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ESTIMATES OF MEAN CHLOROPHYLL‐a CONCENTRATION: PRECISION, ACCURACY, AND SAMPLING DESIGN 1
Author(s) -
Marshall C. Tara.,
Morin Antoine,
Peters Robert H.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
jawra journal of the american water resources association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.957
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1752-1688
pISSN - 1093-474X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-1688.1988.tb03018.x
Subject(s) - environmental science , sampling (signal processing) , eutrophication , temperate climate , chlorophyll a , coefficient of variation , variance (accounting) , accuracy and precision , statistics , chlorophyll , hydrology (agriculture) , atmospheric sciences , ecology , mathematics , nutrient , geology , biology , computer science , botany , accounting , geotechnical engineering , filter (signal processing) , business , computer vision
Data from 56 north‐temperate lakes and reservoirs are used to develop models predicting temporal variance as a function of the mean chlorophyll‐a concentration. Trophy, as estimated by mean chlorophyll‐a concentration, is shown to have little effect on the sampling effort required to achieve a pre‐determined level of precision for lakes sampled year‐round. Collecting ten observations results in a coefficient of variation that averaged 20 percent; collecting more than ten observations yields increasingly marginal improvements in precision. The same guidelines apply to mesotrophic or eutrophic lakes sampled in the summer, whereas oligotrophic lakes sampled in the summer require fewer observations to achieve the same level of precision. The bias resulting from collecting too few observations is minimized if five or more observations are collected.