Insect Abundance and Light (Stong Pond Grassland and Saywell Woodlot)

<p>The purpose of this experiment was to determine if the amount of light in a particular habitat affected the insect abundance.</p> <p>This experiment was conducted on October 19th, 2015 and October 26th, 2015 at York University at approximately 15:00 (EST) for both days. On October 19th, 2015 the skies were partly cloudy, the temperature was 13 degrees Celsius, and the wind speed was 8 mph. On October 26th, 2015 the skies were fair (showed less than 40% cloud cover), the temperature was 10 degrees Celsius, and the wind speed was 6 mph.</p> <p>The experiment took place in two locations: Stong Grassland and Saywell Woodlot. Sharon Dhami and Anosha Rahmany gathered data in the Stong Grassland. Data was collected in Saywell Woodlot by Sarah Alsammarraie and Yusuf Syed.</p> <p>Data was collected by using ten pan traps in the grassland and ten pan traps in the woodlot. A line transect tape was used to measure two metres in between each positioned pan trap. Ten pan traps were placed in alternating colours (no two pan traps of the same colour were adjacent to one another). Soapy water was poured into each pan trap and then they were set out for one hour in their habitat. After an hour had passed, the abundance, RTUs, and canopy coverage was recorded at each positioned bowl. The canopy coverage was obtained by positioning fingers to form a square, placing up to chest height, and looking through the square in order to estimate the percentage of tree visible in proportion to the amount of sky in the square.</p> <p>This method was used for both Day 1 and Day 2.