Pre-laboratory Question
- Why would these techniques not be appropriate for most animal populations, for example a population of elephants?
- What sampling techniques would be best to determine the size of a population of dandelions in a field?
- List three situations or types of organisms for which a transect would be appropriate.
- Give an example of a situation where Transects would not be ideal.
- List three situations or types of organisms for which quadrats would be an appropriate sampling technique.
- Give an example of a situation where quadrats would not be ideal.
Discussion Questions
- Why do researchers not count every organism of their target population?
- Explain why random sampling is important in doing population studies.
- Are there ever times when random sampling is inappropriate?