An approach to detecting species diversity of microfaunas in colonization surveys for marine bioassessment based on rarefaction curves

•The rarefaction curves were well fitted to the Michaelis-Menten equation.•There was a strong residual influence of sampling effort on β- and γ-diversity.•The rarefaction analysis allows modeling and controlling the sampling influence.•The rarefaction-modeling method may remove the influence of sampling effort.•The approach can be used as a feasible tool to extract α-, β- and γ-diversity.

The objective of this study was to measure α-, β- and γ-diversity of microfaunas with different ages in colonization surveys using rarefaction-modeling methods. A dataset was complied based on a microperiphyton survey in coastal waters of the Yellow Sea, near Qingdao. The analyses showed that: (1) there was a strong residual influence of sampling effort on β- and γ-diversity after rarefaction, especially for the young communities; (2) the rarefaction curves were well fitted to the Michaelis-Menten equation, and allow modeling and removing the residual influence of sampling effort on β- and γ-diversity; and (3) the estimated values of α-, β- and γ-diversity of a community based on the rarefaction-modeling method were independent of the influence of sampling effort. The results suggest that this approach may be used as a feasible tool to detect α-, β- and γ-diversity without the influence of sampling effort in microfauna colonization surveys for marine bioassessment.