Week 6 & 7 Experimental Design: Impact of the Anthropocene on bug abundance

The experiment was conducted in the course of 2 weeks. The first 6 Replicates (1-6) were taken on 13 October 2015 in the Danby Grasslands at York University Keele Campus. These replicates were taken on the side of the Danby Grasslands closest to York University. The data was collected between 2:56- 4:44pm, the temperature went from 15°C at the beginning of the experiment to 11°C towards the end. It was a grey, overcast day with a lot of wind. The second set of replicates (7-12) were taken on 20 October 2015 in the Danby Grasslands at York University Keele campus. However this time the data was collected on the side of the grasslands closest to Keele Street between 3:19-5:00pm. It was an overcast day and there was light rain throughout the experiment. The temperature was consistent and remained 12°C. The entire experiment was conducted with classmates Bryson Chandrarajan, Stanley Igiebor and Sharan Saravanabavan. The purpose of the experiment was to investigating the health of the Danby Grasslands by determining the abundance of insects to see what affect the Anthropocene has had on it thus far, in order to prevent further disturbance. The two factors we studied were: distance from human disturbance/interference and the number of pieces of garbage. Our response was the abundance of insects. The hypothesis for this experiment was that both the Anthropocene (human disturbance) and the disposal of garbage in natural environments such as the Danby Grasslands affects insect habitats, thus leading to a decrease in the abundance of insects. The predictions we made were: Distance from human interference- Response: The abundance of insects will be higher further away from human disturbance where the natural system has not been disrupted and the health of the Grasslands has not declined. Number of garbage pieces- Response: The abundance of insects will be higher where there are less pieces of garbage which remain in the natural system affecting insect habitats. To conduct this experiment we used two methods. Sweep net dataset: We used sweep net and transect. A 30m transect was set in the Danby Grasslands from the outskirts (close to human interference) towards the centre of the grasslands. We walked up and down the first 5m of transect with the sweep net for 2 mins and recorded the total number of insects captured. Every 5 meters was considered a new group, the first 5 meters was Group 1 and the last was Group 6. This procedure was repeated for the entire 30 meter transect and 12 replicates were obtained. The second method was a distance-based dataset: we used the same transect used for the sweep net dataset however this time we counted all the pieces of garbage found every 5m for the 30m, along the transect. As mentioned above both days were overcast. On the 13th October 2015, the biggest problem was that it was very windy. The wind was constantly blowing the grass and vegetation in the grassland as well as our sweep net. On the 20th October 2015, the biggest problem was the rain, it was a light rain however it had been like that all day thus the ground were we set our transects were wet and muddy and the vegetation and grass was covered in water droplets. This affected the sweep nets slightly due to the muddy, wet conditions of the Danby grasslands.

本实验总耗时两周。第一批重复实验组（Replicates，1-6号）于2015年10月13日在约克大学基尔校区的Danby草原开展，采样点位位于草原靠近约克大学的一侧，数据采集时段为当日14:56至16:44，实验期间气温从初始的15℃降至结束时的11℃，当日天气阴沉且风力较强。第二批重复实验组（7-12号）于2015年10月20日在同一地点开展，本次采样点位位于草原靠近基尔街的一侧，数据采集时段为15:19至17:00，当日天气阴沉且全程伴有小雨，气温稳定维持在12℃。本次实验由同班同学Bryson Chandrarajan、Stanley Igiebor与Sharan Saravanabavan协作完成。本实验旨在通过调查昆虫丰度，评估Danby草原的健康状况，探明人类世（Anthropocene）迄今对该区域造成的影响，以避免进一步的生态干扰。本次实验研究的两个因子为：人类干扰/干预的距离，以及垃圾碎片数量，响应变量（response）为昆虫丰度。本实验的假设为：人类世背景下的人类活动干扰，以及在Danby草原这类自然环境中丢弃垃圾，均会破坏昆虫栖息地，进而导致昆虫丰度下降。我们提出的预测如下：其一，人类干扰距离：离人类干扰越远的区域，自然系统未受破坏、草原健康未出现衰退，昆虫丰度将越高；其二，垃圾碎片数量：自然系统中垃圾越少的区域，昆虫丰度将越高。本次实验采用两种采集方法：其一为扫网法（Sweep net）数据集：我们使用扫网与样带（transect）开展采样，在Danby草原设置一条总长30米的样带，从靠近人类干扰的草原外缘延伸至草原中心。在样带的前5米区段来回挥动扫网采样2分钟，记录捕获的昆虫总数量。每5米设为一个采样组，前5米区段为第1组，最后一个5米区段为第6组。对整条30米样带重复上述操作，共获得12个重复实验组。其二为距离相关数据集：我们沿用扫网法所用的同一条样带，沿30米样带每5米统计一次发现的垃圾碎片总数。如前文所述，两次采样当日均为阴天。2015年10月13日的主要干扰因素为强风，持续吹动草原植被与我们使用的扫网；2015年10月20日的主要干扰因素为小雨，尽管雨量不大，但全天持续，导致样带设置区域的地面湿滑泥泞，植被表面附着大量水滴，潮湿泥泞的环境对扫网采样造成了一定影响。