BIOL 2050 LAB: Conditions Necessary to Maintain Grasslands

In order to determine the most sustainable conditions for grasslands Savannah Wales, Sumerra Sidiqui, and I conducted an experiment in the York University grasslands. The factors studied were sunlight availability and soil moisture. After randomly placing the quadrats we first counted the number of individuals. Sunlight availability was determined by observing the shadow casted within the area and was recorded on a scale from 0- 4(0=complete shade, 1=25% sunlight availability, 2= 50% sunlight availablity, 3=75%, 4=100% sunlight availability). In order to determine the soil moisture we observed the colour and texture of the soil. Soil moisture was also recorded on a scale from 0-3 (0=completely dry, 1=slightly dry,2=slightly moist, and 3= moist). In order to increase the sample size we performed 120 replicates and recorded the number of plants, sunlight availability, and soil moisture for each replicate. Analysis of this data will allow us to determine the conditions required to sustain grasslands on campus, and help with the growth of new grasslands.