4.2 Quadrates

The image shows a Sand Dune ecosystem which is made up of a number of populations which form the community and the habitat.

There is a fence which splits the Sand Dune region into grazed by cattle and ungrazed.

So there are two different types of areas within an ecosystem and we can choose to study both populations.

The first step is to count the number of individuals in the population. The technique used to do so is called quadratic. Quadrates are made up of squares and can be produced in any material such as wood, metal or string forming a square grid.

These square grids are used to sample the populations of different areas. By counting the number of individuals in the grid, and repeating this numerous times, we are able to gain an estimate of the population.