Human Activities and its effect on Dandelion Abudance

The purpose of this experiment was to determine whether the abundance of plant abundance in an environment is affected by human activity. The plant species used for this experiment was the dandelion Taraxacum officinale. The two variables of human activities were pollutants and the amount of solid garbage. The response variable would be the abundance of T. officinale. Data was collected using quadrant sampling and random sampling. The hypothesis states that pollutants and solid garbage found in close proximity of the dandelion species’ Taraxacum officinale will have an effect on its’ abundance. The experiment was done over a span of two days at York University’s grassland. The experiment was carried out approximately 3pm – 4:30 pm on Oct 19, 2015 and Oct 26, 2015. It was about 11 degrees Celsius, windy and chilly on both days with a little bit of sun. Three ranges were used which were 3-15 feet, 110-200 feet and 60-110 feet away from the road. These were indicators of pollutants. The closer the range is to the road with cars, the more air pollution there is. My partners Elaine, Surfyan, Alex, Frankie and I collected data by randomly placing a quadrat in each range. The number of T. officinale and garbage were counted in each quadrat. This was repeated 30 times for each range on day 1. It was then repeated 20 times again for each range on day 2, thus giving a total of 150 replicates and 50 replicates for each range. This was to ensure that the data collected was representative of the total grassland area and dandelions in that area being studied.