Methodologies for surveying plant communities in artificial channels

The gathering of quantitative information on aquatic macrophyte communities in artificial drainage and navigation channels presents a number of method ological and analytical problems. These include: subjectivity of plant abun dance estimation, the conflict between standardisation and adaptation of me thods to specific purposes, and the concepts of randomness and homogeneity in linear surveying. As a result, much of the currently available informati on is highly subjective and difficult to use in any comparative way, either temporally or spatially. More standardised procedures should be developed which minimise these shortcomings and permit later re-use of data in compar ative studies.