Grassland and Disturbed Open Space Data for York University

Description:

·        
Following
experiment was taken on October 19th, 2016, at York University for
Ecology 2050. The data was gathered in both grassland and disturbed open space at
Saywell grassland and Library lane respectively. The experiment took place from
2:45pm-4: 15pm, in clear weather conditions. The temperature ranged from 19-21
degrees Celsius. Data was collected in the grassland area, followed by being
collected in the disturbed open space area. (Grassland: 2:45-3:30pm, disturbed
open space: 3:30-4:15pm).

Methods :

Person 1 – Herbaceous
Plants (Diana Bleyan)

A 50m long transect was placed in a straight line on the ground of
the grassland area and disturbed open space. Every 2 meters along the transect,
a 1mx1m quadrat was randomly placed along the transect (~1 meter from the
transect). The quadrat was placed in alternates on the left and right side of
the transect.

Person 2 – Woody Plants (Melinaz
Barati)

A 50m long transect was placed in a straight line on the ground of
the grassland area and disturbed open space. Every 2 meters along the transect,
students have looked for a tree on either side of the transect within 0.5
meters from the transect.

Person 3 – Vertebrates and
Invertebrates (Nargol Ghazian)

A 25 meter transect was placed in a straight line on the ground of
the grassland area and disturbed open space, in order to provide the sense for
a 25 meter radius. Vertebrates and invertebrates were observed, using a naked
eye. For invertebrates, the length of the transect was shortened to a 5 meter
radius.

Person 4 – Invertebrates (Noyell
Sakthikumar)

·        
A 25 meter
transect was placed in a straight line on the ground of the grassland and
disturbed open space area and 6 pan traps were placed along the transect (~1
meter away from each other along the length of the transect). Each pan trap was
strategically placed with respect to color (the colors varied from blue to
yellow to white). The soapy water was poured in each pan trap, covering half of
the pan trap’s volume. All the traps were left for 45 minutes.

·        
A 50m long
transect was placed in a straight line on the ground of the grassland and
disturbed open space and a student conducted 10 sweep nets along the transect.
The sweeps were done in a shape of infinity sign, 1 meter above the ground.

Meta-data:

Person 1 – Herbaceous
Plants (Diana Bleyan)

·        
Abundance.native.plants – native
plants were defined as species within an observed quadrat, which grow naturally
in a given region (Ontario, Canada). 

·        
Abundance.exotic.plants – exotic
plants were defined as invasive species within an observed quadrat, which were introduced
to a given region (Ontario, Canada).  

·        
Total.number.flowers (quadrat) – were counted as total number of flower heads within an observed
quadrat. A flower head was considered to be at the top of the stem.

Person 2 – Woody Plants (Melinaz
Barati)

·        
Abundance.woody.plants–  a woody plant was considered as a tree higher
than 1.5 meters in height. If no tree was observed within 0.5 meters from the
transect, students recorded 0.

·        
Canopy.cover– was
estimated in %, by holding a square (created by hands, approximately 3cmx3cm)
and measuring how much of the square area was filled with canopy of the tree.

·        
Ground.cover – was
estimated in %, by holding a square (created by hands, approximately 3cmx3cm)
and measuring how much of the square area contains vegetation.

·        
Total.flower.numbers (transect)– was counted, within 0.5 meter distance from the observed
tree/trees. A flower was considered to be any plant that contained a flower
head, attached to the top of the stem.

Person 3 – Vertebrates and
Invertebrates (Nargol Ghazian)

·        
Abundance.invertebrate.observed – the variety of invertebrates observed, consisted of mosquitos,
butterflies, bees, grasshoppers, beetles and dragon flies.

·        
Abundance.vertebrate observed,
consisted of squirrels and birds (including Seagulls and Ring-billed gulls)

·        
Abundance.human was
separated from the rest of the vertebrate species not part of our lab.

Person 4 – Invertebrates
(Noyell Sakthikumar)

·        
Invertebrate species – the
number of observed flies, grasshoppers and beetles

·        
Abundance.invertebrates.pantraps – the number of invertebrates trapped in a soapy water of a pan trap

·        
Abundance.invertebrates.sweeps – the number of invertebrates trapped in a sweep net (at the end of
sweeping along the 50m transect)

Hypothesis:

Person 1 – Herbaceous
Plants (Diana Bleyan)

The number of flowers and native species is higher in the grassland
(undisturbed) area than in disturbed open space.

Person 2 – Woody Plants (Melinaz
Barati)

Woody plants are more abundant in grassland (undisturbed) area and
have higher canopy coverage and less ground vegetation, in comparison to
disturbed open space.

Person 3 – Vertebrates and
Invertebrates (Nargol Ghazian)

The number of certain vertebrates in grassland and disturbed open
space will be the same whilst the number of invertebrates in disturbed area
will be lower than grassland.

Person 4 – Invertebrates
(Noyell Sakthikumar)

The abundance of invertebrate species is higher in the grassland
area than the disturbed open space area whilst the abundance of certain vertebrates
species remains unchanged in both habitats.

Prediction:

Person 1 – Herbaceous
Plants (Diana Bleyan)

The number of flowers and native species is higher in the grassland
(undisturbed) area than in disturbed open space, because there is increased
human activity and human traffic in disturbed open space, which results in
overall habitat invasion and affects the condition of plants. Moreover,
observed results may be attributed to the

fact that the disturbed open space was created by humans, which is
not a natural habitat for the presented plants.

Person 2 – Woody Plants (Melinaz Barati)

Woody plants are artificially planted in disturbed areas and are
heavily affected by human traffic and human activities, which negatively
impacts their condition.

In comparison, grassland (undisturbed) area is a natural habitat and
is less affected by human activity, which makes it a more suitable environment
for woody plants’ growth. The difference in their environments would result in
higher canopy coverage of woody plants in grassland areas and therefore lower
ground vegetation.

Person 3 – Vertebrates and
Invertebrates (Nargol Ghazian)

Since invertebrate depend highly on vegetation as their habitat, a
way hoping from one vegetation to next (movement) and nutrients they will have
a greater abundance in the grassland land where there is more variety of
vegetation as opposed to the disturbed open space which is surrounded by
people, gravel and the vegetation is very sparse. However, the abundance of certain
vertebrate species such as birds remains unchanged in both habitats because
birds do not directly depends on the resources of these habitats.

Person 4 – Invertebrates
(Noyell Sakthikumar)

The abundance of invertebrate species is higher in the grassland
area than the disturbed open space area because the invertebrate species have a
more suitable habitat and no disturbances in their environment, such as humans.
In addition, the freshly planted grass in the disturbed open space is only a
new habitat for the invertebrate species creating new homes as opposed to the
grassland area where their habitat has been home far longer.  Thus, the abundance would be greater for the
grassland area than the disturbed open space.