In today's lecture, we are going to better understand how researchers study forests. We'll learn the difference between samples and surveys, and use Letchworth Woods on UB's campus as an example to go over three unbiased survey techniques. We will then learn about how different plant communities are classified. Western New York was surveyed back in the 1790s as well as in more modern times (1990s). We will end the lecture by comparing these different vegetation maps with each other, and start to recognize how our local forest ecosystems have significantly changed. We will look at these patterns and hopefully be able to better understand forest ecology from the perspective of the forest floor.