How close is an undiscovered species to you after conducting biodiversity sampling?

Abstract

Based on limited biodiversity data collected from a line transect, what is the minimal distance to find the first individual of a new species that has not been discovered in the original sample? Resolving this puzzle can be of practical value in ecological studies, for example, an assessment of sampling intensity for the purpose of discovering new species. In this study, we develop a simple estimator to predict the minimal distance of finding a single new species. Numerical and empirical tests verified the high predictive power of the proposed estimator.

Keywords

• Distance sampling
• Ecological surveys
• Biodiversity measure
• Statistical ecology
• Conservation planning