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A grid‐based method for sampling and analysing spatially ambiguous plants
Author(s) -
Fehmi Jeffrey S.,
Bartolome James W.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3236998
Subject(s) - quadrat , sampling (signal processing) , grid , vegetation (pathology) , spatial analysis , spatial ecology , grassland , common spatial pattern , plant species , sampling design , point pattern analysis , ecology , computer science , statistics , remote sensing , cartography , geography , mathematics , biology , medicine , population , demography , geodesy , filter (signal processing) , shrub , pathology , sociology , computer vision
. Spatial data can provide much information about the interrelations of plants and the relationship between individuals and the environment. Spatially ambiguous plants, i.e. plants without readily identifiable loci, and plants that are profusely abundant, present non‐trivial impediments to the collection and analysis of vegetation data derived from standard spatial sampling techniques. Sampling with grids of presence/absence quadrats can ameliorate much of this difficulty. Our analysis of 10 fully‐mapped grassland plots demonstrates the applicability of the grid‐based approach which revealed spatial dependence at a much lower sampling effort than mapping each plant. Ripley's K ‐function, a test commonly used for point patterns, was effective for pattern analysis on the grids and the gridded quadrat technique was an effective tool for quantifying spatial patterns. The addition of spatial pattern measures should allow for better comparisons of vegetation structure between sites, instead of sole reliance on species composition data.