Optimizing sampling approaches along ecological gradients

Analyzing gradients is one of the major approaches in the natural sciences. Recently, Andreas Schweiger and colleagues from the departments of biogeography and plant ecology in Bayreuth showed by simulating artificial gradients that optimal sampling strategies exist. However, these optimal sampling strategies depend on if one is aiming at conducting an experiment or a field study. The new findings and the subsequent guidelines were published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution and can contribute to an optimal investment of limited resources in future studies without suffering loss of information, which in a worst-case-scenario could lead to wrong conclusions.