Affect of Sunlight on Plant Abundance and Diversity

Data was taken from a York Univeristy grassland on two separate days during the month of October. Quadrats were used to collect the data. Forty quadrats were sampled from the shaded edge of the grassland, one meter apart from each other. Another forty quadrats were sampled from the sun exposed area of the grassland, fifteen meters from the edge of the grassland and also one meter apart from each other. The number of individual plants, the number of different plant species, and the percent coverage of plants and grass within each of the quadrats were the variables examined. This data was collected in order to examine the effects that sunlight and shade have on the abundance and diversity of plant species in the York University grassland.