LIFEPLAN: A worldwide biodiversity sampling design

LAB PROTOCOL LIFEPLAN: A worldwide biodiversity sampling design Bess HardwickID1☯, Deirdre KerdraonID2☯*, Hanna M. K. Rogers2, Dimby Raharinjanahary3, Eric Tsiriniaina Rajoelison3, Tommi MononenID1, Petteri Lehikoinen4, Gaia Banelyte2, Arielle Farrell2, Brian L. Fisher3,5, Tomas Roslin1,2, Otso Ovaskainen1,6 1 Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 2 Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala, Sweden, 3 Madagascar Biodiversity Center, Antananarivo, Madagascar, 4 The Finnish Museum of Natural History, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, 5 California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA, United States of America, 6 Department of Biological and Environmental Science, University of Jyva¨skyla¨, Jyva¨skyla¨ , Finland ☯ These authors contributed equally to this work. * deirdre.kerdraon@slu.se Abstract As the technology for mass identification of species is advancing rapidly, we developed a field sampling method that takes advantage of the emerging possibilities of combining sen- sor-based data with automated high-throughput data processing. This article describes the five field sampling methods used by the LIFEPLAN project to collect biodiversity data in a systematic manner, all over the world. These methods are designed for use by anyone with basic biology or ecology knowledge from the higher education or university level. We pres- ent the selection and characteristics of international sampling locations for urban and natural

sites, as well as the nested scale design in the Nordic countries and Madagascar. We describe the steps to collect sequences of animal images (.jpg) from infrared triggered cam- era traps, audio data (.WAV) of environment sounds from audio recorders, invertebrate samples in ethanol from Malaise traps for DNA metabarcoding, as well as both soil samples and 24-hour air samples obtained from cyclone samplers for fungal DNA metabarcoding. To ensure the usability and consistency of the data for future use, we pay particular attention to the metadata collected. In specifying the current sampling protocols, we note that technol- ogy will continue to improve and evolve. Hardware will also change within a short time period, with the advantage of improving the equipment used for collecting samples. Thus, we present examples of the samples collected by each current sampling method, to be used as a baseline or in comparison with different equipment models. Introduction We have so far only discovered an estimated 20% of all species on planet Earth [1]; at the same time, species are going extinct at an alarming rate [2]. If we are to understand current species diversity and predict future scenarios in a rapidly changing environment, monitoring PLOS ONE PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313353 December 31, 2024 1 / 15 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 OPEN ACCESS Citation: Hardwick B, Kerdraon D, Rogers HMK, Raharinjanahary D, Rajoelison ET, Mononen T, et al. (2024) LIFEPLAN: A worldwide biodiversity sampling design. PLoS ONE 19(12): e0313353.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313353 Editor: Bernd Schierwater, Tierarztliche Hochschule Hannover, GERMANY Received: March 11, 2024 Accepted: October 22, 2024 Published: December 31, 2024 Peer Review History: PLOS recognizes the benefits of transparency in the peer review process; therefore, we enable the publication of all of the content of peer review and author responses alongside final, published articles. The editorial history of this article is available here: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313353 Copyright: © 2024 Hardwick et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: No datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study. Unrestricted data from this study will be made available upon study completion.