The correlation between the abundance of exotic plant species and native vertebrate species within a forest area near York University Keele campus.

Description: This experiment was a part of Campus-Ecology at York University. Undergraduate Ecology students obtained data in a forest area under a cold climate, (roughly 3 degrees Celsius), clear skies with direct exposure to natural light (sun), and clear weather conditions (mild winds but no precipitation).<div><br></div><div>Hypothesis: There is a negative correlation between number of exotic plant species and native vertebrate species within a forest area. Prediction: There is a negative correlation between the number of exotic plant species and number of native vertebrates in the forested area. As the number of exotic plants increases, the number of native plants decrease. Since both are producers (trophic wise) in the forest area there is competition between them. Because of competitive exclusion principle the white carrot displaces the native species. This causes a trophic cascade that effect the native vertebrate species in the forested area.</div><div><br></div><div><p>Methods:</p><p>Person 1-Herbaceous Plants (Raghavan"Ray")</p><p>In a forest area two transects were placed in a straight line- end to end to cover 50 meters. A 1m x 1m quadrat was randomly tossed (roughly 1 metre away from the transect). Place the next quadrat on the other side of the transect 2 meters down from the last quadrat and continue to alternate (left, right). For every quadrat that was tossed, count the total number of individual plant species, and count the total number of exotic plant species. Finally, count the total number of flowers observed in the quadrat. For areas where the quadrat only has grass put “1” in the exotic plant species for its 1 quadrat worth of grass.</p><p>Person 2-Woody Plants (Mohamed)</p><p>For the experiment that was conducted on October 25th 2016, the materials used were two transects that were 25 meters long. The transects were placed as straight as possible along a land that wasn’t levelled along a 50-meter distance. Every two meters on the transect on both sides 0.5 meters the following data were recorded: the abundance of woody plants and its canopy, the number of flowers and the vegetation ground coverage. In total there were 25 individual counts per data.</p><p> Person 3-Vertebrates & Invertebrates (Amir)</p><p>2 Transacts were stacked one after each other in a straight line to cover a distance of 50 meters in a forest area. At the tip of the 50 meters line a radius of 50 meters was calculated. This was then followed by calculating the abundance of vertebrates and the number of different species was also counted. The abundance of humans within the 50 meters radius was counted also at the same time. 2 trials of counting the abundance of vertebrates and humans and the number of different vertebrate species was performed within a 15 minute time frame. A similar performance was performed to calculate the abundance of invertebrates observed. This time a 5 meter radius from 5 meters to 10 meters on the transact was taken and the abundance of invertebrates was calculated within the 5 meter radius circle. 2 trails were performed within a 15 minute time frame. </p><p>Person 4-Invertebrates (Hamid)</p><p>The experiment was done at York university forest on October, 25th, 2016 at 2:30pm. Two 25-meter transects were placed together to create a 50-meter long transect which was placed along a non- level land. The transect line was approximately a straight line. 6 pan traps filled with soup water were placed 3-meters apart starting at the beginning of the transect. There were three different colour pan traps; yellow, blue, and white. The plates were placed in order of color. The order that the cups were placed was blue, yellow and then white. This sequence of plates was repeated one more time with the same blue, yellow and white sequence giving us a total of 6 plates which were 3-meters apart on the transect. Using a net, the 50-meter transect line was swept and the number of abundance invertebrate sweeps were recorded. Every time a sweep was done, the abundance invertebrate pan traps was also recorded for all six pan traps. Every sweep was done approximately two minutes apart and pan traps were counted two minutes apart. The sweeping along the 50-meter transect was done ten times.</p> <p>Metadata:</p><p>Person 1:</p><p>1) Abundance of native plants – A categorical number of native plant species within a quadrat. Native refers to flora that is historically and native to the region.</p><p>2) Abundance of exotic plants – Exotic refers to an invasive species that is introduced (intentionally or accidentally) to the region.</p><p>3) Total number of plant species- Is a discrete numerical number of total flower heads observed within a quadrat. A head would refer to the connecting stem that connects a bulb of flowers.</p><p>Person 2:</p><p>1) Abundance of woody plants: The total number of trees that were observed both sides in a 0.5-meter distance. For a tree to be considered a woody plant, it must be greater than 1.5 meters in height. This data is numerical discrete.</p><p>2) Canopy cover: The canopy percentage was taken at arm’s length. The tree’s canopy was determined by making a square with hands that were approximately 15cm width and 8 cm length. The percentage was an estimation based on the amount of leaves in the square to the sky. In other words, when watching the square, the estimation was made based on the amount of light that was seen through the leafs. This data is numerical continuous. </p><p>3) Total number of plants: Of all plant species were recorded. This data is numerical discrete.</p><p>4) Vegetation percentage: the ratio between all plant species and grass species were estimated. This data is numerical continuous.</p><p>Person 3:</p><p>1) Vertebrate: Vertebrates are species which have spinal cords, vertebrae and notochords.</p><p>2) Invertebrates: Invertebrates are species that don't possess a vertebral column.</p><p>3) Abundance of vertebrates: The total number of vertebrates species observed within the 50 meters radius circle, data is continuous.</p><p>4) Vertebrate Richness: The total number of different species observed within the 50 meters radius circle, data is continuous.</p><p>5) Abundance of humans: The total number of humans observed within the 50 meters radius circle, data is continuous.</p><p>6) Abundance of invertebrates observed: The total number of invertebrates observed within the 5 meters radius circle, data is continuous.</p><p>Person 4:</p><p>1) Abundance invertebrate pan traps: The total number of invertebrate individuals found in the 6 colored plates filled with soup water which was recorded every 2 minutes. This type of data is numerical discrete </p><p>2) Abundance invertebrate sweeps: The total number of invertebrate individuals caught in the net sweeping along the 50-meter transect. This type of data is numerical discrete </p><p>3) Pan traps: Plates filled with approximately 50ml soap water to trap insects. The colors were in order of blue, yellow and white.</p><p>4) Invertebrates: Invertebrates are animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column, derived from the notochord.</p> </div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br>