The Use of Random and Contiguous Quadrats in the Study of the Structure of Plant Communities

Abstract

Artificial ‘communities’ of discs have been constructed and sampled by random throws of quadrats of different sizes and by a grid of contiguous quadrats. The use of a grid opens the way to more detailed study of the nature of the non-random distribution of species in the field, especially to the detection of mosaic patterns not normally revealed by subjective methods.