Insect abundance as a result of plant abundance and location

This dataset was designed to observe how plant abundance and location may affect insect abundance in a positive (as one variable increases so does the other variable) or negative way (as one variable increases the other moves in the opposite direction). This experiment was completed by myself, Katie, Katherine, Ashley and Ava. The data collection was spread out between two separate days one week apart, on October 13th 2015 and October 20th 2015 between the times of 2:45pm and 5:00pm. The collection took place on York University Keele campus at the Danby Woodlot and the Danby Grassland. The total number of replicates (120) was split in half between the two days of collection as to gain a more accurate representation of the data set throughout the varying temperatures and weather conditions the two locations might experience. Within each of the days the 60 replicates were split into 30 replicates for the woodlot and 30 replicates for the grassland. Each time the quadrat had to be placed we used a random number generator to determine the number of steps to take before placing the quadrat down and completing another replicate. To ensure consistency between the quadrat placements, Katie was the group member to walk the steps to ensure the stride was consistent each time. Plant abundance was graded on a scale, excluding fallen leaves, dead plants and grass. We felt a scale would help with explain the abundance between the different plants that grew in the different locations. The plant abundance grade was agreed on all members of the group before being documented. The insects were counted by all members of the group with an approximate time of 5 minutes of counting for each quadrat. Insects on plants were also counted, including trees, we stopped counting insects on trees at the height of my chest, as it was impossible to count any higher on some trees. The first day the weather was mostly clear with some cloud coverage, no rain and a temperature of 19 °C. The soil in both the woodlot and the grassland were fairly dry, with some moisture. On the second day of data collection there was a constant downpour of precipitation in the form of rain. The temperature was 18°C with the soil being damp from the previous day and from the current precipitation.