Lab 2: Techniques & data: field training with plants (traits, transects, and quadrats) DATASET 1

To measure plant diversity in locations around campus, n = 25 quadrats (1m x 1m) were randomly placed in the grasslands around Stong Pond at York University (43°46'13.2"N 79°30'25.9"W) on September 23rd 2014 from approximately 4:00pm to 4:30pm. The weather was party cloudy with a temperature between 20 and 25 degrees Celsius. To begin the sampling procedure, the first quadrat was randomly placed in an area along the grassland boundary. Subsequent quadrats were randomly sampled by walking 5-10 steps in a random direction from the last quadrat placed until another boundary of the grassland was reached. Once a boundary was reached a new sample area in the grassland was randomly chosen by walking 30m from the previous sample area and the process was repeated until n=25 plots were sampled. The total number of plants along with the number of species, vegetation coverage and grass coverage were estimated for each sample. Number of plants were counted by observing the amount of unique stems in the sample. Species were differentiated based on morphological characterstics using an identification key. Coverage was estimated using the observed percentages of the total sample area occupied by the plants of interest and grass, respectively. At the time of sampling, the most abundant species included the following: Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca), Canadian Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis) and Late Purple Aster (Aster prenanthoides). Note: Definitions of variables are located in column C of the Meta sheet