Place quadrats at randomly selected coordinates, record the target sessile organisms within each known-area sample, and use the counts to estimate abundance or population size across a habitat.
A school football field has plantain plants (Plantago media) growing on it as well as grass. Each plantain plant has a short stem with a circle of wide leaves. Outline how the size of the plantain population could be estimated using a quadrat method.
the quadrat positions are determined randomly within (the area of) the field
the number of plantain plants in the quadrat is counted each time
the area of the quadrat and the field are measured
apply a formula