We compared a rapid bioassessment protocol (Traveling Sweep Approach [TSA]) with a more conventional time intensive protocol (Composite Transect Approach [CTA]) to describe macroinvertebrates in wetlands in Alberta, Canada. We collected one macroinvertebrate sample using each protocol from 16 wetlands and compared abundance, catch per unit effort, and relative abundance between sample protocols. We also quantified and compared the logistics required to implement each protocol. The macroinvertebrate communities differed statistically between protocols for all three response variables; however, the differences were generally small and communities similar. The CTA protocol tended to yield higher variability in the samples, likely driven by the way these samples are collected and composited, which may introduce an unwanted source of variation when the primary monitoring objective is to assess effects of human activities over time and between sites. The CTA protocol also required significantly greater investment of time (ca. 50% greater processing time), money (ca. 1.9 times sample processing cost), and resources to execute (e.g., requirement for watercraft). Both protocols provided adequate characterization of macroinvertebrate communities in wetlands, but differences in variability and resources for deployment and processing are important considerations when choosing a sampling protocol. The rapid time-limited sweep protocol (TSA) appears to be a viable monitoring approach given that macroinvertebrate communities identified by each protocol were relatively similar but were collected using the TSA protocol at a lower cost.

中文翻译：

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湿地底栖无脊椎动物的生物评估：两种标准采样方案的成对比较

我们将快速生物评估方案（旅行扫描方法[TSA]）与更传统的时间密集方案（复合横断面方法[CTA]）进行了比较，以描述加拿大艾伯塔省湿地中的大型无脊椎动物。我们使用每种协议从16个湿地中收集了一个大型无脊椎动物样品，并比较了丰度，每单位工作量的捕获量和样本协议之间的相对丰度。我们还量化并比较了实施每种协议所需的物流。在所有三个响应变量的协议之间，大型无脊椎动物群落在统计学上有所不同。但是，差异通常很小，社区相似。CTA协议倾向于在样本中产生更高的可变性，这可能是由这些样本的收集和组合方式所驱动的，当主要监测目标是评估人类活动随时间推移以及站点之间的影响时，这可能会引入有害的变化来源。CTA协议还需要大量的时间投入（大约50％的处理时间），金钱（大约1.9倍的样品处理成本）和执行资源（例如对船只的要求）。两种协议都提供了湿地中大型无脊椎动物群落的充分特征，但是在选择采样协议时，重要的考虑因素是部署和处理的变异性和资源差异。鉴于每个协议确定的大型无脊椎动物群落相对相似，但使用TSA协议收集的成本较低，因此快速限时扫描协议（TSA）似乎是一种可行的监测方法。