Determining Insects Abundance on the Mowed and Unmowed grassland by using quadrat

In this experiment, various types of insects were determined on mowed and the unmowed grassland of York University, by using 1mm2 quadrat. This experiment was conducted on September 30 2015, at 2:30 pm with the help of my colleagues, Chris, Phaeba, and Alana. The weather was 19oC with a mix of sun and cloud and a little bit breezy. The area is located near the pond on the Chimneystack Road, behind Osgood Law School. For this experiment the quadrat was provided by the university. To begin with, the quadrat was placed randomly on the ground on the unmowed or mowed area and we tried to look for insects carefully in that quadrat. Whatever the type and number of insects were found in that quadrat, it was being recorded. This technique is repeated ten times at the different mowed and the unmowed areas. The purpose of this experiment was to determine where most of the insects would be found, either on mowed or unmowed grassland. We hypothesized that most of the insects would be found on the unmowed area because it has huge plant abundance as well as colored flowers that would attract insects. Whereas, the mowed area does not have any plant and it has only grass, so fewer insects should be observed in the mowed area. Thus, after conducting the experiment, we determined that our hypothesis is correct because we actually found many insects in the unmowed area, than the mowed area.

本实验于约克大学（York University）校园内的修剪草坪与未修剪草坪区域开展，采用1mm²样方（quadrat）对各类昆虫进行调查统计。本次实验于2015年9月30日下午2:30开展，我的同事克里斯（Chris）、菲比（Phaeba）与阿拉娜（Alana）参与了实验协助。当日气温为19℃，晴阴相间，伴有轻微阵风。实验区域位于奥斯古德法学院（Osgood Law School）后方的烟囱路（Chimneystack Road）附近池塘周边。本次实验所用的样方由校方提供。实验伊始，我们将样方随机放置在修剪或未修剪的草坪区域内，随后仔细搜寻样方内的昆虫，并对该样方内发现的所有昆虫种类与数量进行记录。该操作在不同的修剪与未修剪草坪区域重复开展十次。本实验旨在探明昆虫更多分布于修剪草坪还是未修剪草坪区域。我们提出假设：未修剪草坪区域的昆虫分布更多，原因在于该区域植物丰度较高，且带有色彩的花朵能够吸引昆虫；与之相对，修剪后的草坪仅保留草坪草，无其他植被，因此预期该区域的昆虫数量更少。实验结束后，我们确认假设成立，未修剪草坪区域发现的昆虫数量显著多于修剪草坪区域。