ABSTRACT
This chapter provides readers with an overview of basic quantitative sampling principles as applied to cotton agroecosystems. As a prelude to the more statistical sections, it focuses on general crop growth and development, and the temporal assemblage of herbivorous arthropods found in cotton. The chapter explains how spatial patterns or perception of spatial patterns are affected by sampler error, biotic, and physical factors. It also focuses on several areas which collectively encompass much of the current applied sampling literature. The chapter includes sample size estimation, economics, and decision criteria, binomial and enumerative sampling, and the role of natural enemies in the decision process. Subsequent arthropod data is fit to numerous discrete probability distribution functions, ranging from the simple models such as the Poisson to more complicated models such as the Pascal type H (five parameters), in an attempt to better describe their aggregation characteristics.
