User: | Open Learning Faculty Member:
My field collection consists of 12 total replicates, 6 in each subarea of my yard. Each replicate is a quadrat that measures .5*.5m. I randomly placed them in my tard using a random number generator. I decided not to use the garden as it was too small to have more than one replicate it in it. If I put more than one the results would have been skewed due to the disproportionate replicates compared to size. The extreme changes in weather continues to be challenging to my collection activities and I worry that if I do not try and go out on days when weather is similar that my results will be skewed. I tried going out multiple times a day to get more accurate results, but I found that going out once a day in mid afternoon when the weather was at its most stable worked better.
I think that my results will be reliable given the fact that my yard usage has not changed much in the time I have lived here. This consistency will reduce the amount of interference in my data collection.
Have the weather changes seemed to relate to ant activity? Also, remember my suggestion of sampling a quadrat in each subarea each time so that all of one subarea is not sampled in different weather than another.