User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
| Tree Species | Actual Density | Distance Systematic Data | Distance Random Data | Distance Haphazard Data | |||
| Eastern Hemlock
(Most Common) |
469.9 |
308.6 |
% Error
34.3 |
395.7 |
% Error
15.8 |
427.4 |
% Error
9.0 |
| Red Maple | 118.9 | 105.8 |
11.0 |
45.7 |
61.6 |
63.7 |
46.4 |
| Sweet Birch | 117.5 | 167.5 |
42.5 |
60.9 |
48.1 |
127.3 |
8.3 |
| Yellow Birch | 108.9 | 114.6 |
5.2 |
159.8 |
46.7 |
127.3 |
16.9 |
| Chestnut Oak | 87.5 | 141.1 |
61.3 |
68.5 |
21.7 |
90.9 |
3.9 |
| Striped Maple | 17.5 | 8.8 |
49.7 |
0.0 |
100 |
27.3 |
56.0 |
| White Pine
(Most Rare) |
8.4 | 0.0 |
100 |
0.0 |
100 |
9.1 |
8.3 |
| Survey Time | 4 hours, 5 min | 4 hours, 44 min | 4 hours, 11 min | ||||
All three sampling strategies appear to have little difference in time. However, the Random and Haphazard sampling strategies should take longer overall if travel time between plots is considered.
The most accurate sampling strategy for the most common and most rare species was found using the Haphazard sampling strategy and the sampling error for both were similar.
The sampling error greatly increased from the most common to the rarest species in both the random and systematic sampling strategies. However, no real pattern was observed.
The number of plots was sufficient in capturing the number of species in the community but to improve the accuracy of the data more plots should be added.
