Lecture 3: Vegetation Sampling - Alaska Geobotany Center

Es4ma4ng percentage cover
• Generally a ball-­‐park es4mate is good enough
(e.g., 20% for species B above. This falls in B-­‐B
cover-­‐abundance category 3, which is the same
as the actual cover (33%) determined by
measurement.)
• Cover is very difficult to
accurately es4mate. The
use of cover-­‐abundance
scores greatly reduces
the varia4on in scores
from observer to
observer.
• For the relevé method,
actual scores are not as
important as the
presence or absence of
species.
• Cover is a secondary
considera4on in the
Braun-­‐Blanquet table
analysis method.