Quadrats

Question 1

What are quadrants used for?

Answer 1

Measure abundance of plants and slow moving animals

Question 2

How to use a quadrat

Answer 2

• quadrants are square frames made of wood or wire
• can be a variety of sizes eg 0.25m^2 or 1m^2
• placed on the ground and the organisms within them are recorded

Question 3

How do you use quadrats to measure abundance

Answer 3

• By recording : the total number of individuals of a single species
• total number of different species
• approximate percentage of quadrant area in which an individual species is found - difficult to count individuals of the plant species

Question 4

Transects

Answer 4

Used to measure how the abundance of a species changes as u move along a changing habitat

Question 5

How does a transect work?

Answer 5

• the line is set up through the changing habitat u wanna investigate with a tape measure
• quadrat placed at regular intervals along transect
• each interval quadrat used to record the no of individual species, species richness or P cover

Question 6

What are transects useful for

Answer 6

Investigating how the abundance of a species is affected by an abiotic factor

Question 7

Describe a method to investigate how the distance from the river affects the number of different plant species in the field

Answer 7

Measure the transect at. Right angles to the river place the quadrats at intervals along the transect to Jun count the number of different plant species in each quadrant at each distance. Repeat for two more transactions.