Week 4. Sweep Net

This experiment was done on October 03, 2014 in the woodland near Danby woods of York University, keel campus. Other members in the group are: Anees, Jamal, and Tarafdar. Collecting data was started at about 3 pm. It had been raining slightly (Less than 1 mm) for about an hour, so the condition of the field was wet and muddy. The temperature was at 18c; it was cloudy and slightly windy; and it continued raining for the duration of data collection. This experiment used a transect sampling method. Also, the location of transect used a non-probability sampling method since it was chosen to lay the transects along tall grass and vegetation. The transect was set to 10 meters and placed on the ground. The experimenter walked along the transect for 3 minutes while slowly sweeping the net from left to right. The sweep net was held close to the ground and made contact with grass or any vegetation. This motion was continued, and the experimenter walked along the transect 6 times in the 3 minutes trial duration. At the end, the number of insects in the sweep net was counted, and the different number of rtus (recognizable taxonomic units) was observed and recorded. After emptying the contents of the net, the transect was moved to a new location and the process repeated. The new location chosen was at least 2 meter away from any of the previous locations to avoid any overlap. This was done for 10 trials, and the process took about 50 minutes to complete.