Laserfiche WebLink
Harry Ranney <br />May 29, 2003 <br />Page 2 <br />Vegetative Ground Cover <br />Sampling for vegetative ground cover will be conducted in June and August of 2003. Vegetative <br />ground cover will be evaluated on the Dryland Reference Area and the two reclaimed area units <br />using 50-meter point intercept transects. Two sampling points (one meter apart) on both sides ofthe <br />transect will be sampled at one meter intervals, resulting in 100 sample points per transect. Each <br />corresponding sample point is determined by projection of the ocular sight (Cover-Point Optical <br />Point Proj ection Device, Mode12) vertically downwazd and physically recording all manner of"first <br />hits". The "first hits" will be recorded as rock, bare ground, litter, or live vegetation. Live vegetation <br />will be further classified to genus and species. Vegetative ground cover on the reclaimed azeas will <br />be considered successful i f t he s ample m can i s a t l east 9 0 p ercent o f t he c over s ample m ean <br />measured on the corresponding reference azea. <br />The live vegetative "first hits" will be used to calculate total vegetative cover for each transect <br />according to Equation 1. <br />(1) <br />Number of Hits on Vegetation <br />Percent Total Vegetative Cover = <br />Total Number of Points <br />Fifteen transects will initially be evaluated on the Dryland Reference Area and both ofthe reclaimed <br />area sampling units for success comparison and statistical evaluation. The Snedecor-Cochran sample <br />adequacy formula (Equation 2) will be used to determine that an adequate number of transects are <br />sampled. <br />(2) <br />tz s2 <br />Nmin = (CI X )2 <br />Where: <br />N = required number of transects or quadrats <br />d = desired level ofprecision (0.1 the level ofprecision for estimate ofthe <br /> Mean to be within 10% of the actual mean) <br />x = sample mean <br />sz = sample variance <br />t = the a = .10 t-table value for a single tailed t-test with n-1 degrees of <br /> freedom <br />