Long-term monitoring of ground-dwelling arthropods in central Arizona-Phoenix, ongoing since 1998

The Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research (CAP LTER) program has been monitoring ground-dwelling arthropods (e.g., insects, ararchnids) at locations throughout the greater Phoenix metropolitan area (GPMA) and surrounding Sonoran desert region since 1998. Monitoring locations span a diversity of habitat types, including mesic and xeric residential yards, commercial areas, agricultural fields, desert locations within the GPMA (desert remnant), and undisturbed desert locations. Organisms are collected quarterly using unbaited pitfall traps, typically ten per location but with some variation, exposed for approximately seventy-two hours. Organisms are identified to the lowest practical taxonomic level and enumerated. Many of the sampling locations established at the beginning of the monitoring project were relocated in 2001-2002 to overlap with the CAP LTER’s Ecological Survey of Central Arizona (ESCA; formerly named Survey200) long-term monitoring sites, although within the same general landscape categories.亚利桑那州中部-凤凰城长期生态研究计划（Central Arizona–Phoenix Long-Term Ecological Research, CAP LTER）自1998年起，便在大凤凰城都会区（greater Phoenix metropolitan area, GPMA）及周边索诺兰沙漠区域的多个点位，长期开展地表节肢动物（ground-dwelling arthropods，涵盖昆虫、蛛形纲动物等）的监测工作。 监测点位覆盖多种生境类型，包括湿润型与干旱型住宅庭院、商业区、农田、大凤凰城都会区内的沙漠残留区域，以及未受干扰的沙漠区域。研究人员每季度采用无饵陷阱诱捕器（pitfall traps）采集样本：每个点位通常布设10个陷阱，存在少量布设差异，陷阱暴露时长约为72小时。采集到的生物将被鉴定至最精细的可行分类学层级，并进行计数统计。 尽管多数初始采样点位仍属于相同的大景观分类范畴，该项目于2001-2002年间对其中多数点位进行了重新布设，使其与CAP LTER的亚利桑那州中部生态调查（Ecological Survey of Central Arizona, ESCA；原名为Survey200）长期监测点位相重合。