YORK UNIVERSITY GRASSLAND LAB

The purpose of this lab was to observe and classify the plant life diversity in an open grassland near the York University Keele campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The grassland was extremely vast with a few trees to provide shade. The temperature ranged around 24°C with sunny temperatures. No clouds were seen. To forgo this experiment, 1 metre by 1 metre quadrats were placed in random areas across the vast grassland for a total of 25 times. Each quadrant acted as a restricted area where the total abundance of plants, number of species, percentage of land covered by grass, without plant life and with plant life were observed and measured. This lab took around 60 minutes to complete. <br>Meta-Data: 1. <b> </b><b>Total Abundance of Plants:</b> An estimation, using the naked eye, or any other feasible technique to determine the number of plants in the select 1 metre by 1 metre quadrant. <b>2. </b><b>Number of Species</b>: Determining the number of different plant species in the 1 metre by 1 metre quadrant. This could relate to different flowers, grass, etc. This is done using the naked eye by differentiating the plants by shape, size, colour and texture. <b>3. </b><b>Percentage (%) of Land Covered by Grass</b>: An estimation, using the naked eye, or any other feasible technique to determine the percentage (%) of land that is covered by grass <b>only</b> in the 1 metre by 1 metre quadrat. This is done by estimating how much grass covers land out of the number 1. If grass were to only cover half the land, it would be reflected as 0.5/1 multiplied by a 100, which is 50%. 4. <b> </b><b>Percentage (%) of Land Without Plant Life</b>: An estimation, using the naked eye, or any other feasible technique to determine the amount of land that is not covered by plant life including grass in the 1 metre by 1 metre quadrat. This is done using the same method as mentioned previously. 5. <b> </b><b>Percentage (%) of Land with Plant Life:</b> An estimation, using the naked eye, or any other feasible technique to determine the amount of land covered by plant life <b>not including grass</b> in the 1 metre by 1 metre quadrat. This is done using the same method as mentioned previously. 6. <b>Quadrat:</b> A 1 metre by 1 metre frame that acts as a sample for assessing plant and animal life in ecology. · Flowers were rarely seen. If they were seen, however, they came in scarce numbers. An indigo-coloured plant was seen and was identified as the Late Purple Aster specie. · There were not many trees to be seen. There were about 2 to 3. The trees have not been identified. · There were many leaves on the grassland. The most prominent being the bur oak.