Abundance and diversity of insects in grassland and woodlot area of Danby Woods

The data was collected on Thursday, October 1, 2015 at around 3:00pm. The location was at Danby Woodlot on both the grassland and woodlot area at York University – Keele Campus. The weather at the time of collecting data was sunny with winds and roughly 15 degrees Celsius. 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 and woodlot area. 20 quadrats were sampled - 10 in the grassland and 10 in the woodlot. When each quadrat was placed down, a timer was set to observe each quadrat for one minute. While making observations, the abundance – number of total species within that quadrat as well as RTU (Recognizable Taxonomic Units) – number of different species within that same quadrat was counted using a quick eye count and data was recorded. The different species were determined visually based on easily recognized features. This was repeated until a total of 20 plots were sampled and data was recorded. However, this data may be prone to error, depending on the sample, sorter and species. Due to the small size of insects, characteristics - such as camouflage or due to the fact that the insects may be hidden, will hinder our ability to count them in. This leads to the total count and RTU being affected, therefore, resulting in a lower insect count. The purpose of this dataset was to find correlations between the variables studied using quadrats as a sampling technique.