Ecological planning questions turn up regularly in 9700 Paper 5. Here you lay a belt transect from the strandline of a sand dune system inland, record the percentage cover of each plant species in a 1 m × 1 m quadrat every 10 m, measure soil moisture, soil pH and light in the same quadrats, and test the trend with Spearman’s rank correlation. Watch the set-up built step by step, then build it yourself and check it against the points the examiners look for.
Examiner reports used: 9700 November 2023, June 2024, November 2024 and March 2025.
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Lay a tape measure from the strandline inland and place a quadrat at regular, stated intervals along it: a belt transect, not random coordinates.
Name every species with an identification key, look for small plants, and record the percentage cover (or number of individuals) of each species in each quadrat.
Three transects from different starting points and a mean at each distance; soil moisture, soil pH and light measured in the same quadrats.
Spearman’s rank with a null hypothesis of no correlation; a risk assessment with hazard, consequence and precaution.
More set-ups: all biology Paper 5 set-up builders. Then practise in the enzyme and osmosis investigations trainer. The experiment, readings and wording on this page are our own.