Estimating total plant diversity in extreme or hyperarid environments can be challenging, as adaptations to pronounced climate variability include evading prolonged stress periods through seeds or specialized underground organs. Short‐term surveys of these ecosystems are thus likely poor estimators of actual diversity. Here we develop a multimethod strategy to obtain a more complete understanding of plant diversity from a community in the Atacama Desert. We explicitly test environmental DNA‐based techniques (eDNA) to see if they can reveal the observed and ‘hidden' (dormant or locally rare) species.

中文翻译：

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揭示干旱环境中隐藏的植物多样性

估算极端或超干旱环境下的植物总多样性可能具有挑战性，因为要适应明显的气候变化，包括通过种子或专门的地下器官逃避延长的胁迫期。因此，对这些生态系统的短期调查可能是对实际多样性的较差估计。在这里，我们制定了一种多方法策略，以便从阿塔卡马沙漠中的一个社区获得对植物多样性的更完整的了解。我们明确测试了基于环境DNA的技术（eDNA），以查看它们是否可以揭示观察到的和“隐藏的”（休眠或本地稀有）物种。