Reframing coverage estimation under line-strip sampling in the Monte Carlo integration framework

For the first time in ecological applications, the coverage of an attribute is estimated by line-strip sampling in which several strips of fixed width, running across the whole study area, are selected on a baseline and the coverage within these strips is recorded. Under line-strip sampling, the coverage can be expressed as the integral of the partial coverages within the strips, thus enabling its estimation through Monte Carlo integration methods, in which strips are randomly placed on the baseline according to uniform random sampling, tessellation stratified sampling, and systematic grid sampling. A simulation study based on real habitat maps of three coastal dune systems in the United Kingdom is conducted to assess the performance of these three integration strategies. Simulation results suggest tessellation stratified sampling to be the most suitable scheme to locate strips. Moreover, a case study on alien species coverage in a Mediterranean dune ecosystem in Italy is examined. Finally, the advantages of using line-strip sampling with respect to the use of familiar schemes as point sampling and line-intercept sampling are discussed.