Belt Transect Method This is similar to the line transect method but gives information on abundance as well as presence,

or absence of species. It may be considered as a widening of the line transect to form a continuous belt, or series of quadrats. In this method, the transect line is laid out across the area to be surveyed and a quadrat is placed on the first marked point on the line. The plants and/or animals inside the quadrat are then identified and their abundance estimated. Animals can be counted (if they will sit still!), or collected, while it is usual to estimate the percentage cover of plant species. Cover is the area of the quadrat occupied by the above-ground parts of a species when viewed from above. The canopies of the plants inside the quadrat will often overlap each other, so the total percentage cover of plants in a single quadrat will frequently add up to more than 100%. Quadrats are sampled all the way down the transect line, at each marked point on the line, or at some other predetermined interval (or even randomly) if time is short. It is important that the same person should do the estimations of cover in each quadrat, because the estimation is likely to vary from person to person. If different people estimate percentage cover in different quadrats, then an element of personal variation is introduced which will lead to less accurate results. The height of plants in the quadrat can be recorded and the biomass of plants can also be measured by harvesting all the plants inside the quadrat and then weighing either fresh, or dry weight in the laboratory. This is obviously a very destructive method of sampling which could not be used too often in the same place. Sampling should always be as least destructive as possible and you should try not to trample an area too much when carrying out your survey.. An example of the type of results that can be obtained from a belt transect survey is shown below.

This figure illustrates the distribution and abundance of cherry seedlings along a transect line. The parent cherry trees were adjacent to section number 9. The gradient of distribution apparent in the figure is a result of the dispersal of seeds outwards from this point

Ecological Techniques 1. A quadrat is used to take a sample area within a habitat. The size of the quadrat depends on the habitat (e.g. a woodland habitat may be limited in ground space): a. It is commonly a square of set dimensions, with a smaller grid within it (usually so that one small square is 1%) to give more accurate measurements. b. Increasing the size of the quadrat will increase the number of different species found in each quadrat, until this levels off when every quadrat contains all the species. The quadrat size should be taken just before this levelling off. c. A quadrat can be used to map a distribution of where plants are, whereby the position of the plant is taken as its growing point.

d. A quadrat can be used to give percentage cover readings, whereby the area covered by the whole plant is taken. This should always add up to 100% if any plants are covered by other plants, then take quadrats at different levels. e. Random sampling should be used, with random number tables. Numbers of paces can be used, or the habitat can be divided into areas, and those in the sample randomly selected. 2. A belt transect is a strip of quadrats taken across the habitat. A strip of set width is taken across where there is a change in the habitat, and quadrats are taken along the line of the belt. 3. A line (point) transect is a line or tape that is put along the ground, and the plants that are touching the line are recorded. 4. A point quadrat is a device on a stand with holes along it at set intervals. A rod is placed through each hole, and the plants in contact with the rod are recorded. 5. Animals are more difficult to measure, as they tend to be over a larger area. Aerial photographs can sometimes be used, or you can use the release and capture of animals (e.g. leafhoppers): a. Take all the leafhoppers you can find, and put a blob of nail varnish on each. b. The following day, collect all the leafhoppers you can find, and count the number that are marked (n1), and the total number that are recaptured (n2). c. Where n0 is the number originally caught and marked, and N is the estimated number in

the population, then The profile of a hillside can be measured using metre rules and spirit levels going along 1m horizontally at a time, measure how much the ground has gone up by. 7. Abiotic factors can be measured using various devices. If a factor cannot be controlled in an investigation, it should always be measured: a. Thermometer (thermal probe) measure the temperature of the air or ground (affects enzyme activity and metabolism). b. Hygrometer measure humidity (affects transpiration and thermoregulation). c. Light meter measure light intensity (affects photosynthesis). d. PH meter or indicator test measure pH (affects enzymes and metabolism). e. O2-sensitive electrode measure O2 concentration in water (varies with temperature). f. Gas analysis measure CO2 concentration (affects photosynthesis). g. Anemometer measure wind speed (affects evaporation and transpiration). Ecological succession is a series of plant communities that success through time, in which each successive stage is dependant on the one that preceded it: a. Hydrarch succession water commanding succession. b. Xerarch succession dry commanding succession. c. Seral stage each community in the succession. d. Pioneer community the first community colonising a new site. e. Climax community final successive community that is self-duplicating and perpetual. This depends upon the habitat and climate. f. Primary succession succeeds by pioneering new sites. g. Secondary succession succession occurring on disturbed land, replacing the original community. h. Polyclimax theory there could be many climaxes. 17. An example of succession (from a bare site to woodland): a. Lichens and mosses (pioneer community) colonise boulders and rocks (they can survive very poor soil conditions). They build up pockets of soil and humus. b. Grasses and wild flowers such as daisies grow in the soil pockets. c. Taller flowering plants such as willowherb and foxgloves grow when there is enough soil for their seeds to be established. Root nodules fix nitrogen. d. Bushes and shrubs (woody plants) such as hawthorn and bramble shelter and out-compete the flowering plants for light. e. Fast growing trees such as birch develop. f. Large, slow growing, deciduous trees such as oak can then grow (climax community). 18. Pine forests (evergreen) dont get much growth underneath, but a thick layer of needles forms. Oak forests (deciduous), on the other hand, may have an undergrowth, so different levels (strata) of plants can be formed (this is particularly true in rainforests). 19. In a wetland environment, reeds develop around the edges to dry out the ponds, then shrubs come

