Some students investigated what size of quadrat they should use to assess the abundance of plant species in an old field ecosystem. They used quadrats of side 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100 cm and recorded how many plant species were present. They repeated their investigation five times and calculated mean numbers of species per quadrat. Their results are in the graph below.

a. Calculate the area of each quadrat that they used.

b. Explain why the students took five results for each quadrat.

c. Based on their results, the students decided to use the 50 cm quadrat to study the old field. Why did they choose the 50 cm quadrat?

d. Explain how they would use the 50 cm quadrat to estimate the abundance of the different plant species in the field.

Transcribed Image Text:

10 25 50 75 100 Size of quadrat / cm 4. 2. Number of species per quadrat