Table 5. Maximum diversity (species richness) estimators applied to the NE Madagascar surveys, based on random samples of 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 36 samples^*.

Samp	Sobs	Chao		Jacknife		Boot-	UGE	MM	Smax
les		1	2	1	2	strap
6	212	269.6	269.6	267.8	291.7	238.7	212	211.8	286.3
7	210	249.6	249.6	262.3	277.9	236.0	210	210.2	286.4
8	221	253.7	253.7	267.4	279.5	244.6	221	221.2	282.5
10	235	291.7	291.7	291.7	317.2	261.9	235	231.3	285.9
12	236	264.9	264.9	279.1	289.9	257.8	236	234.0	279.1
15	242	265.1	265.1	282.1	289.4	263.2	242	243.8	298.3
20	252	281.4	281.4	295.7	306.4	274.3	252	248.8	290.6
25	257	269.9	269.9	285.3	291.4	273.0	257	255.9	287.6
30	262	274.0	274.0	285.7	290.8	275.5	262	263.0	292.9
36	269	285.9	285.9	294.3	300.5	282.6	269	268.0	292.7
max	269.0	291.7	291.7	295.7	317.2	282.6	269.0	268.0	298.3
m	239.6	270.6	270.6	281.1	293.5	260.8	239.6	238.8	288.2
sd	20.7	13.3	13.3	11.8	11.8	16.3	20.7	20.5	5.6
CV	0.086	0.049	0.049	0.042	0.040	0.063	0.086	0.086	0.019
range	59.0	42.1	42.1	33.4	39.3	46.6	59.0	57.8	19.2

Sobs - Curve of observed species counts; Chao 1 - Chao's estimator based on number of rare species; Chao 2 - Chao's estimator using just presence-absence data; Jacknife 1 - Jacknife estimator based on species that only occur in one sample; Jacknife 2 - Second order jacknife estimator; Bootstrap - Bootstrap estimator based on proportion of quadrats containing each species; UGE - Calculated species accumulation curve; Michaelis-Menten - MM are points on the curve fitted to Sobs, with curve parameter Smax = asymptote at infinity [39], [88]–[92].

Notes:

^*The only condition for including a sample in these subsamples was that for cases of <15 samples, only full-diversity samples were selected by excluding minor samples in which <40 coral species were recorded overall (see methods for cases where sampling of species was constrained by other objectives during a dive, so records were taken only of new species seen in that dive).