The Effect of Soil Condition and Number of Surrounding Plant Species on Insect Abundance and Diversity

This experiment was executed by Nicole Gallagher, Tonia Cichella, Phenil Patel and Michael Sirianni at the Danby Grassland at York University, Keele campus, Toronto, Ontario. The experiment took place over two days, October 20th and 27th, 2015, with three hour collection periods each day, starting at three pm. The first day the temperature was 14 degrees celcius and overcast, the second day was 11 degrees celcius and cloudy with moderate rain throughout the duration of the experiment. The quartet split into teams of two, Nicole and Phenil, and Michael and Tonia, and each pair conducted 60 replicates each, totaling 120 replicates over the entire course of the experiment. Each replicate consisted of a 20 metre transect with a 1 metre belt transect at a perpendicular angle. The experimenter used the sweep net and walked the transect for two minutes each replicate. At the end of each replicate the number of insect individuals and RTUs (recognizable taxonomic units) was recorded along with the number of different plant species found along the 1 m belt transect. The soil was inspected at various locations along the transect line and assigned a rating depending on the soil saturation and type. The rating will be a number 0-4, 0 being 0% saturation and 4 being 100% saturation.