quadrat sampling method

Local Knowledge Graph (Top 76 entities)

Loading graph...

Method synopsis

Measurement of plant species-specific cover, identification of focal species, and collection of plant biomass and functional traits including specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content.

Synthesized from method descriptions across 48 papers using this protocol.

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Steps below were extracted from the most recent peer-reviewed implementation of this protocol in the corpus — Experimental warming decouples plant-fungal symbiont interactions and leads to a more conservative ecosystem (2026), PNAS. The protocol was originally introduced by On the spatial distribution and abundance of herbaceous plants in aspen and conifer forest understories: a test of neutral/statistical versus niche-based theories? (2008). Implementations in other papers (listed below) may differ.

Measure plant species cover and biomass
After 29 years of experimental manipulation, researchers measured plant species-specific cover and identified nine focal plant species that comprised at least 75% of the total aboveground cover across the experiment. They measured aboveground stem and leaf biomass for specific leaf area and leaf dry matter content.
Quantities: 9 focal plant species representing 75% of total aboveground coverDuration: After 29 years of treatmentConditions: During growing season
Equipment: measurement tools for biomass

Typical Equipment

measurement tools for biomass

Output Measurements

plant cover
plant biomass
specific leaf area
leaf dry matter content

Papers Using This Protocol (48)

article

Experimental warming decouples plant-fungal symbiont interactions and leads to a more conservative ecosystem

2026PNASusing

thesis

The impacts of environmental change on plant and microbial communities: A turf transplant experiment in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

2025using

thesis

Hydrologic connectivity shapes watershed response to climate variability from local to global scales

2025using

student_paper

Environmental Variation and Vegetative Composition in Beaver Engineered Ecosystems

2024using

student_paper

Effect of Nitrogen on Linaria vulgaris and Native Species

2024using

article

Integrating natural gradients, experiments, and statistical modeling in a distributed network experiment: An example from the WaRM Network

2022Ecology and Evolutionusing

student_paper

Forest Fuels and Management Considerations at the Willey Conservation Easement, Colorado

2022using

student_paper

The Effect of Climate Change on Soil Organic Carbon over an Elevational Gradient

Species Studied With This Protocol

Places Where Used

Gunnison Basin

region1 paper

southwestern Colorado

region1 paper

Crested Butte

study site1 paper

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

study site1 paper

Bariloche, Patagonia

study site1 paper

Mt. Ruapehu, Tukino

peak1 paper

quadrat sampling method

Local Knowledge Graph (Top 76 entities)

Method synopsis

Procedure from a recent peer-reviewed implementation

Typical Equipment

Output Measurements

Papers Using This Protocol (48)

Experimental warming decouples plant-fungal symbiont interactions and leads to a more conservative ecosystem

The impacts of environmental change on plant and microbial communities: A turf transplant experiment in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

Hydrologic connectivity shapes watershed response to climate variability from local to global scales

Environmental Variation and Vegetative Composition in Beaver Engineered Ecosystems

Effect of Nitrogen on Linaria vulgaris and Native Species

Integrating natural gradients, experiments, and statistical modeling in a distributed network experiment: An example from the WaRM Network

Forest Fuels and Management Considerations at the Willey Conservation Easement, Colorado

The Effect of Climate Change on Soil Organic Carbon over an Elevational Gradient

Species Studied With This Protocol

Erigeron

Potentilla

Festuca

Artemisia

A. tridentata

Festuca thurberi

Erigeron speciosus

Artemisia tridentata

herbaceous plants

Taraxacum

Places Where Used

Gunnison Basin

southwestern Colorado

Crested Butte

Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory

Bariloche, Patagonia

Mt. Ruapehu, Tukino

How does incorporating microclimate data into ecological niche models change our estimates of the climatic niche of vascular plant species?

Investigating alpine plant community responses to simulated warming and dominant species removal at a low and high elevation in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

Plant size and allocation to reproduction for plant demography

Impacts of the invasive species <i> Linaria vulgaris </i> on soil ecology and native plant biodiversity

Identifying the Impact of Biotic Interactions on Meadow Species Distributions in Sagebrush and Bunchgrass Dominated Systems

The Direct and Interactive Effects of Warming and Species Interaction on Plant Functional Traits

Surveying historical patterns in vegetation change (1929-2019) in the upper East River Valley using RMBL's archival herbarium records

Are ants botanists?: Ant associative learning of plant volatiles

Consistent shifts in pollinator-relevant floral coloration along a Rocky Mountain elevation gradient

Plant dominance in a subalpine montane meadow: biotic vs. abiotic controls of subordinate diversity within and across sites

Effects of Light Availability on Aspen Understory Species

Aboveground resilience to species loss but belowground resistance to nitrogen addition in a montane plant community

Intraspecific variation in traits reduces ability of trait-based models to predict community structure

Habitat patch use, density, and territoriality of American Red Squirrels (<i>Tamiasciurus hudsonicus</i>) in the southwestern Rocky Mountains, Colorado

Effects of Plant Diversity on Selection for Insect Resistance Traits in <i>Boechera stricta</i>

The Effects of Ants on Ecosystem Dynamics: Investigating the Ecological Influence of Ant Nests in the Rocky Mountains

Nest Success of Gunnison Sage-Grouse in Colorado, USA

Plant Successional Changes Over 67 Years on the Gothic Earthflow.

Aspen (<i>Populus tremuloides</i>) stand dynamics and understory plant community changes over 46 years near Crested Butte, Colorado, USA

Responses of high-altitude graminoids and fungal fungi to 20 years of experimental warming

Pocket gopher activity across elevation gradients.

The effect of plant trait variation on plant production

Global assessment of experimental Climate warming on tundra vegetation: heterogeneity over space and time

Does nutrient enrichment interact with <i>Castilleja miniata</i> to alter plant communities in montane meadows?

The effects of hemiparasitism by <i> Castilleja</i> spp on community structure in alpine ecosystems

Intraspecific variation of specific leaf area along an elevational gradient

Impact of mound-building ants on ecosystem properties create islands of fertility in alpine meadows

Ant presences alter plants: The impact <i>Formica obscuripes</i> presence on plants and soil micro-anthropod diversity

Intraspecific trait variation affects community distributions of alpine meadow plant communities

Testing the predictions of the Maximum Information Entropy Theory for abundance and energy distributions on the Gothic earthflow

Beyond biomass: measuring the effects of community-level nitrogen enrichment on floral traits, pollinator visitation and plant reproduction

Environmental forces drive morphological variation in an alpine annual plant

Plant community composition with respect to species richness along an altitudinal gradient in gunnison county, co

Determining Long-Term Success of Revegetation Efforts in Disturbed Sites

A test of species-area theory on a high disturbance area of the Gothic earthflow

On the spatial distribution and abundance of herbaceous plants in aspen and conifer forest understories: a test of neutral/statistical versus niche-based theories?

Revegetation after disturbance in high-altitude meadow ecosystems

Estimating species richness at large spatial scales using data from discrete plots

Biotic and abiotic effects on ant community structure

Hydrologic and Biotic Effects of Grazing vs. Non-Grazing near Grand Junction, Colorado