Technical Notes: Evaluation of the Dry-Weight-Rank Method for Determining Species Composition in Tallgrass Prairie

The dry-weight-rank (DWR) method for determining species composition of tallgrass prairie vegetation was compared to hand clipping. Species composition estimates for the 2 methods were similar in 3 of 4 trials when true ranking and previously published multipliers were used. Weighting the DWR estimates by plot total weight did not consistently improve the accuracy of the method. Observer errors reduced the accuracy of DWR, emphasizing the need for observer training. DWR estimates were generally less precise than hand clipped estimates for a given sample size but the speed of DWR would allow more samples to be taken resulting in more precise estimates in practice.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202