The affects of human activity and disturbance on Goldenrod species abundance.

Group Members : Iiman Draman, Loyal Tran, James Quach, and Sajid Alvi.

The following experiments were done two days at York University on Oct 14, 2015 and Oct 21, from 2:45-4:35pm within the grassland of the Danby Woodlot which consisted of plants, grass, insect, bird, and mowed and unmowed area. The weather on both days during the sampling period was chilly and windy but the sky was still clear .The purpose of this experiment was to compare and measure the abundance of Goldenrod affected by human activity (mowed and non-mowed area) and disturbance. The reason for this experiment was to try and understand if the abundance of Goldenrod species increase or decrease depended if there is or not a disturbance and human activity in an area that had been mowed and unmowed area. Group 1 members consisted of Iiman, Loyal, James, Sajid and Anisa but separated into two sub groups. One subgroup consisted of Loyal, James, and Sajid who measured the abundance of the Goldenrod species alive in non-mowed area and the other subgroup consisted of Anisa and Iiman who measured the abundance of the Goldenrod species in the mowed area.

The equipment used to measure the abundance of the golden rod species were 2 quadrats (each 1m x1m) and 2 transects (each 30m). The area of disturbances were Keele Street (disturbance 1) and York University (disturbance 2) .The distance between the two disturbances were 100m transects laterally along the grassland measured, at every 5m on a 30m transect one quadrat was placed. The quadrats served as a tool to isolate a smaller area on the 30m transect, to count the abundance of Goldenrod species alive within that quadrat and the transects provided the specific set length from the edge of grassland closet to the disturbances (1 or 2) to other end of disturbances ( 1 or 2) closet to the grassland. A total of 5 transects were used for a total distance of 500m and a total number of quadrats used were 105. The abundance of the Goldenrod species varies within a single quadrats because the transect were randomly placed along the grassland .

A method to distinguish the Goldenrod species within a single quadrats, the characteristic were numerous small yellow but since the sampling was done in colder weather there was not any flowers, texture of the leaf, and leafy stems. Since the temperature was colder on the last day the Goldenrod species started to shrive up and it became difficult count compared to the first day of sampling .The abundance of the Goldenrod species can be affected by many factors but one might had been competition with other plant/insect species within a single quadrat.