The Comparison of R.cathartica and Acer at Danby

The data was collected on October 14th, and October 21st, 2015 at Danby’s Woodlot located at York University Keele Campus. At the beginning of the data collection, a member from the group noted down the time, weather conditions, and other information about the woodlot then proceeded towards data collection. To begin with, a 100m transect using the tape measures was set up from a randomly chosen edge to the middle of the woodlot. The samples were taken at every 5m starting from 0m that were labelled as station in a consecutive order. At each station sample 1, 2, 3 were taken on the right side of transect by Reena and Olivia. On the other side, sample 4 to 6 were taken by Fara, Huda, and Ratiba. To obtain the samples, a 2mX2m quadrat was set up using the tape measures; in which , the following was collected. First, the abundance of native seedlings in the quadrat was determined by counting the number of native seedlings present in the quadrat. The native plant that was incorporated for the native tree seedling sample was Acer. Since, it was observed as the dominant native species in the woodlot. Moreover, the seedlings of 50-120cm, and with orange, green, red and yellow maple leaves were visually determined and counted. Secondly, the abundance of R.cathartica shrub was determined. In the quadrat to do this large trees with black berried along with smaller plants about the same size as the Acer seedlings were incorporated. These R.cathartica was visually identified based on the leaf shape, and the presence of black berries on the large trees. In addition, the unchanged colour green made the invader more distinguishable. Third, percentage of light in each quadrat was measured by standing at a random point in the quadrat. The extent of canopy coverage was determined to see how much light is reaching the ground. A square is made using the fingers of the observer and held up. The percentage of the square not covered by the trees is the percentage of light reaching the ground. This information was collected for each variable.