For the virtual forest tutorial, my three sampling strategies used in the Snyder-Middleswarth Natural Area were:
- Area, random.
- Distance, systematic.
- Distance, haphazard.
The distance, systematic sampling strategy had the shortest estimated sampling time of 4 hours, 16 minutes. The distance, haphazard method had a similar estimated time of 4 hours, 41 minutes. Between these two methods, systematic sampling is the optimal choice because it is more likely to avoid bias than haphazard sampling. It also takes much less than time than area, random sampling, which was estimated to take 13 hours, 17 minutes, because systematic sampling is easier to apply than random sampling.
The lengthier sampling time of the area, random method does pay off in terms of accuracy and this method ensures that the sample selected is random. Overall, the area, random method had the lowest average percent error for all species. However, when the percent error of the two most common and two most rare species, as determined by the species actual frequency, was analyzed, the results differed. The most accurate method for the two most common species was the distance, systematic method. However, this method failed to detect the two most rare species. The most accurate method for the rare species was the area, random sampling. Interestingly, the area, random sampling method was more accurate for the two most rare species than it was for the most common species. The opposite was observed in the distance, systematic and distance, haphazard methods as they were much more accurate for common species than rare species.
This tutorial has made evident that the type of sampling strategy used should depend on the abundance of the species of interest and the amount of time that can be dedicated to the sampling procedure. However, overall it appears that none of the strategies were very accurate for this area, as the lowest overall percent error for the area, random method was still 23.77%. This leads me to believe that a larger sample size for the area is needed, as a larger sample size would provide a more accurate representation of the community. The sampling procedure could also be repeated to try and collect a more representative sample of the population by chance. 