Hello All, I am looking for information regarding standard dry weight measurement techniques for drying terrestrial arthropod samples that were collected using malaise nets. I am trying to answer the question; Does revegetation increase the abundance or diversity of terrestrial arthropods at selected study sites?
I want to obtain estimates of biomass, abundance and species diversity of terrestrial arthropods for study site productivity assessments. I already have the insect samples which consist of around 80 one day samples (which will be identified to Order or higher) and 100 four day samples (which I plan to obtain a dry weight and measure biomass from) collected from sites which have been classified into various vegetation classes. I am having a hard time finding relevant literature on suggested techniques for estimating biomass. Is it standard protocol that the samples be first sorted into size class before dry weights are obtained (as to not skew results from large specimens such as Odonata or Hymenoptera) ? Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Janean Sharkey
