Table 2.

Illustration of the percentage of overmerged OTUs upon applying both the 97% cut-off and our proposed lookup table, for two amplicon lengths (300 and 500 bp) and a sliding window of 50 bp.

Position		Overmerged OTUs (%)			Position		Overmerged OTUs (%)
Start	End	0.03 Cut-off	Lookup	ii) Lookup*	Start	End	0.03 Cut-off	Lookup	Lookup*
1	300	22	15	17	1	500	25	16	19
51	350	27	18	20	51	550	29	18	21
101	400	34	20	25	101	600	31	19	23
151	450	29	18	21	151	650	31	19	22
201	500	45	24	29	201	700	45	24	28
251	550	51	28	33	251	750	48	25	31
301	600	44	25	30	301	800	48	25	31
351	650	38	23	27	351	850	43	24	28
401	700	40	24	27	401	900	45	24	28
451	750	53	28	33	451	950	55	27	33
501	800	55	29	34	501	1000	47	25	31
551	850	48	26	32	551	1050	44	24	29
601	900	54	28	34	601	1100	49	25	30
651	950	63	32	36	651	1150	49	25	30
701	1000	48	26	32	701	1200	49	25	31
751	1050	48	26	31	751	1250	46	24	29
801	1100	47	26	30	801	1300	44	24	29
851	1150	49	26	32	851	1350	48	25	30
901	1200	48	25	32	901	1400	48	24	29
951	1250	41	24	28	951	1450	41	22	26
1001	1300	50	26	31
1051	1350	53	28	34
1101	1400	53	27	33
1151	1450	49	25	30
Average		44	24	29	Average		43	23	28

The lookup table was calculated using either the complete number of species for each family (column ‘lookup’) or subsampled families containing at maximum of seven species per family (column ‘lookup*’).