yorku.forest.October25-2016.csv

Meta Data: Date of experiment: Tuesday, October 25, 2016. Weather: The weather was 6 degrees Celsius with sunny skies and winds of 10 mph according to the Beaufort scale. Location: The experiment was conducted at Boyer Woodlot which is located near Ian MacDonald Blvd (Latitude 43.768751, Longitude -79.5079). Transect: A 30m measuring tape. Two were used to measure a total length of 50m. Quadrat: A 1x1m grid placed in a system and on either side of the transect it was alternated every 2m. It was used to count abundance of native and exotic plants, and the total number of flowers. It was repeated a total of 25 times. Variables Descriptions: Census: Rotation for a given group to sample each habitat. Continuous variable. Latitude and longitude: Recorded by using an online GPS. Continuous variable. Habitat: The forest is the woodlot composed of primarily trees. Categorical variable. Abundance of native plants: The total number of native plants seen in the quadrat (1x1m), alternating every 2m on either side of the transect. Native plants are indigenous to a given area and have developed naturally and have existed for many years. Continuous variable. Abundance of exotic plants: The total number of exotic plants seen in the quadrat (1x1m), alternating every 2m on either side of the transect. Exotic plants are foreign plants that do not naturally develop in a given area. Continuous variable. Total number of flowers: Recorded the total number of independent flower heads within each quadrat sample or transect sample. Continuous variable. Abundance of woody plants: The total number of woody plants found within 0.5 metres of both sides of the transect tape. Woody plants are trees greater than 1.5 m in height. Abundance was counted every 2 metres of the tape. Continuous variable. Canopy cover: Measured by looking up while raising our fingers in a rectangle and estimating the amount of coverage made by the leaves of the tree. This was conducted every 2 metres along the transect. Continuous variable. Ground cover: Measured by looking down while lowering our fingers in a rectangle and estimating the amount of vegetative coverage. Continuous variable. Abundance of vertebrates: The total number of animals seen within 50m of your location for 15 minutes, using transect tape as your 50m guide. Vertebrate is an animal that has a backbone. Continuous variable. Vertebrate species: Number of different vertebrate species observed within 50m of your location for 15 minutes. Continuous variable. Abundance of people: The total number of people seen (not in your lab groups) within 50m of your location for 15 minutes, using tape as your 50m guide. Continuous variable. Abundance of invertebrates pantraps: Total number of insects captured within 6 pan traps. Pantraps are circular blue, yellow, and white bowls filled with soapy water. They are 5 cm in depth and 18 cm diameter. Continuous variable. Abundance of invertebrates sweeps: Total number of insects captured within 10 sweep nets. The sweeps are a net with a wooden handle and is 31 cm in diameter. Continuous variable. Abundance of invertebrates observed: Total number of insects observed within 5m of your location for 15 minutes. Invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. Continuous variable. Researcher # 1- Herbaceous plants Prediction: There will be a greater number of native plants found in the forest area.Hypothesis: It is expected there will be a greater abundance of native plants relative to exotic plants within the forest due to the ability of the native plants being more adapted to the forest environmental conditions than the exotic plants. Methods:The time period to conduct the field study was from 3:00 p.m.- 3:30 p.m. At the start of the experiment, the length and width of the quadrat apparatus was measured by researcher #1. The dimension of the quadrat was 1 metre by 1 metre and the total area of the quadrat was calculated to be 1m2. The quadrat apparatus was first randomly placed along a 50 metre long transect and the number of native, exotic, and flower heads data were collected. Every time a field sample was conducted, the quadrat was placed 2 metres apart from each other alternating on either sides of the transect to ensure the distance between the field samples observed were equivalent. The abundance of the each plant was observed by individually counting the total number of plants covered in the quadrat. All of the plants grown from the root within the interior of the quadrat were counted and the plants that were a height of less than 1.5 metres were counted as native plants. This field study was replicated for a total of 25 times (25 trials), measuring a total ground coverage of 25m2 within the forest habitat. Researcher #2-Woody Plants Prediction: It was predicted that there would be more woody plants at the outside edges of the forest than on the interior. Hypothesis: It was hypothesized that the abundance of woody plants would be greater at the perimeter of the forest than at the interior of the forest because within the interior, the taller trees create competition for survival by blocking the sunlight which reduces the sunlight that is available for other smaller plants. Methods: The second researcher collected their data by using the transect method of surveying. The survey was conducted from 3:00 pm – 3:30 pm. The researcher used two transects in order to measure a total length of 50m. The experiment was conducted within a forest area for a total of 25 individual counts or replicates. The researcher walked along the transect and for every 2 m recorded the number of trees that were within 0.5 m of the transect. A tree was defined as a woody plant that is greater than 1.5 metres in height. If there was no tree within the specified distance then zero was recorded. At each point, the canopy coverage was measured by looking up while raising our fingers in a rectangle and estimating the amount of coverage made by the leaves of the tree. Using the same method, the vegetative ground cover was measured. In addition, the total number of flowers was recorded and consisted of the total number of flowering plants that were also within 0.5 m of the transect tape. Researcher #3-Vertebrates and Invertebrates: Prediction: It was predicted that there would be more vertebrates than invertebrates in the forest. Hypothesis: It was hypothesized that there would be more vertebrates than invertebrates in the forest because there aren’t many flowering plants for the invertebrate species to pollinate and due to the cold weather, there would be many vertebrate species remaining in their nests in order to conserve heat. Methods: The 3rd researcher completed one 15 minute survey for the vertebrate species from 2:56-3:11 pm and another 15 minute survey for the invertebrate species from 3:12-3:27 pm. The two surveys were conducted in the forest. To conduct this experiment, the researcher placed two sets of 30 m transect measuring tape to go up to a distance of 50 m. At the beginning of the transect, the researcher surveyed a 50 m radius observing the number of different types of vertebrate species, abundance of vertebrates, and abundance of humans in 15 minutes. After, the abundance of invertebrates was observed in 5 m radius for another 15 minutes. The time was recorded on a phone timer. Researcher #4- Invertebrates Prediction: It was predicted there would be a low abundance of invertebrates in the forest. Hypothesis: There will be a low abundance of invertebrate species in the forest, because of the absence of flowers they are unable to pollinate any flowers and use them as a food source. Methods: Researcher #4 worked on the abundance of invertebrates that were present in the forest. This researcher conducted the invertebrate experiment in the forest from 3:00pm-3:30pm. First, the researcher went to the edge of the forest and took 100 steps forward in the north direction, and pulled out a transect tape to 50 metres in length. Next the first Pan trap was placed at the 1 meter mark along the transect tape and after every 3 meters another Pan trap was placed, until there was a total of 6 Pan traps placed in the forest . Next the Pan traps were filled half way with soapy water. The colour of the Pan traps was randomly positioned within the forest in the following order which was yellow, white and blue. Therefore the forest contained 2 yellow, 2 white, and 2 blue Pan traps. In the forest habitat, the researcher walked along the 50 m transect tape a total of ten times, so there were 10 replicates that were done. After each sweep, the researcher counted the amount of invertebrates that were captured in the sweep. Also the number of invertebrates that were found in each of the Pan traps were counted.