Week 7: Pantrap Dataset

The experiment was done at York University on October 24, 2014. The experiment was conducted at grassland next to Danby Wood lot from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The temperature recorded during trial 1 was 16ºC and 14ºC during trial 2. The sun was higher during the first trial from 3:00pm to 4:00pm and was lower during trial 2 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The Beauford Scale recorded was 3 for both the trials. The data was recorded with two other lab partners, Elron and Carmella. The purpose of the experiment was to determine and observe the diversity and number of arthropods collected, based on plant species, colour of pan traps and the distance from plant species. 15 bowls of three colours (white, yellow and blue) were used for each plant species. These pan traps were placed at a distance of 0ft, 1ft, 2ft, 3ft, and 4ft from plant species. 15 bowls were used for the rest of the three plant species. Plant A species was a Pollinator Plant and Plant B species was tall grass, both located in shared areas. Plant C specie was a purple flowering pollinator whereas Plant D specie was Red leave shrub, both located in sunny areas. The bowls were then filled with soapy water, starting from species A. The bowls were then left with soapy water for 60 minutes in order to collect the insects. After one hour the taxonomic units and the number of arthropods for each pan trap was recorded.