How Should Ecologists Define Sampling Effort? The Potential of Procrustes Analysis for Studying Variation in Community Composition

Abstract

Appropriate sampling effort is crucial for ecologists. Procrustes analysis can be used to tackle this question by quantifying the match between subsamples and the complete dataset. We used stream macroinvertebrates to show how sampling design can be optimized by reducing the number of subsamples and increasing the number of sites.