When is the quadrat method more advantageous and successful? Why is the method tedious?

Question

When is the quadrat method more advantageous and successful? Why is the method tedious?

Answer 1

This method is relatively straightforward in that it simply involves counting the number of organisms of interest in a defined area (often, but not necessarily, a quadrat). Plot sampling is a highly versatile approach, providing information on densities, associations, dispersion patterns, and indirect evidence on a variety of community or population processes. However, three problems with this method that will be explored in this lab are the size of the sampling plot, how plots will be placed, and the number of plots to be sampled. The size of the plot must obviously vary with the size of the organisms to be sampled, but also may need to be varied depending on distributions of organisms or the size of habitat patches in the environment. It is often useful to have a plot smaller than the average patch size to get information of dispersion patterns, mean numbers within patches, and densities between patches. Also, larger plots tend to give more accurate estimates of overall densities, but are more cumbersome and time consuming to place and sample. The placement of plots needs to be done so that there is no bias in the data collected. This is usually achieved through random or haphazard placement (what is the difference?), but may also be limited by time and resources.