Impact of Plant Richness and Closeness to water on Insect Abundance

In order to study the relationship between plant species diversity, distance from a water source and insect abundance, a study was done at the Grassland, East of Osgoode Hall, beside the Pond (York University) on October 14 and October 21, 2014. October 14, 2014 was sunny and 18°C and October 21st was 5°C with rain. Distance from the pond was measured using three discrete areas; the first area from the start of the pond to 20m away, the second from 20m to 40m and the final area from 40m to 60m away from the pond. 1m x 1m quadrats were used to measure plant species richness, and sweepnets were used to sweep for insects in order to determine insect abundance. Transects were used to mark out regions across the perimeter of the pond. Each transect was placed 5m away from the first transect, along the perimeter of Strong Pond.