Authors / CoAuthors
Mellin, C. | Delean, S. | Caley, M.J. | Dunstan, P. | Przeslawski, R.
Abstract
The use of biological surrogates as proxies for biodiversity patterns is gaining popularity, particularly in marine systems where field surveys can be expensive and species richness high. Yet uncertainty regarding their applicability remains because of inconsistency of definitions, a lack of standard methods for estimating effectiveness, and variable spatial scales of their application. We present a Bayesian meta-analysis of the effectiveness of biological surrogates in marine ecosystems. Surrogate effectiveness was defined both as the proportion of surrogacy tests where predictions based on surrogates were better than random (i.e., low probability of making a Type I error; P) and as the goodness-of-fit between targets and surrogates (R2). A total of 264 published surrogacy tests combined with prior probabilities elicited from eight international experts demonstrated that the habitat, spatial scale, type of surrogate and method used to construct it all influenced surrogate effectiveness, according to at least either P or R2. The type of surrogate used (higher-taxa, cross-taxa or subset taxa) was the best predictor of its effectiveness, with the higher-taxa type outperforming all others. Surrogate effectiveness was maximal for higher-taxa surrogates at a < 10-km spatial scale, in low-complexity marine ecosystems such as soft bottoms, and using multivariate-based methods. Our comparisons with terrestrial studies of biological surrogates reveal that marine applications of biological surrogates still ignore some problems with several widely used statistical approaches to surrogacy, provide a benchmark for the reliable use of biological surrogates in all ecosystems, and highlight directions for future development of biological surrogates in predicting biodiversity.
Product Type
nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
70639
Contact for the resource
Custodian
Point of contact
Cnr Jerrabomberra Ave and Hindmarsh Dr GPO Box 378
Canberra
ACT
2601
Australia
Keywords
-
- External Publication
- ( Theme )
-
- marine
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
- Earth Sciences
-
- Published_Internal
Publication Date
2010-06-28T00:00:00
Creation Date
Security Constraints
Legal Constraints
Status
Purpose
Maintenance Information
unknown
Topic Category
geoscientificInformation
Series Information
Lineage
Unknown
Parent Information
Extents
Reference System
Spatial Resolution
Service Information
Associations
Downloads and Links
Source Information
Source data not available.