Invertebrate diversity and abundance at Danby grassland and woodlot at York University using quadrats

On September 28 2015 at approximately 3:00-4:45pm, an ecology lab group consisting of Sahar, Aziza, Paula, and Shahana walked to Danby Woods at York University in order to conduct 4 different field sample trainings. The weather was cloudy with a slight wind gust and at that time the temperature was 20°C. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the majority invertebrate species in the grassland and woodlot while training to use quadrats. Sahar and Aziza worked as partners, with Aziza mostly recording the data and Sahar identifying & observing the invertebrates. The grassland and woodlot were slightly damp as it had rained earlier that day. The grassland was a large field with grass up to mid ankle and an open sky, whereas the woodlot was inside a forest with lots of shading from the canopy trees.

Quadrats that were 1m by 1m were randomly placed on the ground by the researchers in the woodlot and grassland in order to account for the huge regions. Each quadrat was placed 3 steps away in any direction from any previous quadrat already observed. The researchers started placing 1 quadrat at a time on the ground in the grassland region for 1 minute each in order to count the number of total invertebrates and identify RTUs for 10 replicates. The same was done in the woodlot however at times, loose debris such as branches would get in the way inside the quadrat. As such, they were removed in order to accurately count and identify the insects. After 20 quadrats were placed, the researchers counted and recorded the number of RTUs from the RTUs column already documented. The data indicates that ants are taking over at Danby grassland and woodlot as they were found in each and every quadrat.