Using quadrats

• What is a quadrat?

  A square frame enclosing a known area
• what is the first step of comparing how common an organism is in two sample areas?

  place a 1m$^2$quadrat on the ground at a random point within the first sample area
• what should you do after placing the quadrat?

  count all the organisms within the quadrat
• what should you do after counting all the organisms?

  repeat the steps as many times as possible - then work out the mean number of organisms per quadrat within the first sample area
• what should you do after calculating the mean in the first sample area?

  repeat the same steps in the second sample area then compare the means