Which vegetation sampling approach is more efficient for a rangeland inventory?

摘要

Iran's rangelands cover about 90 million hectares and provide a wide variety of products and services.Aims of a sampling plan would include maximum efficiency to provide the best statistical estimates with low cost and high precision.It is very important that sampling provides an unbiased estimate of the variance and the mean of the parameters being studied.Designing efficient sampling techniques is a critical processe to all management decisions.On the other hand, the consequences of poor sampling design are loss of both time and money, reduced creditability, incorrect management decisions, and, eventually, rangeland deterioration.The objectives of our study were to compare three vegetation sampling techniques of (1 ) random (RNDM), (2) systematic ( SYSM ), and (3) random‐systematic sampling ( RND‐SYSM ) in terms of precision, accuracy, and time‐cost consumption to characterize the vegetation of a mountainous region in Iran.