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| 1 |
Mark a straight line across the area. This is called a
transect.
You will also need a quadrat. |
Make a lightweight square — you can use a wire coat hanger or something similar.
This is your quadrat. |
| 2 |
Walk slowly along the transect, stopping at regular (measured) intervals. |
CAREFULLY throw the square into the area - DON'T choose a likely place,
do it randomly (eg over your shoulder). |
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Why must you select areas at random in one method and use
measured intervals in the other?
For the same reason in both cases — to avoid bias. It is important to obtain
random samples — ie not to influence in any way which
species are included.
Whichever method you choose, it is NOT acceptable to move the quadrat to include
more (or interesting) species, even if that means they are excluded from your final
sample(s). |
| 3 |
Mark out a square sampling area (quadrat) at
your first stopping point — an expanded wire coat hanger is suitable. |
Count the number of different types of plant in your sample. |
| 4 |
Count the number of different types of plant in your sample. |
Repeat several times at other random positions. |
| 5 |
Repeat at the other stopping points until you reach the end of your transect. |
Does the number of species — diversity — vary across the area? |
| 6 |
Does the number of species — diversity — vary across the area? |
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This technique is known as
LINE TRANSECT sampling. |
This technique is known as
QUADRAT sampling. |
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- Would you expect other locations to show more or less diversity?
You could find out by using exactly the same method and number of samples
somewhere else and comparing the results.
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