Table 1 Summary of minimum requirements to represent lichens at three sampling extents (first column) on trees in the Avalon Forest Ecoregion on the island of Newfoundland.

From: Model systems to elucidate minimum requirements for protected areas networks

Sampling extent

Mean (±sd) species Richness

Mean (±sd) number of planning units per tree

Total species richness in across all trees

Number of trees to represent sampling extent

24 balsam fir (single stand)

18.75 (1.66)

4.76 (0.85)

37

5

21 balsam fir (ecoregion)

11.24 (2.60)

2.86 (1.04)

27

6

21 yellow birch (ecoregion)

9.29 (2.88)

2.52 (0.96)

31

6

  1. In the first case, we treat trees as the experimental replicate, which have varying species richness (second column) and we ask how many “planning units” (10 cm × 10 cm sampling blocks) are required to represent all species on each tree (third column). In the second case, we treat the stand/region as the experimental unit (no true replication) and examine how many individual trees (last column) are required to represent the gamma diversity (fourth column) in the stand/region.
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