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Three sampling strategies, inclusive of systematic, random, and haphazard, were used in the virtual sampling tutorial. The technique with the fastest estimated sampling time was systematic sampling (12 hours and 31 minutes).
Eastern hemlock and sweet birch were the two most common species in this tutorial. Systematic sampling yielded the lowest percent error for eastern hemlock (1.98%), however, percent error for sweet birch was lowest when the haphazard sampling technique was applied (17%).
Eastern Hemlock: Systematic = 1.98% error, Random = 32.3% error, Haphazard = 10.8% error
Sweet Birch: Systematic = 36.17% error, Random = 46.21% error, Haphazard = 17% error
Overall, when comparing percent error results for the two most common species, haphazard sampling had the lowest overall average percent error (13.9%), compared to systematic sampling (19.1%) and random sampling (39.3%).
The random sampling strategy proved to be the most accurate technique for the two rarest species: striped maple and white pine. Percent error for striped maple using the random sampling technique was still quite high, despite having the lowest error of all the techniques applied.
Striped maple: Systematic = 76% error, Random = 50.9% error, Haphazard = 114% error
White pine: Systematic = 100% error, Random = 2.4% error, Haphazard = 100% error
Random sampling, on average, was the most accurate technique when used to sample the rarest species (26.7% error), as compared to systematic sampling (88% error) and haphazard sampling (107% error).
Overall, greater species abundance led to greater accuracy.