and dry out the land further. Eventually you will still end up with woodland. 20. Sand dunes are very unstable when first formed. They are quickly invaded by plants that can survive the harsh conditions root systems stabilise the sand dunes. These communities give way to marram grass, which in turn gives way to a variety of other species in a fixed dune. 21. Generally, favourable and stable conditions (e.g. rainforest, coral reef) will lead to a high species diversity, whereas harsh environments (e.g. arctic, desert) give a low species diversity.

Data presentation
Plot a profile graph for the dunes. You will need to exaggerate the vertical scale. Use bar charts to display the abiotic data you collected at each point.

The kite diagram below shows the results of an interrupted belt transect from the strand line inland by 300 metres.

Statistics
Simpson's Diversity Index
You can use the Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficeient to investigate changes with distance inland from the seashore, and the Mann-Whitney U test and Chisquared tests to compare two or more different areas of the dunes. Another useful statistic is the Simpson's Diversity Index, which is a measure both of species richness (i.e. the number of different species present) and species evenness (i.e. how evenly distributed each species is). D = N(N-1) / n(n-1) where D = Simpson's Diversity Index n = the number of individuals of each species N = the total number of individuals Worked example The table shows mean % cover for two contrasting areas of a single dune system. TOTAL Mobile dune Species Marram Sea holly Sand fescue Saltwort Dandelion TOTAL n 10 3 1 2 0 17 n(n-1) 90 6 2 2 0 100 n 4 0 11 0 8 23 Fixed dune n(n-1) 12 0 110 0 56 178

D = 17(16) / 100 D = 2.72

D = 23(22) / 178 D = 2.84

The larger the value of D, the higher the species diversity. A low value of D could be due to low overall species richness (like at the strand line) or to the dominance of one species (as in dune scrub).
Spearman's rank correlation coefficient allows you to identify easily the strength of correlation within a data set of two variables, and whether the correlation is positive or negative (whether the slope of the corresponding line is positive or negative). This guide will help you calculate it without too much difficulty. Ads by Google

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o o

6 Columns, with headers as shown below. as many rows as you have pairs of data.

2. 2
Fill in the first two columns with your pairs of data

3. 3

In your third column rank the data in your first column from 1 to n (the number of data you have). Give the lowest number a rank of 1, the next lowest number a rank of 2, and so on.

4. 4
In your fourth column do the same as in step 3, but instead rank the second column.

o
If two (or more) pieces of data in one column are the same, find the mean of the ranks as if those pieces of data had been ranked normally, then rank the data with this mean.

If two (or more) pieces of data in one column are the same, find the mean of the ranks as if those pieces of data had been ranked normally, then rank the data with this mean. In the example at right, there are two 5s that would otherwise have ranks of 2 and 3. Since there are two 5s, take the mean of their ranks. The mean of 2 and 3 is 2.5, so assign the rank 2.5 to both 5s.

5. 5
In the "d" column calculate the difference between the two numbers in each pair of ranks. That is, if one is ranked 1 and the other 3 the difference would be 2. (The sign doesn't matter, since the next step is to square this number.)

6. 6

7. 7
Square each of the numbers in the "d" column and write these values in the "d2" column.

8. 8
Add up all the data in the "d2" column. This value is d2.

9. 9
Insert this value into the Spearman's Rank Correlation Coefficient formula.

10.

10

Replace the "n"s with the number of pairs of data you have and calculate the answer.

