Dataset 3 - Sweep Net Exercise - York U Grasslands

As a group of four (Tiffany, Danny, Bahar, and Farnaz), we used a transect and a sweeping net to gather a sample of the insects population present in York university's (Keele campus) grasslands. An eleven meter transect was used for each data recording. The beginning and the end of the area swept was marked with the 1 m and 11 m points on the transect. Each transect was swept using a sweeping net an approximate 20 number of times (for 1 minute) to assure consistency in all 10 transects that were performed. The sweepings were all done by a single person such that the force and the method of sweeping was the same for all 10 sweeps, also assuring consistency in data gathering. Furthermore, to sample an area close to the actual total area of the grasslands experimented on, the transects were placed using a belt-based sampling method such that we walked 5 paces (approximately 5 meters) between each transect placed down from one side of the grasslands to the other. Total species, total number of “different” species (unique rtus), and species breakdown (different types and number of each) was also recorded and included in the published data.