(SC/BIOL2050) Squirrel abundance related to human disturbance

People included in this experiment were, in alphabetic order, Angela joseph, Brad Wismayer, Enrique Sapena Ventura and Hasam Hamam. Variables were measured in an urban nucleus, with high human disturbance, and in woodlots, which had almost none human disturbance, for 45 minutes each, from 3PM to 4:30PM each time. It was repeated two times in two consecutives fridays. First Friday it was raining, second Friday it was sunny. Urban nucleus included the proximities of the laboratory, Vari hall, and the roundabouts. Woodlots were chosen as the place in where we did our first experiments. Every variable was measured with observation and a map, that would tell which quadrat was the squirrel in. It's hypothesized that disturbance affects squirrel distribution, in a fashion that where high disturbance it's observated, no squirrel will be seen, due to stress; while we expect more squirrels in mildly disturbed urban areas, due to access to plenty of food resources and absence of predators. Last prediction is that, near urban nucleus, little quantity of squirrels is going to be found in wild areas, due to that they can access to more food resources in the mildly disturbed urban nucleus.本实验的参与者按字母顺序排列为：安吉拉·约瑟夫（Angela Joseph）、布拉德·威斯梅耶（Brad Wismayer）、恩里克·萨佩纳·文图拉（Enrique Sapena Ventura）与哈萨姆·哈马姆（Hasam Hamam）。研究变量分别在人为干扰强度较高的城市核心区，以及几乎无人为干扰的林地中进行测量，每次测量时长为45分钟，时段为每日15:00至15:45。该测量流程于连续两个周五各重复一次：首个周五出现降雨，第二个周五天气晴朗。城市核心区涵盖实验室周边、瓦里大厅（Vari Hall）以及环岛区域；林地为本次实验的初始测量点位。所有变量均通过实地观测与地图标注的方式完成测量，地图可用于确定松鼠所在的样方（quadrat）。本实验提出如下研究假设：人为干扰会影响松鼠的分布格局——在人为干扰强度较高的区域，由于应激反应，将难以观测到松鼠；而在人为干扰适度的城市区域，因食物资源充足且无天敌威胁，松鼠种群密度会更高。最后一项预测为：在靠近城市核心区的野生区域中，松鼠的种群数量将较为稀少，原因是松鼠可在人为干扰适度的城市核心区获取更为丰富的食物资源。