Mann WhitneyU Test of Significance

This example deals with two sets of sample data from two contrasting urban areas, area X and area Y, with the aim of comparing them and demonstrating differences. There are eight pairs of data in this example. Tests of significance are used to tell us whether the differences between the two sets of sample data are truly significant or whether these differences could have occurred by chance. Tests of significance tell us the probability level that differences between the two areas, X and Y are due to chance. First, examine the two data sets to decide whether differences appear to exist which warrant further investigation. The sample sets are: Area X: 7; 3; 6; 2; 4; 3; 5; 5 Area Y: 3; 5; 6; 4; 6; 5; 7; 5 Area X Y Mean 4.38 5.13 Median 4.5 5.0 Mode 5 5

The difference between the means for the two sets of data warrants further investigation, to test the statistical significance of the difference. THE MANN-WHITNEY U TEST Stage 1: Call one sample A and the other B.

Stage 2: Place all the values together in rank order (i.e. from lowest to highest). If there are two samples of the same value, the 'A' sample is placed first in the rank. Stage 3: Inspect each 'B' sample in turn and count the number of 'A's which precede (come before) it. Add up the total to get a U value. Stage 4: Repeat stage 3, but this time inspect each A in turn and count the number of B's which precede it. Add up the total to get a second Uvalue. Stage 5: Take the smaller of the two U values and look up the probability value in the table below. This gives the percentage probability that the difference between the two sets of data could have occurred by chance. Example: Is there a significant difference in the quality of the architecture between El Raval (site 3); and El Raval (site 4)? Stage 1: Site 3: (Sample A) 7; 3; 6; 2; 4; 3; 5; 5 Site 4: (Sample B) 3; 5; 6; 4; 6; 5; 7; 5 Stage 2: A 2 A 3 A 3 B 3 A 4 B 4 A 5 A 5 B 5 B 5 B 5 A 6 B 6 B 6 A 7 B 7

Stage 3: U= 3+4+6+6+6+7+7+8 = 47 Stage 4: U= 0+0+0+1+2+2+5+7 = 17 Stage 5: U= 17 The critical value from the table = 6.5 The probability that the quality of the architecture measured in Site 4 is better than Site 3 just by chance is 6.5 per cent. If you find that there is a significant probability that the differences could have occurred by chance, this can mean: 1. Either the difference is not significant and there is little point in looking further for explanations of it, OR 2. Your sample is too small. If you had taken a larger sample, you might well find that the result of the test of significance changes: the difference between the two areas becomes more certain. It is not possible to tell which of these conclusions is the correct one from the result of the test itself. Statistics are only a tool and can never replace good geographical thinking.

n u 0

1 11.1

2 2.2

3 0.6

4 0.2

5 0.1

6 0.0

7 0.0

8 0.0

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

22.2 33.3 44.4 55.6

4.4 8.9 13.3 20.0 26.7 35.6 44.4 55.6

1.2 2.4 4.2 6.7 9.7 13.9 18.8 24.8 31.5 38.7 46.1 53.9

0.4 0.8 1.4 2.4 3.6 5.5 7.7 10.7 14.1 18.4 23.0 28.5 34.1 40.4 46.7 53.3

0.2 0.3 0.5 0.9 1.5 2.3 3.3 4.7 6.4 8.5 11.1 14.2 17.7 21.7 26.2 31.1 36.2 41.6 47.2

0.1 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.6 1.0 1.5 2.1 3.0 4.1 5.4 7.1 9.1 11.4 14.1 17.2 20.7 24.5 28.6

0.0 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 1.0 1.4 2.0 2.7 3.6 4.7 6.0 7.6 9.5 11.6 14.0 16.8

0.0 0.0 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.5 0.7 1.0 1.4 1.9 2.5 3.2 4.1 5.2 6.5 8.0 9.7

Chi-squared test for categories of data

Background: The Student's t-test and Analysis of Variance are used to analyse measurement data which, in theory, are continuously variable. Between a measurement of, say, 1 m and 2 m there is a continuous range from 1.0001 to 1.9999 m. But in some types of experiment we wish to record how many individuals fall into a particular category, such as blue eyes or brown eyes, motile or non-motile cells, etc. These counts, or enumeration data, are discontinuous (1, 2, 3 etc.) and must be treated differently from continuous data. Often the appropriate test is chi-squared (2), which we use to test whether the number of individuals in different categories fit a null hypothesis (an expectation of some sort). Chi squared analysis is simple, and valuable for all sorts of things - not just Mendelian crosses! On this page we build from the simplest examples to more complex ones. When you have gone through the examples you should consult the checklist of procedures and potential pitfalls.

