Wandering Quarter Plotless Sampling Method

[William Allison]

Hi Phil,

With respect to that family of methods there has not been much done on coral
reefs.
If I remember correctly Charles Birkeland favoured it and recommended it for
use along with the line intercept method. It is in:

UNESCO (1984). Comparing Coral Reef Survey Methods, UNESCO/UNEP.
This is not the manual you refer to (Stoddart ed., 1978).

Dodge et al. compared the method against others.
Dodge, R. E., A. Logan, et al. (1982). "Quantitative reef assessment studies
in Bermuda: a comparison of methods and preliminary results." Bull. Mar.
Sci. 32(3): 745-760.

I found that at high cover levels I got substantial overestimates (>100%
when cover plainly was less and other methods indicated ~80%). I suspect the
distance between sample points was the critical factor (samples not
independent).

Sincerely,
Bill

William (Bill) Allison
Kothanmage South
Maaveyomagu
Male
MALDIVES

(960) 32 9667
wallison at dhivehinet.net.mv
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Pepe" <phil.pepe at pcmail.maricopa.edu>
To: <coral-list at coral.aoml.noaa.gov>
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2001 2:12 AM
Subject: Wandering Quarter Plotless Sampling Method


> Does anyone have any references to the wandering quarter plotless
> sampling method? I've read a description of it in a forestry methods
> manual and Loya's description in an old UNESCO coral reef sampling
> methods book. Is anyone using it for coral sampling? We tried it out
> last summer in Hawaii to survey damage to coral heads. It was relatively
> easy to employ and thereby a promising method. However, we're coming up
> empty handed when trying to find references in the literature.
>

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