User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
For my field data collection activities, I have been sampling three sites, being a bird sanctuary, a meadow/park, and a residential condo complex, for insect species composition and relative abundance. My experimental design was set up so each sampling period would last three days (72 hours), with there being three sampling periods in total. Sticky cards with strong adhesive are being used to trap the insects, and at the end of three days, the cards are collected and replaced. There are six cards per site, with each card being no less than 8 meters apart.
I have not experienced many problems while implementing my experiment, however, I have found that occasionally the insect traps do go missing. As all three of the sites are areas accessible to the public and potential wildlife, it is not surprising that some of the traps get disturbed or moved from their original position. I have tried to place traps in areas that are not easily visible from the pedestrian paths as a result. One issue I think I may have going forward with this project is species identification of insects that are small or lack easily distinguishable identifiers. I will use identification keys to determine the number of species within the area as accurately as possible, but may not include all species names in my final report if my confidence in the accuracy of identification is low.
So far, the data collection is reflecting my predictions, however, more sampling will need to be performed to be sure.
