Study of Insect Abundance and Diversity in a Grassland and Woodlot Habitat

On September 28 2015, the research group performed an experiment that focused upon the insect abundance, and diversity, in the grassland surrounding Stong Pond, as well as the Saywell Woodlot, on the York University campus. The study was performed between 3:00pm and 4:30pm when temperatures were 20 degrees Celcius and conditions were cloudy and very humid. It had also been raining prior to when the study was performed. A quadrat was used to analyze 10 locations in the grassland and 10 locations in the woodlot. Although locations were randomly selected, they were well spread out and covered the varying conditions throughout both environments. The only tool used in the field experiment was the quadrat as all the counts and categorization of insects into specific taxa were done with a visual examination of the site. Michael Chu, Diana Pik and Aisha Choudhry helped with obtaining the field data.