Abstract
Aim of study: Cluster plot designs are widely used in national forest inventory systems to assess current forest resources. By spreading subplots apart, a cluster plot could potentially capture a large variety of local plant species. This aspect has rarely been examined in the past. This study is conducted to understand how design factors of a cluster plot affect estimates of local plant species composition.Area of study: Two large census forest plots in Taiwan and Peninsular Malaysia over 25 ha with different species richness were used.Material and methods: Design factors of a cluster plot were plot configuration (PCONFIG), plot area (PAREA), cluster layout (CLAYOUT), and extent of ground area covered by a cluster (CEXTENT). Jaccard and Sørensen similarity indices were used to compare species compositional similarity between two cluster plot designs. A simulation study was carried out.Main results: Results were consistent among the study sites and similarity indices. PAREA, CLAYOUT, and CEXTENT notably influenced how species composition was sampled. Larger PAREA increased similarity in species composition between two cluster plot designs. Square and rectangle CLAYOUT had the most dissimilar species composition between them. Larger CEXTENT decreased similarity in species composition.Research highlights: We recommend that for CEXTENT ≤ 1000 m2 and PAREA ≤ 500 m2, a cluster plot of rectangle CLAYOUT is preferred for information gain. The study could potentially benefit forest managers designing cluster plots for plant diversity assessment.Keywords: Biodiversity assessment; composition similarity; national forest inventory; species diversity; sampling design; sampling efficiency.Abbreviation used: extent of ground area covered by a cluster (CEXTENT); cluster layout (CLAYOUT); Jaccard similarity index (JAC); plot area (PAREA); plot configuration (PCONFIG); Sørensen similarity index (SOR).
Highlights
Plant diversity provides multifaceted benefits to human society
Non-overlapping empirical 95% confidence interval (E95CI) suggested that the two comparisons were significantly different, which was supported by the hierarchical linear mixed effects (HLME) models (p < 0.0001 for α2; Table 1)
With increasing emphasis on managing global forests under diverse objectives, forest biodiversity information extracted from a robust forest inventory system has the potential to inform policies on regional and national levels (Winter et al, 2008)
Summary
Plant diversity provides multifaceted benefits to human society. The loss of it will have important consequences on our economies, food security, and livelihoods (FAO & PAR, 2011; IPBES, 2018). Forest Inventories (NFIs) provide such data, which is useful for decision-makers to shape policy instruments to halt the loss of plant diversity (Winter et al, 2008; Geijzendorffer et al, 2016). NFIs provide only sample-based estimates of plant diversity because it is difficult to fully enumerate all plant individuals (Lam & Kleinn, 2008). Uncertainty in these estimates could hamper understanding and conservation of valuable natural resources (Costello et al, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
