Sampling

Field sampling programs provide the information needed to determine the status and dynamics of populations and communities and thus are the basis for many kind of research. The physical and biological complexity and dynamism of most marine ecosystems results in high spatial and temporal variability in almost any measured parameter. Sampling methods and procedures need to be carefully analysed and selected so as to take into account this high variability of most marine systems.

The steps in designing a field sampling program include:

• Identifiying the study goals including the questions to be anwered by the study or the hypothesis to be tested.
• Developing and effective and statistically powerful study design.

Field sampling studies can be clasified into four categories :

Fig. 1. Field sampling studies provide crucial information to determine the status and dynamics of marine population and communities. Photo © J.Atalah

Baseline studies: data are collected to define the present state of a biological population or community. They are also called "one-off" studies, because by definition, they are not replicated in time.

Impact studies: are designed to determine the changes brought about a particular disturbance or stressor by comparing the status of natural or unimpacted biological parameters with their status under unimpacted conditions.

Monitoring studies: are designed to detect any changes from the present state. By definition, monitoring studies involve reapeted sampling in time. Monitoring programms in marine environments have focused on chemical, physical, and biological parameters, for example detecting microbial contamination of beaches, determining the concentration of potential harmful material on fish, estimating the population abundance of an endagered species inside a marine reserve.

Pattern and process (ecological) studies: these studies involve describing distribution and abundance patterns of organisms, with the intention of identifying the processes resposible for them. For this, prupose descritive ('mensurative') and experiemntal approaches should be used.

References

The main author of this article is Atalah, Javier Please note that others may also have edited the contents of this article. Citation: Atalah, Javier (2009): Sampling. Available from http://www.coastalwiki.org/wiki/Sampling [accessed on 22-11-2024] For other articles by this author see Category:Articles by Atalah, Javier For an overview of contributions by this author see Special:Contributions/Javier