Effect of plant height and plant crowding on insect abundance in York University's Danby Grasslands

Group 4. Group members: Nassar Khan, Alex Qiu, Kristine Del Rosario and Michael Angelini. Site/Field Location: York University Danby grasslands.Grasslands heavily covered in grasses with some trees. Group 4 measured insect abundance in relation to plant crowding and plant height. The potential hypothesis is higher severity of plant crowding along with taller plant height will result in a great insect abundance. Sampling took place on 2 days, October 21st and 28th 2015 at approximately 3:00PM Eastern Standard Time. On each day, 40 samples were taken. The sampling procedure consisted of distributing 8 white plastic bowls labelled from 1 to 40 to each group member. Each member then randomly places bowls right side up on the grassland ground. If spaces between bowls were not at least 1 meter apart, one of the bowls were randomly placed elsewhere. Each bowl was filled halfway with soap water provided by the teaching assistant, creating a pan trap. Bowls were left untouched for 2 hours before data collection. After the waiting period, sampling took place. A sample consisted of placing a 1 meter by 1 meter metal quadrat around 1 of the 40 bowls, ensuring the the bowl was centered inside the quadrat. Plant crowding was determined by looking at the quadrat area and using a scale of 1 to 4 of crowdedness. 1 meaning very few plants within quadrat but soil/dirt on ground is very visble, 2 meaning several plants but soil/dirt on ground is moderately visible, 3 meaning many plants but soil/dirt on ground is slightly visible, and 4 meaning plants covering entire quadrat. Plant height was measured by determining the area within quadrat of most crowding, and measuring the rough median plant height within that group of plants. This was done my looking at measuring tape along the length of platns within the quadrat. Lastly, the insect abundance was measured by picking up each bowl and counting each individual insect using the observer's eyes.