Pan Trap Dataset: Pond/Grassland

In this investigation, the field experiment consisted of a group, consisting of five members, which setup pan traps for two trials, over the course of two separate days. One trial was done per week for two weeks at the York University Keele campus pond/grassland area. The experiment location was primarily non-mowed grassland with a small patch of mowed grassland between 20 and 25 meters from the pond. The temperature for trial 1 and 2 were 13 and 10 degrees Celsius respectively, with both days demonstrating cloudy weather with very little sunshine. The equipment used for this experiment included 36 pan traps, 12 of each color including white, yellow, and blue, two transect tapes, and soapy water. The members of the group travelled to the east side of the pond and marked the edge of the pond as 0 meters. A transect of 25 meters were measured east of the starting location towards the University campus. A set of traps were placed starting at 0 meters and subsequent traps were set every 5 meters from the starting position. The traps were divided into two of each color per transect, with a total of six traps per location. A second lateral transect of 5 meters were measured that bisected the original transect at each trap location. The six traps were randomly chosen and placed along the 5 meters lateral transect 1 meter apart from each other. There were a total of six transect trap locations with six traps each at 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25 meters from the pond. The total number of different plant species were counted along each 5 meters lateral transect, the species was not identified it was only acknowledged that they were different species present. The traps were then left to stand for one hour and thirty minutes after which the group counted the insects that were captured starting from the earliest traps set. The same process was repeated once again one week later for the second trial. Although this experiment was focused on insects, all invertebrates that were captured by the traps were also included in the data. Possible sources for error in this investigation included not setting up the pan traps at appropriate distances, and not setting the traps in random order, which could result in obscured data results.