Ten species slots. Free-text species name entry. An overflow list for the ones that don't fit. This is a quadrat template built for sites where the flora refuses to simplify itself to four species.
The Four-Species Ceiling
Standard quadrat templates give you four species slots, which works in low-diversity dryland systems with predictable assemblages. The BC Quadrat expands to ten species with percentage cover for each, plus an Additional species, % list field for the surveys where even ten isn't enough.
The difference is not only about field count. Species 1 through 10 use free-text fields rather than constrained choice lists. That design decision trades validation consistency for flexibility — you can record Avicennia marina var. rumphiana, Avicennia marina, or whatever the site authority uses without being forced to pick from a predetermined list that may not reflect current taxonomic revision. In complex coastal vegetation systems where species assemblages vary between zones and seasons, the open text approach captures what's actually there.
The overflow field — Additional species, % as a list — exists for the reality that a species-rich quadrat in mangrove transition zones or coastal shrubland might legitimately have twelve or fourteen species present. A list field appends entries without overwriting, so two surveyors reviewing the same quadrat record can add entries without destroying each other's data.
The Ecologist Field as Calibration Infrastructure
The Ecologist multichoice field — SB, ST, RN — appears in this template with a different set of initials than the arid-zone quadrat template used by the same research program. This is intentional: different survey teams working different sites. The mechanism is the same. The initials are different. The auditing function — detecting inter-observer variability in cover estimates — applies regardless of which initials appear.
At 10 species per quadrat with percentage estimates across a three-person rotating team, the potential for observer-driven variance in the dataset is substantial. Filtering by Ecologist and comparing mean cover estimates for the same species at the same habitat type is the fastest way to assess whether any systematic bias needs to be documented or corrected before the dataset goes into analysis.
Coordinates at the Quadrat Level
The Coordinates field captures GPS location for each individual quadrat — not the plot, not the site, each quadrat. In monitoring programs that use permanent quadrats revisited annually, this is the anchor that allows accurate relocation. A 5-meter error in relocating a permanent quadrat means you're measuring a different piece of ground and calling it the same quadrat.
Where the quadrat template supports a program with both fixed and random quadrats — fixed for long-term change detection, random for broad coverage estimates — the Coordinates field is what distinguishes them in the database. Random quadrats get recorded and analyzed. Fixed quadrats get relocated precisely because the coordinates are stored.
Quadrat No. as an integer rather than a text field matters for sort order when you're working with numbered quadrats across a site. 1 through 10 sort correctly. In a text field, 10 would sort before 2.
Notes at the end holds the observations that fall outside percentage cover: the quadrat boundary bisected by a livestock trail, the sudden die-off of Species 7 between visits, the soil disturbance that explains a 40% drop in total cover from the previous survey.