To study the species diversity

To study the species diversity, species richness and abundance of spiders in different micro-habitats: 

Establishing plot: 

A sampling plot of 40 m × 40 m size will be defined and demarcated in an area with uniform topography in any of the dense dry deciduous or mixed deciduous forest patches of five districts in Madhya Pradesh . Most of the sampling will be carried out within this sampling plot, but additional plotless sampling would also be done in places outside the plot for studying the habitat edge effects, if any. The plotless sampling would be done upto 10 m away from the sampling plot. Plotless sampling would also be carried out in areas with non-uniform/heterogenous habitat, for eg. streams or nallahs. 

Sampling days: 

Gaps between two collection phase, so as to reduce the possibility of species depletion. 

Sampling time: 

Sampling period (duration during day and night) to be mentioned here. 

Collectors: 

Number of collectors to be mentioned here. 

Methods:

Following sampling methods will be used in order to cover all the micro-habitats except high canopy/emergent layer. 

Non-destructive sampling

a. Search and find:  Searching and collecting with hand or forceps or brush and putting into vials until a height best reachable by the collector inside the plot. 

b. Beat:   Branches of trees and other vegetation will be tapped with a wooden stick while holding a 1-m square tray or cloth underneath to catch the falling specimens. 

c. Ground/Litter: Searching in forest floor and litters and then collecting by hand upto knee level. Special observation would be made to look for cryptic species which are generally  under logs, stones and litter. 

d. Sweep:  A round sweep net, with a diameter of 40 cm, will be used to sweep low herbaceous or shrub layer. The net will be emptied after every sweeps and the specimens will be collected. 

e. Pitfall traps:  A 8 cm wide and 12 cm deep open lid traps with pre-filled ethyl alcohol will be placed within every 10 m in the periphery of the plots so as to capture the species which prefers the edge. 

Destructive sampling

a. Fumigation: xx will be used as fumigant in order to fume the canopy of the tree. The specimens falling from the canopy will be collected. 

Statistical analysis

Estimate S (Colwell, 2005) will be used for biodiversity estimations like species-area curve, observed species richness and estimated richness estimates. 

Apart from this, R, a freeware statistical tool will be used to carry out one-way or multi-anovas to identify the differences among two or more associated factors acting upon the study species. Multi-anova will be used to test the differences in abundance or species richness per sample (dependent variables) between days, time of day, collectors and methods (independent factors). 

For abundance, the will be log10 (n + 1) transformed in order to control the heterogeneity of variance (Zar, 1984) so that the most common species do not disproportionately influence the results.