2026-07-16
Comparing species accumulation within taxonomically well‐ and poorly resolved insect groups over 37 years
Publication
Publication
Insect Conservation and Diversity , Volume 2026
- While long-term datasets are invaluable for tracking changes in abundance and spe-cies richness, they may still fail to fully capture the diversity of taxonomically unre-solved groups, such as many insect taxa.
- Here, we used a unique 37-year (1969–2006) freshwater macroinvertebrate timeseries, collected over seven sites in central Germany, to study biodiversity patternsand species accumulation over time. Focusing on taxonomically well-resolved insectgroups (Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera [EPT]) versus poorly resolved “darktaxa” (Diptera), we hypothesized that accumulation curves would saturate only inwell-resolved groups.
- Over the study period, Diptera showed a continuous rise in both abundance andspecies richness, with accumulation curves not yet reaching a plateau.
- In contrast, EPT richness increased with no overall abundance changes, and theiraccumulation curves reached a plateau despite considerably more sampled individ-uals compared to Diptera.
- Our findings reveal a critical blind spot in biodiversity monitoring: highly diverse yetpoorly resolved groups like Diptera remain underrepresented, even in very long,high-resolution time-series.
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| doi.org/10.1111/icad.70112 | |
| Insect Conservation and Diversity | |
| Organisation | Staff publications |
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Baker, Nathan Jay, Jourdan, Jonas, Pilotto, Francesca, Wagner, Rüdiger, Awad, J., Caruso, Valerio, Chimeno, Caroline, Höcherl, Amelie, Ivković, Marija, Moser, Marina& Baranov, Viktor. (2026). Comparing species accumulation within taxonomically well‐ and poorly resolved insect groups over 37 years. Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2026.https://doi.org/10.1111/icad.70112 |
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