Arthropod Diversity in a Lowland Tropical Rainforest

作为一个热带组织与 研究（由45所美国哥斯达黎加大学和 国家生物多样性研究所（INBio，a Costa 这是一份生物多样性清单， 热带雨林的昆虫、蜘蛛和螨类将开始 La Selva，一种生物丰富和科学活性的生物 位于哥斯达黎加的大西洋低地的一个车站。 这 该项目的第一阶段旨在产生完整的，物种水平的 几个重点昆虫、蜘蛛和 螨类，包括雨林中一些最重要的类群 栖息地 这些清单将基于生态 结构化的、可重复的采样方法，以及更少的 结构补充收集。 一个必须更广泛的调查范围 每个小组包括一个焦点小组，将使用 结构化抽样技术。 统计方法将 探索估计昆虫，蜘蛛， 螨种在研究领域，使用完整的清单数据， 评估这些方法并校准 更广泛的调查组的物种数量。 采样设计 将允许评估人居署的贡献 植被结构种类、季节对总体种类的影响 富有 这些估计承诺提供最现实的 以及关于昆虫多样性的全面数据， 热带雨林的蜘蛛物种， 任何雨林螨类动物 这些群体或生物体， 代表了地球上所有的物种， 知之甚少。 样本将被纳入国家 生物多样性清单已经在INBio进行，从而将 在较大的地理和生物调查材料拉塞尔瓦 背景下，促进INBio对该材料的进一步研究 不断扩大的国际专家网络，并确保 标本的永久可及性。 该项目 旨在促进广泛的新合作途径 北美和哥斯达黎加科学家之间的联系

As a collaborative project between the Organization for Tropical Studies (a consortium of 45 U.S. Costa Rican universities and museums) and the National Biodiversity Institute (INBio, a Costa Rican nongovernmental organization), a biodiversity inventory of tropical rainforest insects, spiders, and mites will initiated for La Selva, a biotically rich and scientifically active biological station situated in the Atlantic lowlands of Costa Rica. This stage of the project aims to produce full, species-level inventories for several focal groups of insects, spiders, and mites, including some of the most important groups in rainforest habitats. These inventories will be based on ecologically structured, repeatable sampling methods, as well as on less- structure supplemental collecting. A must broader range of survey groups, each including a focal group, will be inventoried using the structured sampling techniques alone. Statistical methods will be explored for estimating the total number of insect, spider, and mite species in the study areas, using the full inventory data for the groups to evaluate these methods and to calibrate estimates of species number for the broader survey groups. The sampling design will permit evaluation of the contributions of habitat would type vegetation structure species, and season to overall species richness. These estimated promise to provide the most realistic and comprehensive data yet available on the diversity of insect and spider species of tropical rainforests, and diversity estimates for any rainforest mite fauna. These groups or organisms, while representing well overall the species on earth, are still among the most poorly known. Specimens will be integrated into the national biodiversity inventory already underway at INBio, thus placing the La Selva survey material in a larger geographical and biological context, promoting further study of this material by INBio's growing international network of specialists, and ensuring permanent accessibility of the specimens. The project is structured to promote extensive new avenues of collaboration between North American and Costa Rican scientists.