Blog 4: Sampling Strategies

In the community sampling exercise for the virtual forest tutorial, I chose 3 sampling strategies in the Snyder-Middleswarth Natural Area:

For distance haphazard technique I sampled 20 points. The distance traveled between each point was 3469 meters and would have taken 4 hours and 3 minutes to sample. 6 species and 80 total specimens were sampled. The diversity index for the community was 1.3.

The Most common species was the Eastern Hemlock with a percentage error of 0.9%

Second most common species was Sweet Birch with a percentage error of 39.4%

Most rare species was Yellow Birch with a percentage error of 66.7%

Second most rare species was Chestnut Oak with a percentage error of 27.4%

For area systematic I sampled 20 points Distance traveled between each point was 2954 meters and would have taken 10 hours and 37 minutes to sample. 6 species and 161 total specimens were sampled. The diversity index for the community was 1.3.

Most common species was the Eastern Hemlock with a percentage error of 1.8%

Second most common species was Sweet Birch with a percentage error of 17.2%

Most rare species was Yellow Birch with a percentage error of 41.2%

Second most rare species was Chestnut Oak with a percentage error of 41.9%

For distance systematic I sampled 20 points Distance traveled between each point was 3312 meters and would have taken4 hours and 1 minutes to sample. 5 species and 80 total specimens were sampled. The diversity index for the community was 1.

Most common species was the Eastern Hemlock with a percentage error of 46.9%

Second most common species was Sweet Birch with a percentage error of 44.5%

Most rare species was Striped Maple with a percentage error of 39.1%

Second most rare species was Chestnut Oak with a percentage error of 62.05%

The distance systematic technique proved to be the most time-efficient strategy, requiring only 4 hours and 1 minute for sampling. The accuracy of each sampling strategy was gauged through the percentage error on the two most common and two rarest species. The error varied between species abundance. Distance haphazard showed the lowest error for the most common species and distance systemic showed the lowest error for the rarest species. The choice of sampling strategies should align with the goal of the study all options would be reasonable methods as long as they meet consistency and accuracy of the study goals.