Estimating species richness: still a long way off! |
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| Authors: | Alessandro Chiarucci |
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| Institution: | BIOCONNET, BIOdiversity and CONservation NETwork, Department of Environmental Science ‘G. Sarfatti’, University of Siena, , 53100 Siena, Italy |
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| Abstract: | Xu et al., in this issue of the Journal of Vegetation Science, compare several species richness estimators. All the non‐parametric estimators, such as Chao and jackknife estimators, underestimated the true number, whereas all the area‐based models, based on species–area curves, overestimated it. No reliable method yet exists to predict the number of species in an area that is appreciably larger than the one(s) sampled. |
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