041-210X

VL - Early View

JO - Methods in Ecology and Evolution

JF - Methods in Ecology and Evolution

ER -

Estimating species relative abundances from museum records

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Fingerprint

Projects

Biodiversity change in the Athropocene: Darwin, Wallace, Bates and biodiversity change in the Athropocene

Datasets

GotelliLab/FAMA: PublishedVersion

Cite this