What this Lesson Covers
Overview
A myriad of protocols exist for measuring vegetation.
It seems field technicians are always trying to create a "better
mouse trap" or find the "silver bullet" that describes
vegetation in miraculously new and clever ways. Don't get
lost in acronyms and details. Remember, there are only a
handful of attributes you can measure about a plant:
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Frequency - Was the plant there or not?
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Density - How many plants were there?
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Biomass - How much did the plants weigh?
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Cover - How much space did they occupy?
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Structure - How tall were the plants and how were
branches and leaves arranged?
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Plant Species or Type - What kind of plant was it?
In this module we will focus on how to measure Plant Density and give
decision guidelines for when to measure density instead of other plant
attributes.
Learning Objectives
After this module you will be able to:
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Understand
the various definitions of density.
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Explain
the difference between density, cover, and abundance.
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Understand
the advantages and challenges in using density for characterizing
vegetation.
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Understand how we
measure density using plot or quadrat-based techniques
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Understand how we
measure density using plotless or distance-based techniques
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