Flower abundance and pan traps affect on insect abundance in Danby Grassland

This experiment was conducted in Danby grassland of York University on October 15 and 22, 2015. The area consisted of mostly dead flowers (brown stems and wilted flowers) and slightly dead grass (long grass of brown and green colour most of which did not stand straight and were flattened close to the soil) in both H (high flower areas) and L (low flower) areas. The L areas had dead leaves on the ground due to the wind blowing leaves from nearby trees. On October 15, 2015 it was cloudy (not that great lighting but enough to count the insects), had intervals of rainfall and the temperature was 17 degrees Celsius with wind speed of 23 kilometers per hour. On October 22, 2015 it was sunny (well-lit area) with temperature of 14 degrees Celsius and wind speed of 23 kilometers per hour. Both collections took place from 3:00-5:00pm. The purpose of this experiment was to test the effect that pan traps of different colours and flower presence have towards insect abundance. This effect was shown by counting the number of insects attracted and in the pan traps with soapy water in areas with and without high flower presence. The materials needed for this experiment per week are the pan trap bowls of 3 separate colours (8 yellow bowls, 8 blue and 8 white), 2 transect tapes, paper and pen to write the observations. The 4 meter transects was laid in areas where there was high flower presence (total of 20 or more flowers on either side of the 4 meter transect line) and another 4 meter transect was laid where there was low flower presence (total of 5 or less flowers on either side of the transect line). At every 1 meter 90 degrees perpendicular to the transect lines 3 bowls one of each colour (white, blue and yellow) respectively was laid on the ground. The bowls were pressed down on the grass to avoid the soapy water from being spilled before the soapy water was added. All the bowls were placed on one side of the transect tape making the white bowl the closest to the transect tape. The bowls rims were touching each other. The bowls were filled half way with soapy water. We would just use our eyes and see what half way would be. We then waited 2 hours and then visually count the abundance of insects in each bowls in both areas. This experiment was repeated the following week (October 22, 2015). The sample size was n=48 by the end of 2 weeks. The group members including myself are Simranjit Kang, Ava Kamali and Katrin Chapkis.