Characteristics of White Aster in a Powerline Corridor

This experiment took place in a powerline corridor functioning as an urban greenway (Figure 5), which is an open field north of Steeles Avenue West (43.779291, -79.504367), Concord, ON L4K 3C8, across from York University. This field is located along a busy roadside, and extends behind buildings along the street. Sampling was done in the powerline corridor directly behind the buildings which are separated from the field by a fence. We used a shallow drainage ditch with steep sides as our area of focus, which is located parallel to a fence. This drainage ditch is a main source of water in the immediate area, since most of the field is open and flat on one side, and has buildings on the other side. Therefore most runoff in this area will accumulate in the drainage ditch. Data collection occurred on 3 days (October 2nd, 9th and 16th, 2014), from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm. The weather on the first day was 16°C and sunny, on the second day it was 13°C and partly cloudy, and the last day was 12°C and it rained. Sets of quadrats (1m x 1m) were taken along the edge of the drainage ditch at 1.5 meters apart to allow for enough replicates, and they were taken at 3 different distances along a transect perpendicular to the ditch that extended away from the road and buildings: the first quadrat was 0 meters (at the very edge of the ditch), the second was 10 meters from the ditch, and the third 20 meters from the ditch. Plants were only considered to be in the quadrat if their roots resided within its perimeter. This process was repeated until 7 sets, n = 21 quadrats were completed. For this experiment, we looked at how the drainage ditch is an important source of water for plants in the powerline corridor. This was done by measuring different variables at different distances from the ditch, focusing specifically on the white aster plant. The factors measured in each quadrat were height of the white aster plants, density, number of flowers per plant and species richness. The height of plants was taken using measuring tape from the soil to the top of the plant. The density was visually evaluated, and the percentage of white aster plants in the quadrat was estimated. The number of flowers per plant was counted on each stem individually, and only open flowers at the time of sampling were counted. In the last 2 weeks the majority of flowers closed and some stems fell off, so all flowers were counted. Species richness was counted by observing morphology and using a plant guide book to identify species. The data collected was analyzed using a 1 way ANOVA test with α=0.05 to determine the variance of each variable at different distances. Bar graphs with standard deviation bars were made for each variable in relation to the 3 distances from the ditch.