Regressions of Length and Width to Predict Arthropod Biomass in the Hawaiian Islands
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2003-07
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University of Hawai'i Press
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Abstract
Biologists in many fields use published regression equations to predict
biomass from simple linear body measurements. Power functions are used with
arthropods, facilitating biomass estimation of a sample when destructive techniques
are not feasible. Resulting predictive coefficients vary widely depending
on region and taxa. There are no published biomass regressions for oceanic
island fauna, despite the widely accepted conclusion that their arthropod assemblages
are unusual in composition. I present a suite of general and taxonomically
and morphologically restricted regression equations developed for
arthropods in the Hawaiian Islands. General regression equations were highly
significant when only length was used to predict biomass, but fits were usually
improved by including body width. In regressing restricted sets of taxa, the addition
of width did little to improve the fit of the functions. Thus, the choice of
regression equations involves a trade-off in taxonomic resolution: precise biomass
estimates will come either from (1) low taxonomic resolution measured for
both length and width, or (2) high taxonomic resolution measured only for body
length. These equations have a high predictive capacity for a broad range of
arthropod taxa common in the Hawaiian Islands and, in the absence of locally
developed equations, the arthropods of other oceanic islands.
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Gruner DS. 2003. Regressions of length and width to predict arthropod biomass in the Hawaiian Islands. Pac Sci 57(3): 325-336.
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