Correlation between invasive species European Buckthorn and surrounding species’ abundance

This study of correlation between invasive species European Buckthorn and surrounding species’ abundance was conducted in Boyer Woodlot, Saywell Woodlot and Osgoode Woodlot of York University by myself and two other group member: Laura and Kalvin on Oct 1, 8 and 15. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a connection between the invasive European Buckthorn and the richness of other surrouding species. A transect was used to measure a 3 foot x 3 foot sampling area which was placed on random coordinates from a specified corner of the woodlot using a random number generator on Excel. The total number of buckthorn and other species within the sampling area were recorded separately. The soil temperature was measured with a thermometer and the outside temperature was also taken on each day. The approximate sunlight coverage for each quadrat was recorded as percentage, and the number of people excountered was also counted to see if there is any effect of human distubance on buckthorn abundance. A total of 27 replicates were recorded.