This chapter describes the key concepts that are important in designing an experiment. These concepts can be applied to most types of study but are easiest to explain when based on the design of on-station trials. The main concepts explained here concern the identification of the objectives of the experiment in the form of specific questions, selection of treatments to provide answers to the questions, choice of experimental units and amount of replication. Concepts covered are: control of the variability between units through systems of blocking and/or using ancillary information collected on the units; allocation of treatments to particular units within the overall structure, involving where possible, an element of randomization; and collecting data that are appropriate for the objectives of the research. Each concept is described in detail.
This chapter concentrates on aspects of the design and analysis of on-farm trials that are different from on-station research, and additionally gives materials illustrating how the ideas are applied to other natural resource management contexts. It also describes guidelines on type of on-farm experiments, specifying objectives, choices of farms and villages, choice of treatment and units, and types of measurements to use.
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Aspects of land survey to consider in natural resource management are given. Examples include land use and productivity, plant animal and microbial abundance and diversity, and soil properties and problems. Aspects to consider in satisfying the objectives of land surveys are described, including sampling in space, multi-scale measurement, experiment replication, time and repeated sampling. Three examples of sampling methods developed to cope with specific problems are mentioned. These examples involve the use of adaptive sampling for estimation of the rare species, transect sampling for estimating the number of a mobile population of birds, and capture-recapture for studying animal populations in which it is possible or necessary to capture animals and not just spit them, such as fishes, insects or nocturnal mammals.
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