Insect and Plant abundance in Grassland and Woodlot

This experiment tested insect abundance relative to the plant abundance and the location. The experiment was taken place over 2 days, October 13 and October 20, 2015, at York University campus. The time it was collected was around 2:45 to 5:00pm for both days. The experiment used quadrats which is one meter by one meter in length. During the first day, the data was collected from both the grassland and the woodlot. For each location 30 quadrats were used, so for the first day a total of 60 replicate quadrats were used to obtain data. The weather on the first day was partly cloudy, sunny at times, slightly windy, and the temperature was 17°C. The data collected on the second day was done in the same manner as it was done on the first day. However, the weather on the second day was different, it was lightly raining, cloudy and the temperature was 15°C. The data was collected by using a random number generator to determine a number and then that many steps were taken and the quadrat was placed on the ground. This was done to ensure that the data collected was in random areas and this method was repeated for all 120 replicates. The data that was collected in the quadrat for insect abundance was done by counting each of the individual number of living insects that was seen. The data that was collected for plant cover was estimated using a scale ranging from 0 to 4 which represented the percentage of plant cover in the quadrat. However, grass and plants that were dead were not included in the data. The locations that data was collected in were the woodlot and grasslands. The woodlot was found to have more trees, less small plants and more crowded areas. While the grasslands had many smaller plants, very few trees and more open areas. The data showed that the area with more plant abundance was the grassland and the area with more insect abundance in total for both days was the woodlot. The highest number of insects found overall was 30 and lowest was 0 both values were found in the woodlot. Group members include Katie, Katherine, Adamo, Ava and I.