A Manual for Undergraduate Research in Field Biology

A Manual for Undergraduate Research in Field Biology

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Supporting Documents

Introduction

Your question or hypothesis

Four steps for designing a field study

1. Size and number of field sites

Size of sites

Number of sites

2. Identify the approach you will use for sampling your sites

A. Tools

transects

sampling plots

plotless sampling

B. Location

unbiased representative sample

random sampling

random number tables

uniform sampling

haphazard sampling

C. Number of samples

sampling effort

D. Plot (or point) placement

E. Examples of sampling designs

3. Figure out exactly what data you will collect and observations you will make

4. Make sure your design clearly addresses your question or hypothesis and printout your data sheets

Field data sheets

A final thought about what makes a successful study



Figures and Supporting Documents (back to contents)

Figure 1. Examples of field sites

Figure 2. Transects

Figure 3. Sampling plots

Figure 4. Transect-intercept method

Figure 5. Point-quarter method

Figure 6. Nearest-feature method

Figure 7. Random coordinates diagram

Figure 8. Random compass coordinates diagrams

Figure 9. Sampling design diagrams

Random number tables

Field data sheets



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