DOI: 10.6084/m9.figshare.4056201
title: YorkU.Forest.Oct24-2016

description: Meta data:Census: represent the sampling week. Which may be either week 5 = census 1, week 7 = census 2 or week 8 = census 3Calendar date: its a continuous variable which represents the date that the data collection took place.Campus: represents the campus and the university that the data collection took place.Group-ID: Represents each group’s significant number, which is used for identification within different groups.Habitat: it’s a categorical variable that represents the location used for data collection; in this lab it was forestlandRep: which represents replicates and indicates the total number of times a specific measurement was conducted.Abundance.native.plants: it’s a continuous variable, which shows the total number of native plants counted inside the quadrat area that are originally grow in that location.Abundance.exotic.plants: it’s a continuous variable that shows the total number of plants counted that are not originally from that location and they normally grow somewhere else.Abundance.woody.plants: It’s a continuous variable that shows the number of trees counted that are 1.5m or higher in height.Total.number.flowers (quadret): It’s a continuous variable, which shows the number of individual flowers counted from different species within the quadrats.Canopy.cover: it is a continuous variable that provides the percentage of canopy coverage that was observed when looking towards the sky in each sample replicate.This was done by making visual units with hands and adding the values in each unit.Ground.cover: it's a continuous variable that provides the percentage of vegetative ground cover in each sample replicate. Vegetative ground cover was visually identified as grass.This was done by making visual units with hands and adding the values in each unit.Total.number.flowers (transect): it's a continuous variable that provides the total number of flowers and the flowers were identified as any plant with a blooming bud.Abundance.vertebrates: It’s a continuous variable, indicating the total number of vertebrates visualized and counted in the range of 50 meters radius from transect for 15 minutes.Vertebrate.species: It’s continuous variable, which shows the number of different species of vertebrates visualized in the range of 50 meters radius from the transect, for 15 minutes.Abundance.invertebrates.observed: Its a continuous variable, which shows the total number of insects observed in the range of 5 meter radius from the transect, for 15 minutes.Abundance.human: Its a continue variable, which shows the total count of people who are not members of the lab present in the 50m range from the transect, for 15 minutes.Abundance.invertebrate.pantraps: it’s a continuous variable, indicating the total number of individuals visualized and counted in the bowl, after 40 minutes.Abundance.invertebrates.sweeps: it’s a continuous variable, indicating the total number of individuals visualized and counted in the sweep net.Methods: <br>The data was collected on a cloudy, cold and windy day with a temperature of 8°C, on Monday October ,24th 2016. The data collection began at 3:00pm at the Saywell forest of York University campus and took roughly 50 minutes to complete. The coordinates of the forestland had a latitude of 43.76876, longitude of -79.5079 and elevation of 126.302. Maryam Yazdi also collaborated and data collection was divided to four distinct part. Each student placed a 50m transect in parallel with others’. Firstly, a quadrat was placed every 2 meters along the length of transect, alternating on the left and right side. This process was done within 15 minutes. The numbers of flowers, native and exotic plants were measured by dividing the quadrat to parts and adding the numbers in each area. For the second part, the number of woody plants was measured every 2 meters along and within the range of 0.5 meters of transect. For each tree, the ground and canopy cover was measured by dividing the visual area to units and adding values in each unit. In addition, the total number of flowers was measured through direct visualization. These observations were done within 13 minutes.For the third part, the first 15 minutes was spent to walk within the radius of 50m around the transect and the abundance of vertebrates, the different types of species and number of humans was measured through visualization and counting. Another 15 minutes interval was spent to measure the abundance of invertebrates visually. Lastly, 6 bowls with three different colors of blue, yellow and white were placed, 3 meters apart with alternating colors; filled with soapy water up to an inch. The number of invertebrates was measured 30 minutes after placement. The sweep nets were conducted along the 50m transect, repeating it for 10 times. The numbers of invertebrates were measured by counting the number of insects caught.Hypothesis: <br>As the richness and abundance of plant community increases, the number of invertebrates (i.e insects) increases within an environment. The reason is that as the richness of plant species within an environment increases, it provides a greater diversity in terms of resources available for insects.Predictions: <br>There will be more insects caught on the pan traps as the abundance of native plants and exotic plants increases within the quadrates measurements. Moreover, the areas with higher number of woody plants observed within the 0.5 range of transects would lead to higher number of insects being caught in the pan traps, regardless of the color of the pan traps. The reason is that higher number of different plants richness (represented by high numbers counted in quadrats) would increase nutrition and habitat availability for the insects to survive. This increase in terms of diversity of resources would decrease the selective pressures on insects that could have been removed due to the inaccessibility of desired resources. Moreover, the increase in abundance of plant species increases the likelihood that insect individuals would have the chance to find their required resources through one of the plant individuals available; there’s more exposure. Moreover, there will be more insects caught on pan traps in the areas with higher canopy and ground coverage. Similarly, higher coverage by plant species indicates higher levels of resources available