Insect Species Diversity Across Different Types of Vegetation

Hypothesis Species diversity in the area vegetation is present is higher than area where vegetation is absent due to the abundant vegetation. Four students set out to grassland site at York university keele campus at 2:30 pm. Two areas in the grassland site were chosen to execute the experiment. One area where vegetation was present (area 1) had a high abundance of vegetation; the area was covered with tall and bushy plants highly disturbed grassland area. The second area where vegetation was absent (area 2) there were no tall plants and mainly comprised of flattened grass. In area 2 the students made sure that if there were any tall grass surrounding the pan traps it would be removed by hand or a shovel. Two line transects were laid out 18m across the areas and 9 pan traps of different colors were placed along the transect in a straight line line leaving 2m between each pan. The pan traps colors were 3 blue, 3 yellow, and 3 white these were placed in alternating colors in order to attract different types of insects. The pans were half filled with soapy water in order to catch the insects and the soaps purpose was to cut the surface tension in order for the insect to drown instantly. The pan traps were left undisturbed for two and a half hours. For each pan trap the students counted the number of insects captured in each pan and the record the number of different recognizable taxonomic units (rtus). A replicate was performed the following week at the same time. The weather conditions were different for both days. On the first day of collecting data it was windy and rainy, the following week the weather was partially cloudy and sunny no wind, puddles were present in both sites.假设：由于植被繁茂，存在植被的区域其物种多样性高于无植被区域。四名学生于下午2:30前往约克大学基尔校区（York University Keele Campus）的草地样地开展实验。他们在该草地样地中选取两处实验区域：其一为存在植被的区域（区域1），该区域植被茂密，覆盖着高大丛生的植物，属于受干扰程度较高的草地；其二为无植被区域（区域2），此处无高大植物，仅以平铺低矮的草本为主。为确保区域2符合实验要求，学生们手动或使用铁锹移除了该区域内色盘诱捕器（pan traps）周边的所有高大草本。随后，在两处区域各布设18米长的样线，沿样线直线放置9个不同颜色的色盘诱捕器，相邻诱捕器间距为2米。诱捕器颜色分别为蓝色、黄色、白色各3个，以交替顺序排列，用以吸引不同类群的昆虫。每个诱捕盘中注入半盆肥皂水，肥皂的作用是降低水的表面张力，使落入水中的昆虫可立即溺亡。色盘诱捕器放置后静置两个半小时。实验过程中，学生们统计每个诱捕盘内捕获的昆虫数量，并记录可识别分类单元（recognizable taxonomic units, RTUs）的数量。该实验于一周后的同一时间重复开展。两次实验的天气条件存在显著差异：首日数据采集时天气为有风且多雨；第二周的天气为局部多云、晴朗，无风力，但两处样地均存在积水坑洼。