Effects of species aggregation, habitat and season on the accuracy of double‐sampling to measure herbage mass in a lowland grassland ecosystem

Abstract

AbstractDouble‐sampling, as a cost‐effective and sufficiently accurate method, is an acknowledged method for estimating herbage mass at the level of the plant species up to the total plant community. It was investigated whether adjusting visual estimations of double‐sampling is applicable at different levels of species aggregation when different seasons and habitats are involved. The method was used in six different habitats of the same ecosystem, a grassland nature reserve in western Belgium, based on eight sampling periods. A general linear model was used to analyse the data at four levels of species aggregation. The correlation between estimated and measured values of herbage mass was significant for the majority of graminoid species at the levels of the sub‐life‐form and total plant community but not at the level of the life‐form. Interaction of habitat type and measured herbage mass, and interaction of date and measured herbage mass, were significant for a minority of species. A significant interaction of both date and habitat with measured herbage mass was found in some cases at the level of the sub‐life‐form and total plant community. Results suggest that the double‐sampling method is reliable for most graminoids and at the sub‐life‐form level, but should be applied more cautiously for forbs species, and when different sampling periods and habitat types are involved at the level of the life‐form. To avoid producing several calibration lines at the level of the species and to overcome deficiency of observations at this level, lumping morphologically similar species from the same vegetation stratum in sub‐life‐form groups is recommended for adjusting estimated herbage mass.