1.1 Introduction
Plant sampling techniques vary with the crop. In some cases, such as cereal crops, leaf samples are taken. In a few cases, for example suspected boron deficiency in sugar beet, the roots should be sampled. In any sampling of plant material great care should be taken to avoid soil contamination. This is true when sampling for major element analysis but it is critically important when trace element analysis is concerned because the contaminating soil may contain very much more of some trace elements than does the crop and a false result will be obtained (Agritech, 2021).
It is essential to take a representative sample of the crop. One or two whole plants taken from an area may be completely unrepresentative. Samples should be taken from 50-100 plants in a given area. The advisory services, if called in may wish to take samples themselves, or may advise on which part of the plant to sample. If a deficiency or toxicity condition is suspected in only a part of a field, 'good' and 'poor' areas should be sampled for comparison in the laboratory. Leaves or other parts of the plant, of the same age or growth stage, should be taken at the same time.
It is extremely important to use containers for transporting the samples which will not contaminate them. Tins, other metal containers and even some paper bags can cause serious contamination of the sample. The best container is a clean polythene bag. After taking the sample, labels should be attached, the bag sealed and transferred to the laboratory as quickly as possible (Agritech, 2021).
The basic principle behind this technique is that the nutrient concentration of plants is related to the amount of nutrient element available in soil. General range of nutrient content in fully developed leaves of vegetable crops is given in table. If the nutrient level in the tissues falls below the critical concentration, the soil may be deficient in that element for optimum plant growth. Different plant parts of the same plant contain different concentrations of the same nutrient. Nutrient concentration again varies with the stage of the crop. So, leaf samples for analyses should be selected on the basis of physiological age, i.e., developmental stage. Stages of leaf sampling for the vegetable crops have been presented in table. It is important that the sample must be free from diseases, insect damage and physical or chemical injury. Leaf near the fruit should not be sampled as the nutrients, it might have contained, are often translocated to the fruits (Agritech, 2021).
The goal of most restoration and revegetation projects is to recreate the plant cover, distribution, and species composition of the site prior to disturbance, or of a comparable less disturbed reference site. Accurate data on community composition is desirable for the planning and evaluation of these projects. While it is impractical to take a complete census of even a relatively small site; cover, density, and frequency of plant species can ve accurately estimated from as little as 1% of the community (Barbour et al., 1987).
The selection of sample site can be based typical sites (releve), random samples, systematic samples in a regular pattern, or by a combination of random and systematic selection (Greig-Smith, 1983). Although the relive method uses subjective choice of sample locations, the process of recording data is relatively rapid and non-mathematical. Systematic and random methods, which are commonly used in the United States, are more conductive to statistical analysis. In the field, random sampling may be much less convenient than systematic sampling, but the regular sampling of a population showing periodic variation would not be a representative of a population as a whole (Eberhardt and Thomas, 1991). The selection of an appropriate sampling technique depends upon the type of data needed, the size of the sampling site and the number of available workers.
1.2 Statement of Problems
Many latest and significant developments in community ecology have been derived from experiments conducted in microcosms. Studies with microcosms have addressed a broad variety of phenomena, including climate change, ecological diversity, assembly rules, habitat restoration, trophic dynamics and mycorrhizal associations. The common factor linking these studies are that they manipulate an individual environmental axis and explore the role that axis plays in structuring communities. It has also been suggested that microcosms and mesocosms can be a useful approach for apparently intractable global problems, such as ecosystem responses to climate change or managing ecological diversity through the design of nature reserve.
1.3 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Method of Sampling Plants (Shrubs, Trees and Herbs). In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To observe the effect of species diversity and richness on the functioning of experimental plant (Shrubs, Trees and Herbs) communities in microcosms.
- To assess the trees, shrubs and herbs species composition from Sampling Plants
- To examine the growth variables of shrubs, trees and herbs species in Botanical gardens
