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. 2024 Apr 30;14(5):e11357.
doi: 10.1002/ece3.11357. eCollection 2024 May.

Shooting area of infrared camera traps affects recorded taxonomic richness and abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrates

Meixiang Gao  1   2 , Jiahuan Sun  1   2 , Yige Jiang  1   3 , Ye Zheng  4 , Tingyu Lu  5 , Jinwen Liu  6
Affiliations

Shooting area of infrared camera traps affects recorded taxonomic richness and abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrates

Meixiang Gao et al. Ecol Evol. .

Abstract

Ground-dwelling invertebrates are vital for soil biodiversity and function maintenance. Contemporary biodiversity assessment necessitates novel and automatic monitoring methods because of the threat of sharp reductions in soil biodiversity in farmlands worldwide. Using infrared camera traps (ICTs) is an effective method for assessing richness and abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrates. However, the influence that the shooting area of ICTs has on the diversity of ground-dwelling invertebrates has not been strongly considered during survey design. In this study, data from six ICTs with two shooting areas (A1, 38.48 cm2; A2, 400 cm2) were used to investigate ground-dwelling invertebrates in a farm in a city on the Eastern Coast of China from 20: 00 on July 31 to 00:00 on September 29, 2022. Over the course of 59 days and 1420 h, invertebrates within 9 taxa, 2447 individuals, and 112,909 ind./m2 were observed from 222,912 images. Our results show that ICTs with relatively large shooting areas recorded relatively high taxonomic richness and abundance of total ground-dwelling invertebrates, relatively high abundance of the dominant taxon, and relatively high daily and hourly abundance of most taxa. The shooting areas of ICTs significantly affected the recorded taxonomic richness and abundance of ground-dwelling invertebrates throughout the experimental period and at fine temporal resolutions. Overall, these results suggest that the shooting areas of ICTs should be considered when designing experiments, and ICTs with relatively large shooting areas are more favorable for monitoring the diversity of ground-dwelling invertebrates. This study further provides an automatic tool and high-quality data for biodiversity monitoring and protection in farmlands.

Keywords: Diplopoda; Formicidae; infrared camera trapping; sampling size; subtropical farmland.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Plot setting.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Illustrative examples of identifying and counting the appearance of invertebrates in the pictures. (a) zero Formicidae was photographed; (b–h) one Formicidae was photographed; (i–o) two Formicidae were photographed, at a specific time.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Illustrative examples of counting one invertebrate in one picture which captured by the ICTs. (a, d–f) one Formicidae in A1 and A2 areas, respectively; (b, c) one Formicidae in A2 area.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Taxonomic richness (a), abundance (b), and density (c) of the total ground‐dwelling invertebrates in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD). The collected data for the total ground‐dwelling invertebrates were pooled throughout the experiment. * and *** represent p < .05 and p < .001, respectively. NS., not significant.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Abundance and density of Formicidae (a, b), Diplopoda (c, d), Gastropoda (snail) (e, f), Araneae (g, h), Coleoptera (i, j), Orthoptera (k, l), Chilopoda (m, n), Gastropoda (slugs) (o, p), and Oligochaeta (q, r) in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD). The collected data for the total ground‐dwelling invertebrates were pooled throughout the experiment. * and ** represent p < .05 and p < .01, respectively. NS., not significant.
FIGURE 6
FIGURE 6
Daily capture of taxonomic richness (a), abundance (b), and density (c) of the total ground‐dwelling invertebrates in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD). Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation for 24 h each day. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001 represent significant differences between A1 and A2 on specific dates.
FIGURE 7
FIGURE 7
Daily capture of abundance of Formicidae (a), Diplopoda (b), Gastropoda (snail) (c), and Araneae (d), Coleoptera (e), Orthoptera (f), Chilopoda (g), Gastropoda (h), and Oligochaeta (i) in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD). Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation for 24 h each day. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001 represent significant differences between A1 and A2 on specific dates.
FIGURE 8
FIGURE 8
Daily capture of density of Formicidae (a), Diplopoda (b), Gastropoda (snail) (c), Araneae (d), Coleoptera (e), Orthoptera (f), Chilopoda (g), Gastropoda (slugs) (h), and Oligochaeta (i) in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD). Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation for 24 h each day. *p < .05, **p < .01, and ***p < .001 represent significant differences between A1 and A2 on specific dates.
FIGURE 9
FIGURE 9
Hourly capture of taxonomic richness (a, b), abundance (c, d), and density (e, f) of the total ground‐dwelling invertebrates in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD), respectively. Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation, respectively, for 1 h.
FIGURE 10
FIGURE 10
Hourly capture of abundance of Formicidae (a, b), Diplopoda (c, d), Gastropoda (snail) (e, f), Araneae (g, h), Coleoptera (i, j), Orthoptera (k, l), Chilopoda (m, n), Gastropoda (slugs) (o, p), and Oligochaeta (q, r) in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD), respectively. Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation, respectively, for 1 h.
FIGURE 11
FIGURE 11
Hourly capture of density of Formicidae (a, b), Diplopoda (c, d), Gastropoda (snail) (e, f), Araneae (g, h), Coleoptera (i, j), Orthoptera (k, l), Chilopoda (m, n), Gastropoda (slugs) (o, p), and Oligochaeta (q, r) in shooting areas A1 and A2 (Mean ± STD), respectively. Mean and STD represent the average and standard deviation, respectively, for 1 h.
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