Ecology 2050- Field sample training with animals- sweep net

Group members: Katrin Chapkis, Ava Kamali, Simranjit Kang, Jennifer Mariatha This lab was conducted at grassland, located adjacent to Danby woodlot, on October 1st 2015, at York University. The weather was sunny with a temperature of 15 degree Celsius, which can be perceived as a cold temperature. The Beaufort wind number was 4, which indicates a moderate breeze, and the wind speed range was 13mph to 18 mph. The information regarding the wind speed was achieved according to the Beaufort Wind Force Scale, which was mentioned in the lab manual. The cold weather might have had a significant effect on the movement of insects, birds, and other organisms. The purpose of this experiment was to introduce the different techniques of sampling, which are used to estimate the abundance and recognizable taxonomic units of animals. The following methods were studied in this lab: pans, pitfall traps, sweep nets, and distance- based techniques. Each individual was responsible for submitting only one dataset but every group member helped each other in order to achieve results with higher accuracy. The sweep net technique was experimented for the dataset of this lab report. The procedure started with setting a constant distance for the transect tape and the time which each trial would take approximately. Distance of 20 meters was assigned to the length of the transect tape and it was estimated that each trial would take about 10-12 minutes. In each trial, the transect tape with 20 meters length was randomly placed in the grassland, and the sweep net was swung back and forth with a great force along the transect line for 10- 12 minutes. At the end of each trail, the net was carefully held to avoid any stings from the captured samples and critically observed to record the number of total abundance and the RTUs. After analysing the trapped organisms and materials, only living insects or animals were counted, and at the end of each trial all of them were returned back to their environment. The totals of 10 trials were repeated for this experiment. In addition, it was possible not to capture any organisms at all since the weather was cold and organisms had less movement compared to a moderate temperature and weather.