Advantages and disadvantages
Quadrats are the basic tool of many plant ecologists. They are very easy to use and can be employed in a wide range of studies. It can be difficult and time-consuming to measure out very large quadrats. If, as is common, species have a non-random distribution over the study area then estimates of abundance from a single quadrat will be changed by the size of the quadrat. This is because larger quadrats will even out the patchiness in the vegetation more than smaller ones will. Single quadrats are never used and carefully planned sampling (Chapter 2) will eliminate these size effects.
The measures have different advantages and disadvantages. Density- and size-based measures correlate poorly and even cover and biomass (size-based) are not very compatible (Figure 4.1). At intermediate densities frequency has a loose logarithmic relationship to density, but saturation of quadrats or quadrat subdivisions at high densities will lessen any correlation. The use of smaller (and more) quadrats or subdivisions maintains the relation with density better as the area sampled approaches that of a single plant. Frequency is a very quick and easy method to use but the estimate of frequency will always be influenced by quadrat or subdivision size. This is because the quadrat, rather than being used to select a sample area, is used as the dimensionless unit of measurement. Therefore, larger quadrats or subdivisions will usually be more likely to find the study species and will give higher frequency estimates. When using quadrats as the measurement unit, patchiness in species distribution will reduce the likelihood of a randomly placed quadrat finding the species and will therefore also reduce the frequency estimate. For these reasons you should take great care when interpreting frequency measures, especially when comparing study areas. Local frequency has the same problems.
‘Nested quadrats’ have been suggested to improve frequency measures, especially to improve the correlation with density (Morrison et al. 1995). The most straightforward of a number of nesting approaches involves concentric nesting of a series of gradually larger sub-quadrats (e.g. using a geometrical relationship) within the largest quadrat. The observer notes the species in the smallest nested sub-quadrat, then moves on to the next smallest quadrat and notes species found only in the area of this sub-quadrat not occupied by the smallest sub-quadrat. This goes