Insect biodiversity in the York University grasslands

Organism diversity in the York University grasslands was studied on September 30th,2015. The study was conducted through the use of a 200 foot transact and a sweep net. The transact was set to 10 meters, and a sweep was done along the sides of the transacts, up to half a meter left and right, for 2 minutes. At the end of each run organisms caught in the net were classified according to their recognizable taxonomic units (RTUs) and set free. The 10 meter measurement on the transact was then moved to a random location on the grasslands and the study was repeated. This was done for a total of 10 replicates. Location was randomized by walking 10 steps right after each trial. The study was done in 15˚C weather during a light drizzle. The data indicates that there is a greater abundance of smaller species such as the mosquito, ant and fruit fly than of larger species such as the spider, beetle, cricket, moth or caterpillar. These results may have been affected by the weather, as it is common for species to seek shelter during rainfall and not be in an open field where puddles may form and drowning due to flooding is likely.