The effect of different coloured pan traps placed in a disturbed vs. undisturbed grassland have on the abundance of insects

The data was collected over a period of two weeks on two days. Day 1 was Oct.15, 2015 cloudy with showers 16°C wind 50km/h NE and gusts up to 61km/h making the temperature feel like 10°C. Day 2 was Oct. 22, 2015 sunny16°C with wind 30km/h and gusts up to 41km/h W making the temperature on day 2 feel like 13°C. In order keep the experiment consistent both days were conducted at the same time 3:00pm to 4:15 pm and left for a duration of 1 hour and 15 minutes in the two sites disturbed (mowed) and undisturbed (unmowed), in the Danby grassland on York University's Keele campus. The disturbed site was about 1 month old and contained the following plants that were shorter than what was found in the undisturbed site: grass, milkweed, golden rod, purple aster, white aster, and dominated by common thistle, as well as a few scattered trees. The undisturbed site was also found to be much denser. The data was collected by Vivian D, Amandeep B, Alexander K, and Myself (Stephanie A). The experiment was set up by placing a 12m long transect randomly in both sites, disturbed and undisturbed. Laying down the yellow, white, and blue pan traps in a systematic alternating pattern 1m apart from each other for a total of 12 pan traps (4 of each colour) per site. Once the pans were placed they were filled with soapy water and left for the duration stated above of 1 hour and 15 minutes. After said duration the abundance; total number of individual insects found within each pan trap was recorded using the aid of tweezers to visually count the number of insects. The total sample size was n=48. The purpose of this experiment was to see whether or not different colour pan traps (yellow, white and blue) had an affect on the abundance of insects found in two different sites disturbed (mowed) and undisturbed (unmowed).