A simple example

Suppose that the ratio of male to female students in the Science Faculty is exactly 1:1, but in the Pharmacology Honours class over the past ten years there have been 80 females and 40 males. Is this a significant departure from expectation? We proceed as follows (but note that we are going to overlook a very important point that we shall deal with later). Set out a table as shown below, with the "observed" numbers and the "expected" numbers (i.e. our null hypothesis). Then subtract each "expected" value from the corresponding "observed" value (O-E) Square the "O-E" values, and divide each by the relevant "expected" value to give (O-E)2/E Add all the (O-E)2/E values and call the total "X2"
Female Observed numbers (O) 80 Expected numbers (E) O-E (O-E)2 (O-E)2 / E 60*3 20 400 6.67 Male 40 60*3 -20 400 6.67 13.34 = X2 Total 120 120 *1 0 *2

Notes: *1 This total must always be the same as the observed total *2 This total must always be zero *3 The null hypothesis was obvious here: we are told that there are equal numbers of males and females in the Science Faculty, so we might expect that there will be equal numbers of males and females in Pharmacology. So we divide our total number of Pharmacology students (120) in a 1:1 ratio to get our expected values. Now we must compare our X2 value with a 2 (chi squared) value in a table of 2 with n-1 degrees of freedom (where n is the number of categories, i.e. 2 in our case - males and females). We have only one degree of freedom (n-1). From the 2 table, we find a "critical value of 3.84 for p = 0.05. If our calculated value of X2 exceeds the critical value of 2 then we have a significant difference from the expectation. In fact, our calculated X2 (13.34) exceeds even the tabulated 2 value (10.83) for p = 0.001. This shows an extreme departure from expectation. It is still possible that we could have got this result by chance - a probability of less than 1 in 1000. But we could be 99.9% confident that some factor leads to a "bias" towards females entering Pharmacology Honours. [Of course, the data don't tell us why this is so - it could be selfselection or any other reason]

Values of 2

Back to chi squared test?

A significant difference from your null hypothesis (i.e. difference from your expectation) is indicated when your calculated X2 value is greater than the 2 value shown in the 0.05 column of this table (i.e. there is only a 5% probability that your calculated X2value would occur by chance). You can be even more confident if your calculated value exceeds the 2 values in the 0.01 or 0.001 probability columns. If your calculated X2 value is equal to, or less than, the tabulated 2 value for 0.95 then your results give you no reason to reject the null hypothesis. In a few special circumstances (though not generally) a calculated X2 value lower than the 2value in the 0.95 or 0.99 columns provides evidence that your results agree well with a null hypothesis.
Degrees of Freedom 0.99
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Probability, p

0.95 0.004 0.103 0.352 0.711 1.145 1.635 2.167 2.733 3.325 3.940 4.58

0.05 3.84 5.99 7.82 9.49 11.07 12.59 14.07 15.51 16.92 18.31 19.68

0.01 6.64 9.21 11.35 13.28 15.09 16.81 18.48 20.09 21.67 23.21 24.73

0.001 10.83 13.82 16.27 18.47 20.52 22.46 24.32 26.13 27.88 29.59 31.26

0.000 0.020 0.115 0.297 0.554 0.872 1.239 1.646 2.088 2.558 3.05

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

3.57 4.11 4.66 5.23 5.81 6.41 7.02 7.63 8.26 8.90 9.54 10.20 10.86 11.52 12.20 12.88 13.57 14.26 14.95

5.23 5.89 6.57 7.26 7.96 8.67 9.39 10.12 10.85 11.59 12.34 13.09 13.85 14.61 15.38 16.15 16.93 17.71 18.49

21.03 22.36 23.69 25.00 26.30 27.59 28.87 30.14 31.41 32.67 33.92 35.17 36.42 37.65 38.89 40.11 41.34 42.56 43.77

26.22 27.69 29.14 30.58 32.00 33.41 34.81 36.19 37.57 38.93 40.29 41.64 42.98 44.31 45.64 46.96 48.28 49.59 50.89

32.91 34.53 36.12 37.70 39.25 40.79 42.31 43.82 45.32 46.80 48.27 49.73 51.18 52.62 54.05 55.48 56.89 58.30 59.70