The local species number per unit area estimated through spatially non-explicit species-area curves.

The local species number per unit area estimated through spatially non-explicit species-area curves (Fig. 4) for each site within each region. Total N: total number of species recorded at each site; Species: number of species observed by analyzing a different number of random quadrats (16, 24, 32) or a combination of contiguous quadrats (3×8 = 3 replicates of 8 contiguous quadrats); % Species: percentage of species observed in comparison to the total species number recorded. For random quadrats, calculations were based on 999 permutations of replicate samples, whereas for replicates of 8 contiguous quadrats, calculations were based on a subset of all potential replicate combinations (SD not shown).