Point Intercept and Line Intercept Methods for Aquatic Plant Management

The use of quantitative methods for aquatic plants has not become as standardized as other components in the aquatic ecosystem, such as biotic (e.g., fish) or physical components (e.g., water chemistry) (APHA 1995, Lind 1979, Wetzel and Likens 1991). Even when considering aquatic biomass sampling, which is a widely accepted means of quantifying aquatic plant communities, there is considerable divergence in implementation of the technique that may result in data incomparability (Dennis and Isoms 1984, Madsen 1993, Spencer and Whitehand 1993). While biomass sampling will provide accurate estimates of plant abundance on both whole-lake (Madsen and Barko 1997) and study plot (Getsinger et al. 1997) bases, it is very costly, timeand labor-intensive, and not suited for measuring all aspects of the plant community.