Affect of human traffic and urbanization on insect abundance and traffic

This experiment is looking at abundance and diversity of insects and if that is affected by human activity in high and low traffic areas at York University. High traffic areas are defined as areas that no ground is showing ie the ground is covered by concrete and more than 5 people walk by going in one direction in 10 seconds. The low traffic areas are deemed by having no person walk through the area during 1 minute and having nature ie trees, shrubs, grass and no concrete on the ground.Three locations were visited each week for two weeks, October 14th and 21st. The three locations of low traffic are are the woodlot behind Osgood Law School, the Danby woods/woodlot and the woods/woodlot surrounding Stong Pond. The high traffic areas in front of Lassonde School of Engineering, in front of Vari Hall/the bus loop and in front of Stong college. The 4 group members spilt into teams of 2 for time conservation since some of the locations were on opposite sides of York Univeristy. At each location,10 pan traps were placed and collected at 1.5 hours. The pan traps were undisturbed for the full 1.5 hours. The locations of the pan traps were randomly selected and placed 1 meter apart. The pan traps were placed within the brushes at each location to unsure the highest number of bugs caught and for location of high traffic so no person would kick or knock over the trap. The insect abundance and diveristy using RTU's were recorded. We are observing how much of an impact has human activity affected biotic-biotic interactions.

本实验旨在探究约克大学（York University）高低人流区域内昆虫的丰度与多样性，及其受人类活动的影响情况。高人流区域的定义为无裸露地面（地面完全被混凝土覆盖）且每10秒内单方向过往行人不少于5人的区域；低人流区域则为1分钟内无人员穿行、存在树木、灌木、草地等自然植被且地面无混凝土覆盖的区域。实验于10月14日与21日分两周开展，每周对三处采样点进行实地走访。三处低人流采样点分别为奥斯古德法学院（Osgood Law School）后方林地、丹比林地，以及环绕斯汤塘（Stong Pond）的林地；三处高人流采样点分别为拉松德工程学院（Lassonde School of Engineering）正前方、瓦里大厅（Vari Hall）/公交环线前方，以及斯汤学院（Stong College）正前方区域。由于部分采样点位于约克大学校园的对立两侧，为节省时间、提升作业效率，4名实验组员分为2组开展工作。在每处采样点内，均布设10个盘式诱捕器（pan trap），并于布设1.5小时后回收，诱捕器全程保持不受干扰。诱捕器的布设位置经随机选取，彼此间距为1米，且均放置于各采样点的灌丛之中：一方面可最大化诱捕到的昆虫数量，另一方面在高人流区域可避免行人踢碰或碰倒诱捕器。研究人员借助快速分类单元（Rapid Taxonomic Unit, RTU）记录昆虫的丰度与多样性，本实验旨在量化人类活动对生物间相互作用的影响程度。