Quadrat

A square is usually made of a metal or plastic frame and is used in the ecological field research for a defined collection of samples. It usually has the size of a quarter or square. You can use it for collecting plants or slowly moving insects. It is also suitable for some tasks in underwater research.

Use

If you want to know, how many organisms are in a special habitat, you have to (in principle) all count. However, this is sometimes not possible, which is why you samples of defined size counts out. To this end, delimits a certain area and is all organisms in this area. The size of the square and used for its divisions depends on the size of the einzusammelnden organisms.

It is important that the collection method is random in order to avoid selection errors. To get a random selection, you can see the quilts in a position counted grid. In long-term studies it may be important to rediscover the exact counted by surfaces even after months or years. The methods used here are very different. One can establish reference points, or mark positions using a GPS device.