Determining whether human and environmental interferences affect the height of plant species, Goldenrod, Purple Aster and White Aster.

The experiment was conducted at the Danby Grassland at York University for a span of two days, October 15, 2015 and October 22, 2015 between the times of 2:45-4:00 pm EST. The weather on October 15, 2015 consisted of cloudy skies with light periodic showers with an approximate temperature of 18 C. The weather on October 22, 2015 consisted of clear blue skies with an estimated temperature of 16 C. The Danby grassland was comprised of grass, scattered trees and variety of different plant species. It is to be noted, that due to significant weather changes during the period between the sampling days, resulted in reduction in the abundance of the plant species of interest, thus increasing difficulty in identifying them. The purpose of this experiment was to determine the height of specified plant species (Purple Aster, White Aster and Goldenrod) at each site within the grassland; the exterior and interior, in order to provide the required experimental evidence to reject or fail to reject the hypothesis formulated by the experimenters, whether reduced environmental and human interferences play a role in the height of the specified plant species. The exterior was identified by the experimenters as the 98.4 feet distance gap from the interior site. It is also to be noted that the exterior site was 84 feet away from the edge of road on Keele Street. The interior site consisted of dense, diverse and abundant vegetation as opposed to the exterior site that contained isolated vegetation, with boundaries that showed clear signs of mowing sometime during prior weeks. A total of 100 replicates were collected for each plant species, with 50 replicates from the exterior site and 50 replicates from the interior site. 40 replicates at each site was collected on October 15, 2015 and the remainder were collected on October 22, 2015. Each plant species was identified randomly at each site using the guidebook provided and later confirmed by all experimenters prior to measuring the height. The height was measured in inches using a transect tape with a total range of 100 feet, from the bottom of the plant to the highest flower. All measurements (based on the measurements on the transect tape) were recorded using the Imperial System to avoid accuracy and precision errors, had the experimenters converted to the Metric System. The sample size including all three plant species was 300. The experimenters were Bava, Saraswatie, Eman and Azeb.

本实验于约克大学（York University）丹比草原（Danby Grassland）开展，实验周期为2015年10月15日与2015年10月22日两日，每日采样时段为美国东部标准时间（Eastern Standard Time, EST）下午2:45至4:00。2015年10月15日天气为多云伴间歇性小雨，平均气温约18℃；2015年10月22日天气晴朗无云，平均气温约16℃。丹比草原以草本植被为主体，散布零星树木，且包含多种不同的植物类群。需特别说明的是，两次采样期间天气变化显著，导致目标植物类群的丰度下降，增加了物种识别的难度。本实验旨在测定草原内两类样地（外围样地与内部样地）中指定植物物种：紫色紫菀（Purple Aster）、白色紫菀（White Aster）及一枝黄花（Goldenrod）的株高，以获取实验证据，完成对研究者提出假设的检验，即验证减弱环境与人为干扰是否会对指定植物的株高产生影响，进而决定拒绝或不拒绝该原假设。研究者将内部样地外围98.4英尺处划定为外围样地，且外围样地距离基尔街（Keele Street）的道路边缘仅84英尺。内部样地植被茂密、物种丰富且种群数量充足；与之相对，外围样地植被分布零散，其边界显示出近期数周内曾被修剪的明显痕迹。每种目标植物共计采集100个重复样本，其中外围样地与内部样地各50个。2015年10月15日采集各样地的40个重复样本，剩余样本于2015年10月22日完成采集。每个样地内的目标植物均通过配套图鉴随机选取，并在测量株高前由全体实验人员共同确认物种身份。株高以英寸为单位，使用量程为100英尺的样带卷尺（transect tape）进行测量，测量起点为植物基部，终点为植株最高花部位置。所有测量数据均采用英制单位（Imperial System）记录，以避免若转换为公制单位可能产生的精度误差。涵盖三种目标植物的总样本量为300。本次实验参与者为Bava、Saraswatie、Eman及Azeb。