LIFEPLAN: A worldwide biodiversity sampling design

Nested design that were on the order of 50 km, 5 km and 500 m apart. In Madagascar espe- cially, the search was constrained by the scarcity of remaining forest fragments and the high- est-level distances ended up being approximately 70–120 km. In Sweden we achieved highest- level distances of approximately 60–70 km. In Sweden, we implemented a triangular Nested design (n = 3) with 3 clusters each containing 5 sites, and in Madagascar, we had a square design (n = 4) with 4 clusters each containing 7 sites. The triangular design in used in Sweden was reduced from an originally square design due to the high costs of sampling in Sweden. We note that the original square design includes higher coverage of a wider range of pairwise dis- tances, simply by virtue of having more sampling points. Thus, this design was prioritized in Madagascar, as Madagascar has higher beta diversity [37]. If financially feasible, we recom- mend the square design especially in regions of high beta diversity. Site design The two site designs accommodate different budgets (Fig 6). The extensive design covers a one-hectare square: five cameras and audio recorders are placed in each corner and the centre. Soil samples are collected from each of the same five points. In the simplified design, three cameras and audio recorders are placed along a transect of 140 m, with soil samples collected at each of the three points. The reduced design corresponds to the extensive design with two diagonally opposite corners removed. We started with the extended design in October 2020 and switched to the reduced design in

May 2023. This switch was caused by financial constraints, due to equipment breaking sooner than expected. Fig 5. Locations of sites in the Nested design. (A) Schematic of the Nested scale field design in Madagascar (top) and Sweden (bottom). (B) Maps showing the actual but approximate site locations for the Nested design in Madagascar (top) and Sweden (bottom). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313353.g005 PLOS ONE LIFEPLAN: A worldwide biodiversity sampling design PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0313353 December 31, 2024 7 / 15