The effects of Water Stress on the White Aster Characteristics

Methods:

Variables including height, density, number of flowers and species richness were recorded on three different days; October 2nd, 9th and 16th 2014. The species chosen to be the objective of the study was White Aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides). The data was collected in a power line corridor located across York University north of Steeles Avenue West (43.779291, -79.504367). A drainage ditch in the corridor was chosen as a form of water supply, located as a divider between the grassland and surrounding buildings on Steeles Avenue. Quadrat sets of 1m x 1m were recorded along the drainage ditch at three different distances. The quadrats were placed at three distances, each 1.5 meters parallel along the transect going perpendicular to the water supply. The primary set of quadrats were placed at 0 meters from the edge of water supply, the secondary set was placed at 10 meters from the edge of the first quadrats and the tertiary set was placed at 20 meters from the primary quadrats location. The height of White Aster (S.ericoides) individuals was recorded in meters from the base of the stalk to the tip of the flowers using a transect. This procedure was repeated for all individuals in each of the quadrats. The numbers of different plant species were recorded to account for species richness within each quadrat. The density of White Asters was visually estimated in each quadrat and recorded as a percentage value. The numbers of flowers for each individual Aster plant stem were recorded in each quadrat; only the flowers that were fully bloomed were included in the visual number count. A total number of 21 quadrats were used for the collection of data, which will be analyzed using bar graphs with standard deviation bars. The average value and standard deviation of each variable will then be plotted against the distance from the water source. One-way ANOVA analysis with a=0.05 will be used to test the variance within the collected variables in relation to the distance from the water supply.