Sampling plant populations and communities with quadrats

The data was collected on Thursday, September 24, 2015 at approximately 3:00pm. The location was at the Danby Woodlot on the grassland area at York University – Keele Campus. The weather at the time of collecting data was sunny and roughly 24 degrees Celsius. The time allocated for this dataset was 40 minutes but it only took about 25 minutes to complete and record this data. The collection of data was done in a group of four, which included – Vivian Do, Amandeep Bains, Stephanie Achaiya, and Alexander Karakatganis. To collect the data, 1m x 1m quadrats were randomly placed on the grassland. When the quadrats were placed onto the grassland, the number of plants within the quadrat was quickly counted, followed by a count of the number of different species within that quadrat. A quick eye count was performed for both. Next, the total percentage cover of all vegetation as well as the total percentage cover of grasses within that same quadrat plot was estimated. This was repeated until 20 quadrat plots were sampled and the data was recorded. The purpose of this dataset was to find correlations between the variables being studied using quadrats as a sampling technique.