Effect of sunlight and crowding on common plantain leaf size at York University Danby Grassland using quadrats

On October 19 and October 26 from 3:00-4:45pm, at Danby grassland at the York University campus, a group of 4 observed common plantain species. On October 19, the weather was mostly cloudy with strong winds at a temperature of 16°C. The grassland was damp as it had rained the night before. On October 26, the weather was sunny with a slight wind gust at a temperature of 10°C. Sahar and Aziza worked as partners and so did Shahana and Paula, both pairs observing and recording data. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of sunlight and crowding of plant species on Plantago major (common plantain) plant species leaf size in the Danby grasslands. Also, it was of interest to determine the influence of competition and distribution of resources for the common plantain. Quadrats of 1m by 1m were placed randomly in any direction of 3 steps from any previous quadrant in order to eliminate recounting of the same plant species already considered. The researchers were looking at numerous factors: number of species, average leaf size, crowding, number of total leaves in sun and sunlight exposure. Firstly, when each quadrat was placed down, the number of common plantains in each quadrat was observed for a period of 1 minute and recorded as number of species. Then each leaf size on each common plantain was measured and recorded, with the average later determined. Crowding was determined as a categorical approach: 0 for no plants around, 1 for little plants around, 2 for moderate plants and 3 for lots of plants around each common plantain. Sunlight exposure was estimated by counting the total number of leaves & number of leaves exposed to sunlight, which was ultimately converted to a percentage by dividing the two variables and multiplying by 100. This process was repeated 70 times each day, totalling a sample size of 140 quadrats.