The dry-weight-rank (DWR) method for determining species composition of taiigrass prairie vegetation was compared to hand clipping. Species composition esthnates for the 2 methods were simiiu in 3 of 4 trials when true ranking and previously published muitipiiers were used. Weighting the DWR estimates by plot total weight did not consistently improve the accuracy of the method. Observer errors reduced the accuracy of DWR, emphasizing the need for observer training. DWR estimates were generaiiy

more »

... ess precise than hand clipped esthnates for a given sample size but the speed of DWR would aiiow more samples to be taken resulting in more precise esthnsites in practice.