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The determination of an optimum sampling technique for biomass of herbaceous vegetation in a Central Australian woodland
Author(s) -
FRIEDEL M. H.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
australian journal of ecology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1442-9993
pISSN - 0307-692X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-9993.1977.tb01158.x
Subject(s) - quadrat , herbaceous plant , woodland , vegetation (pathology) , standing crop , litter , mathematics , biomass (ecology) , sampling (signal processing) , environmental science , statistics , transect , botany , agronomy , ecology , biology , engineering , medicine , pathology , filter (signal processing) , electrical engineering
The green standing material, dry standing material and litter in the herbaceous layer of a Central Australian woodland were sampled using sets of nested quadrats of various proportions. By minimizing the product of the time required to obtain the data and the relative variances of the mean weights of material, the optimum size of quadrat necessary for estimating biomass was found to be 1 m2 or less. The optimum shape of quadrat for litter was a very elongate rectangle, with the lengths of its sides in the ratio 1:16. There was no preferred shape for green or dry standing material in this case. No edge effect was detected. A method is given for determining the optimum number of quadrats for a known mean, variance and cost.