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The virtual forest tutorial had three different strategies to collect data which are systematic sampling, random sampling, and haphazard sampling. The strategy that had the quickest estimated time was systematic sampling with a time of 12 hours and 37 minutes. Not far behind though was random sampling at 12 hours and 45 minutes, and in last with the slowest time of 12 hours and 58 minutes was haphazard sampling.
The 2 most common tree species were the Sweet Birch and the Eastern Hemlock, and the systematic sampling technique proved to be the most accurate for them. Random sampling also did okay and so did haphazard, but that was only for the Sweet Birch, whereas for the Eastern Hemlock the error was much higher.
Systematic
E. Hemlock – 17.4% error, S. Birch- 15.7% error
Random
E. Hemlock- 21% error, S. Birch- 26.2% error
Haphazard
E. Hemlock- 47.4% error, S. Birch 22.3% error
When it came to the two least common species, White Pine and Striped Maple, the technique that seemed to be most accurate overall was random sampling, with an exception being 15.1% error using the haphazard method for Striped Maple.
Systematic
W. Pine- 131.7% error, S. Maple- 129.9%
Random
W. Pine- 49% error, S. Maple- 17.4%
Haphazard
W. Pine- 175.8% error, S. Maple- 15.1%
I found that was the abundance of the species decreased, the percentage error increased.
