User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
I found that a scatter graph was the best way to represent my average (mean) data, while a table was better if readers are looking for more specific data, where there is a value of species richness and insect abundance for each trap set per site. I did not have any difficulties organizing, summarizing and converting my data into an appropriate graphical representation, as I used my laptop to enter my field data directly into excel, however, I struggled to decide which representation, being either a graph or table, was the best to include in the body of my research project report. In the end, I decided to include the graph and place the table in the appendix for further reference for the readers. The outcome of the experiment, shown by the data, was relatively what I expected to see in terms of species richness, but was farther from expected in terms of insect abundance. I expected the insect abundance to be extremely high in the bird sanctuary, and then slightly to moderately decrease in the meadow and then the residential area. While the data did follow this trend, I found that the insect abundance was not as high as I expected in general, as I thought more would be present on the traps. After considering the reasons for the lower than expected abundance, I realized the type of trap used bay not be sufficient for catching all types of insects, and therefore, the actual species abundance may be higher than the experimental value. If I were to repeat this experiment or move forward with it in the future, I would use other types of traps in conjunction with the adhesive ones already used, for example; a pitfall trap, which accounts for only insects that crawl along the ground.
