LESLIE OSEI DATASET 2 ECOLOGY INSECTS AND COLOURS.csv

Variables

Description

Colour of bowl

There were 18 circular coloured bowls in total. The colours were Blue,
Yellow and White. 9 bowls were placed in the grassland and were subdivided
into 3 blue bowls, 3 yellow bowls and 3 white bowls. The other 9 bowls were
placed in the woodlot and were subdivided into 3 blue bows, 3 yellow bowls
and 3 white bowls. The bowls were sequentially placed together following the
Blue, Yellow, White pattern. The pans were placed about one meter apart.

Type of Habitats

There
were two distinct habitats and they served as an experimental ground. The
habitats were grassland and woodlot. Grassland contained a lot of grasses and
weeds with barely any trees. The ground was very dry. Woodlot was mostly made
up of trees with barely any grasses and the soil was mostly moist.

Number of insects

The
total number of insects in each colour bowl placed in the two distinct
habitat and were counted and recorded in the data sheet. Most insects were
found in either the yellow or white colour bowl

Number of rtus

RTU
is the acronym for Recognizable Taxonomic Unit and this was calculated by
analyzing the different species captured in each bowl.

Hypothesis: There will be more insect captured if the
pan traps used in this experiment was coloured as supposed to colourless. This
is because insects are attracted to bright colours according to the Ultra
Violet spectrum of light therefore, bright colours are the most reflected to
their visual sensory organs.

The experiment was conducted on September 28, 2016 at
the York University Keele Campus Grassland and Woodlot between the hours of 3:00pm
to 5:00 pm. The purpose of this experiment was to see the correlation between
the number of insects captured and the colour of the circular bowl most animals
are attracted to. The temperature was about 18 degrees Celsius and it was a
windy day. The grassland was the first study site used. 9 circular coloured
bowls were placed one meters apart from each other in a sequential order. The
order was Blue, Yellow and White. The field consisted of 3 Blue bowls, 3 Yellow
bowls and 3 white bowls. The second field study site was the woodlot. As described
above, the sequential order and the same number of coloured bowls were placed
on the woodlot. Each circular coloured bowl was filled with three quarters of soapy
water. The study sites were revisited after an hour and half and each insect
caught was recorded. The insects were viewed with the naked eye. The total
number of insects caught on both grassland and woodlot were recorded in the
data sheet for each colour bowl and its respective field of study. The number of
different species caught on both field were also recorded for each colour bowl
and its respective field of study. According to the data collected most of the
animals were attracted to the yellow and white circular data bowl. There were
more different species found in the White and yellow coloured bowl than the
Blue bowl.