The Edge Effect on Insect Abundance

Data collected to explore the edge effect on insect abundance. Observations were recorded on two different days at the same time with very wet conditions at Danby wood grasslands.Researchers located the edges of the grassland and laid out 25 meters of transect tape starting from the edge towards the center of the field. The "edge" was any area where the grassland seemed to "end", such as the area between the grasslands and the woodlot, or along a footpath. Next small holes were dug for the pitfall traps, which were placed 5-6 meters apart from each other along the transect. Afterwards researchers placed a quadrat on each trap and measured the vegetation abundance by estimating the number of individual grasses and plants. This process was done on 4 different transects, 5 pitfalls each thus a total of 20 surveys.