The effect of soil moisture and plants on insects

This experiment was done at Danby grassland, York university, to determine whether plant species and soil conditions affect insect species diversity and abundance. The data was collected over two days. The temperature on October 12, 2015 was 11°C with cloudy sky and little sunlight. On October 19, 2015, the temperature was 14 °C with cloudy sky and some rain. My group members Nicole, Michael, Tonia and I split up into two groups. Nicole and I partnered up to collect the necessary data for this experiment The materials used in this experiments were a sweep net, a transect and a tape measure. The experiment started with laying down 20 meters long transect on one side of the field. Then, a 1-meter long measuring tape was placed perpendicular to the transect belt. We then caught as many insects as possible with sweep net within that 1-meter range for 2 minutes. The total number of insects caught, the insect RTUs (recognizable taxonomic units), and different plant species number within this range was recorded. Also, soil moisture in the center of the transect was also recorded ranging from 0 to 4 (0 being very dry to 4 being extremely moist). We then moved about 2 meters away from our first transect to set up our second. No random number generator application was used in this experiment, as we ended up collecting data from the entire grassland, and did not miss any spot. In two days, Nicole and I repeated this method 60 times. At the end of the experiment, we had 120 replicates in total from both groups to test our hypothesis. After analyzing the data above, we will be able to observe if there is a correlation between these three variables.