BIOL3250_surveydata_Taylor_Creek

This data was collected
near the Lumsden Ave. entrance to Taylor Creek Trail in East York, Toronto. The
area being surveyed was 5 or more metres away from the trail path. The area was
then broken into twenty, roughly 1x1 metre, quadrats which were arranged
linearly and going into the shrubbery, perpendicular to the beaten trail path. Within
each quadrat the species richness was measured. This means that the number of
species present was counted. Species were identified using the smartphone app
called “Picture This” and also the book, Newcomb’s Wildflower Field Guide.
The species frequency was also measured by estimating the percent cover
provided by each species that were present. And finally ground cover was
measured by approximating what percentage of the ground was covered by
vegetation in general. Our ground cover values are not the sum of species cover
as one would assume. This is because with species cover, we’re including
vertical cover, but with ground cover, we’re including only cover along the
floor.

This pilot was conducted
over a period of two days in two independent plots but close-in-proximity to
each other. The first day’s recordings are labelled Plot A. The second day’s
recordings, in a slightly different but still regionally close location are
under Plot B. Next to each “Plot” (second column) there are “Quadrat” numbers
(third column).

Dataset columns:

-
Date – Date on which pilot
was conducted

-
Plot – Which of the two
possible test sites the specific quadrats being measured were present in.

-
Quadrat – 1x1 metre square
segments of the plot

-
Researcher – Person taking
measurements

-
Location – Where the plots
were located

-
Species_richness – Number
of species were present in each plot

-
Species_cover – Percent
cover per species

-
Total_cover – Percentage
of quadrat floor that is covered by vegetation