What is a reasonable plot size for sampling aquatic vegetation?
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Aquatic Sciences
RESEARCH ARTICLE
What is a reasonable plot size for sampling aquatic vegetation? Anna Müllerová1 · Klára Řehounková1 · Karel Prach1,2 Received: 2 January 2020 / Accepted: 12 July 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract The question of the efficient plot size for sampling vegetation has been discussed many times, but aquatic vegetation is rarely considered. Here we examine a dataset of aquatic (267) and littoral (456) vegetation samples from 60 sandpits across the Czech Republic to determine appropriate plot size while trying to maximise both efficiency and accuracy of the sampling effort. A dataset of littoral vegetation samples was used for comparison in some analyses. The cover of vascular plant species was estimated in nested plots of 1, 4 and 16 m2. Age of sampled plots ranged from 1 to 63 years. Besides species identity itself, basic life-history species traits were considered in the comparison of different plot sizes. Effect of plot size on different ordination patterns was evaluated with Procrustean analyses and the Monte Carlo permutation test. The size categories differed in number of species and species dominance (Simpson index). No significant differences were found between plot sizes in ordinations of aquatic vegetation, neither for species composition nor for the composition of species traits. Our study indicates that aquatic vegetation samples of different size between 1 and 16 m2 are comparable, especially if species functional groups are used instead of species identity. Analyses of successional changes and the influence of environmental variables should not be significantly affected by the plot size used for sampling the vegetation when cover data are used. The different plot sizes did not affect the description of successional trends. Keywords Aquatic vegetation · Plot size · Sand pits · Species richness · Species traits
Introduction Sampling vegetation using phytosociological relevés has raised the question of optimal plot size (e.g. Levin 1992) which best records the species composition of the vegetation in question. Researchers usually chose plots of particular size because scientists in previous studies did the same (Wiens 1989). In history, the minimum area concept determined the plot size used for studying vegetation (Moravec 1973; Dietvorst et al. 1982; Barkman 1989). The minimum area is based on the species-area curve and can be defined as the “smallest area in which the species composition of the community in question is adequately represented” (Ellenberg and Mueller-Dombois 1974) or as “the area at which * Anna Müllerová [email protected] 1
Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, Branišovská 1760, 370 05 České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Institute of Botany, Academy of Science of the Czech Republic, Dukelská 135, 379 82 Třeboň, Czech Republic
2
the initially steep curve becomes more or less horizontal” (Braun-Blanquet 1964). It is broadly accepted that plot size rather follows study aims (Wiens 1989; L
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