Fellow Ecologists,
In order to study plant species evenness and diversity for a plant community we count either individuals to calculate the appropriate indices or each species percentage cover/specific ground area (quadrat). The second is my case as we have 8x8 m2 which is quite large area and time consuming to estimate individuals.
Of course the second option is a tradeoff between quality and quantity as some plants species will have many individuals with low ground cover while others a small number of individuals with large cover area.
What would be the case if we count species percentage cover/ specific ground area (quadrat) and a metric of percentage cover of each species/ total vegetation percentage cover (technically relative abundance/100). Could we combine those to metrics to have a more representative value of flora status without counting the populations' individuals ?
Thanks in advance
I think you may get your doubts clarified by referring my paper (link attached) since i did my research similar to yours. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342989010_Wetland_Plant_Communities_of_the_Eastern_Himalayan_Highlands_in_Northern_Bhutan
You can invent any metric as long as you explain it. There are no rules! :)
There is no single method, you can use absolute and relative values, depending on what you want to do.
These two metrics represents two different parameter. Species percentage cover represents overall ground cover occupied by all species, whereas percentage cover of each species represents its abundance. However, I think there is no short cut as such, we have to count the number of individuals in both parameters. So representative value of flora status without counting the populations' individuals will be of little help.
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