Copyright© 2008 Stephen Smith & Associates Inc. All rights reserved

Unbiased ecosystem surveys give information that is needed to manage the terrain, water, habitat, vegetation and animal life that  together form an ecosystem. Quantitative analysis of these data gives understanding of the ecosystem’s dynamics. This, in turn, enables objective forecasts of ecosystem changes.

Ecosystem surveys tell us:

•  how large is the aggregate area

•  how the fragments are distributed

•  what habitat/vegetation/animal quantities exist

•  how healthy is the system

•  how resource component parts are changing

•  simple and stratified random

•  selective and systematic

•  horizontal point sampling

•  ratio and regression estimates

•  two  phase sampling

•  multi-stage sampling

•  line intersect and 3P sampling

•  quadrat sampling

•  line transect sampling

•  capture and recapture sampling

•  direct sampling

•  inverse sampling

 Vegetation &

  Forest

 Fish  &

 Wildlife

•  analysis of variance/covariance

•  linear/non-linear regression

•  principal components

•  cluster analysis

•  discriminant analysis

•  non-parametric tests

•  geostatistics

•  population dynamics

Ecosystem Surveys

Sampling Methods

Analytical Methods

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Sampling is a practical business which calls on several skills: defining the population to be sampled; determining how to collect data and what measurement methods to use; organizing field work; and the proper application of sampling theory to produce unbiased estimates of population parameters.