Measuring insect abundance depending on the effect of light and habitat at York University

<p>The purpose behind this experiment was to determine the effects of habitat and amount of light on insect abundance. This experiment was performed at York University, at two different locations: Stong pond grassland and Danby woodlots on October 19th, 2015 and October 26th, 2015. The experiment time was approximately constant for the two days, around 3:00 pm. For the first day of experiments on October 19th, 2015 temperature was around 13 degrees Celsius, with wind speed at 9 mph and clear skies. On October 26th, 2015 temperature was 10 degrees Celsius, with a wind speed of 6 mph, skies on that day were more cloudy compared to October 19th, 2015. Data were collected in Danby Woodlot by Sarah Alsammarraie and Syed Yosuf, while Stong pond collection was done by Anosha Rahmany and Sharon Dhami. Data were collected using ten pan traps in the grassland area and ten pan traps in the woodlot area. Transect tape was used to measure 27 meters distance in a straight line into the woodlot allowing 3 meters between each pan trap. Ten pan traps of different colors were placed in an alternating order were no two consecutive color were the same. Pan traps were filled with soap-water solution; about half of the pan was filled with the solution to trap the insects in and the pans were set for an hour in the two habitats. When an hour had been passed, the insect abundance, canopy coverage and RTUs were measured at each location where there was a pan trap positioned. Canopy coverage was estimated by creating a square in the air above the pan trap using two fingers from each hand and raising the square along head height and looking through it to estimate the percentage of sky visible through that square. The exact same procedure was followed in day 1 and day 2.