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1 A study was carried out to investigate how plant communities change from
the seashore inland across sand dunes. A transect was placed from the
beach inland, and quadrats were used at intervals. In each quadrat, researchers
recorded the percentage cover of dominant plant species, the number of plant
species present, and the mass of organic material in the soil.
Table 1: Number of species and soil organic
material
Quadrat Distance from Number of Soil organic
beach(m) species material (g)
1 0 1 0.2
2 80 3 1.5
3 170 7 5.8
4 250 12 22.0
5 500 6 20.5
6 650 8 30.2
7 980 7 8.7
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8 1600 4 40.0
9 2000 3 50.1
Table 2: Percentage cover of selected plant species
Quadrat Bare Sea thrift Creeping Sea Heather Scot
sand sandwort willow buckthorn pine
1 85 15 - - - - -
2 60 25 10 - - - -
3 40 15 20 15 - - -
4 20 5 25 40 - - -
5 25 - 10 30 20 - -
6 10 - - 20 60 - -
7 5 - - - 40 50 -
8 - - - - - 50 50
9 - - - - - - 100
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(a) Explain why quadrats were used to estimate the percentage cover of
plants rather than relying on visual estimation
(2)
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(b) Describe why a transect is more suitable than random sampling for this study.
(2)
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