Ecology Lab 3 Dataset 1

Group members: Harshvir Hehar, Amrutha Balamurgan, Olivia Kazmierczak, Adilah Ismail. This study took place at the Woodlots and Grasslands in York University. The temperature outside was around 15 C but it was quite sunny. The cold temperatures influenced our data significantly. Since it was so cold outside we were not able to see that many organisms. So our abundance was quite low on the organisms. Also we might not have been able to see a lot of the organisms as they could be embedded in the dirt. The sampling size of this study was 20 quadrats in total. The quadrats were randomly set up in both these sites. This data was collected by setting up ten quadrats in the Woodlot and the other ten were set up in the Grassland. The quadrats were randomly set up in these sites. Some of the places where the quadrats were set up it was shady, some places were sunny, or the ground was moist in some cases. In the woodlots the quadrats that were set up had a lot of leaves and garbage in it. In the Grasslands the quadrats had a lot of grass in it. The quadrats were observed in pairs for a time of 1 minute (timed with a stop watch) per each quadrat. In this minute any organism that was spotted was recorded. We recorded any organism that was in the quadrat or that came into the quadrat in that 1 minute time. The purpose of this study was to collect data on the living organisms that were seen in the quadrats at different sites and determine the abundance and RTU of the observed species and compare the results.