yorku.forest.October25.2016.csv

Meta-Data The purpose of this lab was to identify the abundance of plants, trees, vertebrates and invertebrates in the forest. The data for this experiment was collected from the forest located at York University Keele Campus (43.768756 degrees North, -79.5079 degrees West, elevation 126.30201), between York Blvd and Keele St. at 2:55 pm. It was 8°C, partly cloudy, partly sunny, with high winds. Four different experiments were conducted in the forest area (categorical). It took 35 minutes to collect all of the data for all four experiments. In the first experiment the quadrat was used to observe the abundance of native plants, exotic plants, and the total number of flower heads in the forest area which were all recorded as continuous data. Two 30 meters transect tapes were used to measure a transect line of 50 meters. Each quadrat was 1 meter square and the quadrats were placed 2 meters apart on the left and right side of the tape to measure the abundance of plants and total number of flowers. The forest habitat used in this experiment was recorded as categorical and abundance of plants, and flower heads found were continuous. In the forest, the native plant, exotic plants and flower heads were observed and counted in the entire quadrat. The trial was repeated 25 times therefore, a total of 25 meter square area was observed. It was hypothesized that a lower abundance of plants will be observed in the forest due to a decrease in temperature. This prediction was made after comparing the data of the abundance of plants found in the same location (forest) in a previously done experiment with the current data. Since the temperature of the environment during this lab was lower it will cause most of the plants to die out due to the unsuited environment. However in the previous experiment done in the forest area, the temperature was warmer and more plants were observed and counted. The second experiment was done to collect data about woody plants in the forest. Using transect tape, a straight line of 50 meters was measured along the forest. The abundance of woody plants (trees greater than 1.5 meters tall) were counted and recorded every 2 meters along the transect line (continuous). Every other meter along the transect, the percentage of canopy coverage and ground coverage were observed and recorded as continuous data. Canopy coverage was estimated by forming a square with one’s fingers touching, holding the square toward the sky and observing the area of the square that was filled with leaves (canopy coverage). Ground coverage was estimated by holding the square formed by one’s fingers down toward the ground to observe the amount of vegetation that covered the ground. The continuous data was recorded as the percentage of the square covered by either leaves (canopy) or vegetation (ground) respectively. In addition, the total number of flowers were observed every 5 meters along the transect and recorded as continuous data. A total of 25 replicates were recorded for each continuous variable. It was hypothesized that there will be a lower number of flowers in the forest due to the decrease in temperature. A greater number of flowers were counted in the forest when the temperature was warmer three weeks ago thus, a decrease in temperature will reduce diversity in the forest.For experiment three, a 50 meter transect was placed along the forest area. The surroundings within a 50 meter radius were observed for fifteen minutes to observe the abundance of vertebrates, the richness of vertebrates, and the abundance of humans who were not part of BIOL2050 (continuous). The second half of the experiment involved placing a 5 meter transect in the forest area, and measuring the abundance of invertebrates within the 5 meter radius for fifteen minutes. All data were recorded by observation and counting. It was hypothesized that the abundance of invertebrates and vertebrates will decrease due to the decreased temperature in the forest. This prediction was made after comparing the previously collected data of the abundance of vertebrates and invertebrates found in the forest area with the current data in the forest area. The lower temperature of the environment does not suit the survival, habitat, and life of the invertebrates and vertebrates. This means less invertebrates and vertebrates would be observed and counted in cold temperatures.In the fourth experiment, the pan trap method and sweeping nets were utilized. Two yellow, two white and two blue bowls were placed 3 meters apart from each other in the forest area. Each bowl was completely filled with soapy water and the abundance of invertebrates were observed and recorded by counting the total number of invertebrates found in each bowl an hour later. The diameter of each bowl was 18 centimeters. Overall for the pan trap method there were a total of 6 replications. The second half of the experiment involved placing a 50 meter in the forest area using transect tape. Using the sweeping net, which had a length of 90 centimeters and a diameter of 30 centimeters (area of 708 centimeters square) the abundance of invertebrates were observed and recorded.The student walked down the 50 meter transect line 10 times, for a total of 10 replications for the sweeping net experiment. The abundance of invertebrates were recorded as continuous data for both parts of the experiment. It was hypothesized as the temperature decreases the number of invertebrates found in the forest will decrease. This prediction was made since the previously collected data done in forest area contained increased abundance of invertebrates with an environment of increased temperature compared to the this experiment. Thus it was expected that less invertebrates would be observed in the forest area due to lower temperatures. This means less plants would be surrounding the insects, therefore less insects would be found.