EQUIVALENCIA ENTRE SERIES TEMPORALES DE DIVERSIDAD PARA DOS NIVELES TAXONÓMICOS.

Comparisons between temporal series of specific and family diverstity were made to demonstrate that diversity measurements at a higher taxonomic level that species, can give to us temporal series with equivalent tendencies. The data employed were the abundances of beetles (Coleoptera) collected with pitfall traps from February 1998 to February 2001, at the Lachay National Reserve. The diversity measurements were made with the Shannon's index, considering two spacial levels (alfa and gamma diversities). The correlation and regression coefficients between temporal diversity series had a high level of significance for the all cases, also the confidence intervals for the average alfa diversity show a high degree of intersection for the majority of evaluation dates. These results support the use of the family diversity as a useful choice, to avoid the effort of the taxonomic determination of species, in environmental management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]