Sampling Techniques

Density
Frequency

Percentage Cover
 Transect means to cut across
The transect line is used to:
mark off or denote your sample area.
measure distance by marking or tying knots at
measured intervals eg. every 10 cm.
measure the height of shrubs within your
sample area by tying the line a given distance
above the ground. eg 1 metre from the ground.
 A quadrat is a square (of either metal, wood,
or plastic) used in ecology and geography to
isolate a sample, usually about 1m2 or
0.25m2. The quadrat is suitable for sampling
plants, slow-moving animals (such as
millipedes and insects), and some aquatic
organisms.
 When an ecologist wants to know how many
organisms there are in a particular habitat, it
would not be feasible to count them all. Instead,
he would be forced to count a smaller
representative part of the population, called a
sample.
Sampling of plants or animals that do not move
much (such as snails), can be done using a
sampling square called a quadrat.
It is important that sampling in an area is
carried out at random, to avoid bias.
 The number of organisms in a 1m2 found
using a quadrat with 1m sides.
Average number of organisms inside the
quadrat on 10 throws of its density.
 The number of parts out of a hundred
occupied by it.
 Perecentage cover of the area out of a
hundred parts occupied by the organism.
 The mangrove ecosystem is a unique
assemblage of plants, animals and
microorganisms adapted to live in the ever
changing environment of tropical and sub-
tropical coastal zones.brackish water - where fresh
water meets saline
 Mangrove trees are unique plants which do
not have to grow in saline soils (i.e. they are
not obligate halophytes)
They gain a competitive advantage over
other plants by their adaptations to exclude
or remove salt from their tissues.
They are also adapted to overcome the
effects of waterlogged, poorly oxygenated
soils.
 Salt gland

Salt gland
 The button mangrove (Conocarpus erectus)
is considered by some to be a
semimangrove,
It has adaptations to remove salt from the
tissues (salt glands).
They are found landward edge (in land) of
the mangrove forest.
 There are no prop roots and sometimes
breathing roots.
The tree bears small clusters of flowers
which become the clusters of fruits with
rounded heads like buttons.
The colour of the trunk is often white.
 The black mangrove
(Avicennia
germinans) is so
named for the dark
colour of the trunk
especially when wet.
This is due to the
presence of blue-
green algae which
live in the bark of the
tree.
 This mangrove also has a peculiar rooting
system of aerial roots, called
pneumatophores (breathing roots).
Their primary function is not anchorage but
for facilitating gaseous exchange between
the plant and the air.
The pneumatophores extend about 30 cm
above the soil and are covered in lenticels or
breathing pores.
 They are found on the border of the water
and the land.
The leaves of the black mangroves are
narrow and often have salt crystals on their
surface.
The plant excretes excess salt through the
stomatal pores of the leaves.
The flower has four rounded petals and is
white.
 The red mangrove
tree (Rhizophora
mangle).
The red mangrove
tree is so named
because of the red
colour under the
bark of the tree.
This is by the
accumulated
waste products in
the form of
tannins.
 Prop roots are aerial
roots which grow from
the branches (drop
roots) or more commonly
from the trunk (prop
roots) of the tree.
They are supplied with
pores (lenticels) filled
with corky material which
allow oxygen to be taken
up as the rest of the
rooting system is in
anaerobic conditions.
 The prop roots facilitate anchorage of the
tree in the unconsolidated sediment.
Red mangroves maintain a normal salt
concentration in their tissues by excluding
salt from the leaves as well as transferring
salt into the older leaves which are then
shed.
Mangrove seeds germinate while still
attached to the tree.
 Red mangrove trees have large, rounded,
leathery leaves which are arranged opposite
each other on the stem.
The flower is of a yellow-cream colour with four
pointed petals.
Mangrove seeds germinate while still attached
to the tree, resulting in a torpedo shape.
It falls vertically into the mud and starts to
grow or floats upright until it touches land and
becomes established.
 Ulva fasciata
Ulva rigida