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A technique for subsampling an abundant taxon while completely sorting other taxa 1
Author(s) -
Sherman K. M.,
Meeter D. A.,
Reidenauer J. A.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
limnology and oceanography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.7
H-Index - 197
eISSN - 1939-5590
pISSN - 0024-3590
DOI - 10.4319/lo.1984.29.2.0433
Subject(s) - taxon , sorting , nematode , statistics , sample (material) , mathematics , biology , quarter (canadian coin) , ecology , geography , algorithm , chemistry , chromatography , archaeology
A method is described which allows an abundant taxon (Nematoda) to be subsampled while rarer taxa are completely sampled. A triply balanced F ‐square design is used to choose a quarter of the sorting field for counting the nematodes. The technique showed no evidence of bias in estimating total numbers of nematodes, and a quarter subsample was accurate to within ±0.8% when there were > 200 nematodes in a sample. Estimates of the total number of nematodes in a sample were accurate to within ± 3.2% of their actual values. The technique gave subsamples of abundant nematode species which did not differ significantly from expectation.