Soil Condition and Number of Different Plant Species' Effect on Number of Insect Species Present Within a General Area

The following data set was collected in the Danby Grasslot area at York University on the days of October 13th and October 20th, 2015 at around 2:30 to 5:30 PM. The temperature of the area on October 13th was around 10˚C with cloudy overall conditions. The temperature of the area on October 20th was around 14˚C with overall rainy conditions. My group members, Nicole, Phenil, Tonia, and I split up into groups of two. I was assigned Tonia as a partner while Nicole worked with Phenil. Tonia and I then headed to the Danby Grasslot area to begin our data collection. Data collection started from the edge Danby Grasslot area. A random number generator was used to ensure the transect would be placed at random locations. A random number, ranging from one to five, was selected by the generator and used to indicate the amount of inward steps taken from the edge of the Grasslot area to the next sample location. Upon arriving at the randomly selected location, a transect measuring tape was then unwound and extended twenty meters long. The transect was then placed on the floor in a straight line. A belt transect was then created as a one-meter measuring tape was placed perpendicular to that transect. The twenty-meter long, one meter wide belt transect was walked over a time interval of two minutes; the equivalent of walking ten meters a minute or fifteen centimeters a second. A sweep net was used to continuously sweep the plants and grass that were located within the belt transect during the walk. At the end of the sweep walk, the number of insects found within the net was counted and recorded. Among those insects present within the net, the number of different recognizable taxonomic units, RTU’s, was also recorded. RTU’s were used in this experiment to distinguish between the different types of insects that were found within the net. Insects that contained similar features were grouped together and given a general group name, the number of different groups present within the net was recorded. Such group names included flies, spiders, ladybugs, beetles and snails. The number of different plant species present within the belt transect was also counted and recorded within the data. An overall rating of condition was given to the soil found within the belt transect space. Soil was ranked as follows: 0 (dry, lacking nutrients, very light brown in colour), 1 (some moisture, still tough, light brown in colour), 2 (fairly moist, somewhat lose, average brown in colour), 3 (moist, lose, dark brown in colour), 4 (very moist, very lose, full of nutrients, very dark brown/black in colour). All data was then recorded in a notebook and transferred to a Microsoft Excel document. Each day, both groups completed 30 replicates each. This resulted in the gathering of 60 replicates per day with a total of 120 replicates. Different weather conditions may have altered the results gathered within the experiment. Proper statistical analysis needs to be done in order to determine whether soil conditions and number of plant species affects the number of insects present within a general area.