B4 - Transects

The distribution of organisms is where they are found within their ecosystem. A way that we can investigate this is using a transect, which is a measured line of quadrats creating a grid across the area.

The organisms within the area are then counted and recorded, and you can work out the average (which is helpful if you are counting blades of grass) of that organism in the area.

To do this, you count the number of small squares within the quadrats that are covered by the organism, including any with a majority covered, and the percentage is then worked out.

You can then present your results in a kite diagram, which shows the abundance and the distribution of the organisms. This is helpful because you can clearly see the distribution in the area.