yorku.grassland.woodlot.Sept27-2016.csv

To investigate the abundance of insects in a grassland and woodlot the belt transect method was used. Students conducted the investigation in the Danby Woods behind the reserved chimneystack parking lot at York University (York Blvd and Keele Street; 43.7° N, 79.5 ° W) at 2:45pm. It was 20°C and partly cloudy, sunny and windy. The grassland and woodlot were both withered, run down and very dry. Using transect measuring tape, a student walked in a straight line to measure a distance of 25 meters. A sweeping net was used to capture insects along the 25 meter transect belt. A student continually swept along the transect line within the grassland by holding the net out at shoulder height and moving it back and forth to capture any insects in the air. The sweeping net had a circumference of 101 cm and depth of 68 cm. The total number of insects captured and the total number of species captured (also known as recognizable taxanomic units (rtus)) were numerically recorded by observation for 10 different transects. The same method was repeated to collect data from 10 transects within the woodlot habitat. Therefore, habitat was a categorical variable since data was collected from both the grassland and woodlot. Data collection from both habitats took one hour in total. It was hypothesized that more insects would be captured from the grassland habitat due to the diversity and abundance of plant species and vegetation. <br>