Quantitative Sampling

• Often state we are measuring plant abundance in an area, can be measured many ways; counting the number of each plant (time-consuming) or estimating percentage cover (easier in a square frame)
• Estimating percentage cover is subjective, but some quadrats have wire divisions to make this easier; could use an abundance scale (e.g. ACFOR - Abundant/Common/Frequent/Obvious/Rare) to estimate species relative abundance
• Also could measure abundance with a point quadrat with 10 needles; plant species is recorded as present if the needle touches it