Week 6/ Week 7- Experimental Design: Abundance of Plants and Edge Effect Observed within the Grassland and Woodlot regions of York University

The objective of this experiment was to measure the abundance of plants in the Grassland and Woodlot regions and observe edge effects in both areas. A Grassland is observed to be an area dominated largely by grasses. A Woodlot is observed to be an ecosystem dominated by trees. The experiment was conducted from the corners (North-West, North-East, South-West and South-East) to the middle of each region. The experiment was performed on two separate days. This experiment yields discrete data.

To begin the experiment, a 50 meter long transect was laid stretching from the North-West edge to the middle of the Grassland region. The edge of the area began at an undisturbed location, where there was minimal human interference. Mowed and cut down areas were likely to produce inaccurate results and were avoided as much as possible. A 1m2 quadrant was laid on at the 0m position along the transect. The abundance of living plants were counted in the quadrant. If the number of plants was too large to count, it was estimated by dividing the quadrant into smaller parts and counting the number of plants within one of the divided parts and multiplying that number by the number of parts the quadrant was divided. The quadrant was picked up and moved 5 meters along the transect once the number of plants was counted and recorded. This process was conducted until a total of 10 quadrant samples were observed along the laid transect. Once all necessary data was obtained, the experimenter folded the quadrant, rolled the transect and repeated the above procedure in the North-East, South-West and South-East corners of the Grassland region. A total of 40 samples were recorded in the Grassland region. This process was repeated in the Woodlot area, where another 40 sample were recorded. At the end of the first day of experimentation, a total of 80 samples were obtained. This entire process was repeated for a second trial. In total 160 samples (n=160) were obtained during the 2 days of conducting the experiment. All data, including the site, location, distance along the transect, date, abundance and general observations were recorded in a chart for later examination

The experiment was conducted by Hannan Fayyaz, Gopaul Parbatie, Albert Lin and Gajamugan Rajavarothayan on Thursday October 15th- 2015 and Thursday October 22nd- 2015 during the lab hours of 2:30pm-5:30pm on a Grassland and Woodlot region located on Keele Campus of York University. The weather on October 15th-2015 was observed to be 17oC and the weather on October 22nd-2015 was observed to be 16oC. The tools required to conduct the experiment include a transect and a 1m2 quadrant.