Sampling Strategies

I used the area-based method for the virtual forest tutorial. 

Which technique had the fastest estimated sampling time? 

The systematic technique with an anticipated sampling duration of 12 hours and 9 minutes, had the quickest sampling time. While random sampling 12 hours and 42 minutes and lastly haphazard 13 hours and 7 minutes.

Compare the percentage error of the different strategies for the two most common and two rarest species

Eastern Hemlock and Sweet Birch were the 2 most common species while Striped maple and White Pine were the two rarest species. Based on the results, the systematic method produced the lowest percent errors for the two rarest species of 28% and 1.7% respectively. Also the systematic method produced the lowest percent errors for one of the most common species (eastern hemlock of 38%).

Systematic: 

Eastern hemlock: 38%

Sweet birch: 23%

Striped maple: 28%

White Pine: 1.7%

Random sampling: 

Eastern Hemlock: 62.8%

Sweet Birch: 4.3%

Striped Maple: 38.3%

White Pine: 98.6%

Haphazard: 

Eastern Hemlock: 6.5%

Sweet Birch: 4.9%

Striped Maple: 78.2%

White Pine: 91.1%

Did the accuracy change with species abundance and was one sampling strategy more accurate than another?

The accuracy did vary with species abundance in both random and haphazard sampling techniques, with the least percent errors seen in the species with greater abundance as shown by Eastern Hemlock and Sweet Birch while the larger percent errors seen in species with the less abundant species as shown by striped maple and white pine. Even though the maximum percent error determined across all sampled species in the systematic technique was 38%, the systematic sampling technique was still the most accurate.