Species Richness and Abundance at York University Grass and Wood Lots Based on Canopy Coverage and Human Activity

This experiment had Trials 1 and 2 (for both lots) take place on Monday October 19, 2015 between 2:30 and 5:00pm. The weather consisted a cloudy, grey sky and the temperature was 14 degrees Celsius. Trials 3 (for the two lots) took place on Monday October 26, 2015 between 2:30 and 4:30 pm. The weather was sunny and clear while the temperatures was about 10 degrees Celsius. All Grasslot experiments were done on the York University Stong Pond grasslot and all Woodlot experiments on Saywell Woodlot. The purpose of this study was to discover the effects canopy coverage and human activity might have on the species richness and plant abundance of different organisms. The experiment was conducted (for each replicate) by placing a transect 10m across in a straight line and counting/identifying all the plants in a 1m reach of the transect. Human Activity was measured on an ordinal scale where traffic and obstructions were taken into consideration. Canopy Coverage was determined on the transect by looking into the sky and determining how much was visible.

本实验中，两个批次的试验1与试验2均于2015年10月19日周一的14:30至17:00之间开展。当日天气为阴天多云，天空呈灰色，气温14摄氏度。两个批次的试验3均于2015年10月26日周一的14:30至16:30之间开展，当日天气晴朗通透，气温约为10摄氏度。所有草地样地（Grasslot）实验均在约克大学（York University）思塘草地样地（Stong Pond grasslot）开展，所有林地样地（Woodlot）实验则在塞维尔林地（Saywell Woodlot）进行。本研究旨在探究冠层覆盖度与人类活动对不同生物的物种丰富度及植物多度的影响。本实验（每个重复组）通过设置一条长10米的直线样带（transect），并对样带周边1米范围内的所有植物进行计数与物种鉴定来完成。人类活动采用有序量表进行量化，考量指标包括通行流量与障碍物情况；冠层覆盖度则通过观测样带上方天空的可见比例来确定。