Ecology experiment design!

Question

Hi,

I want to test how plant density affects insect diversity.

Why do some plants or parts of plants have more insects than others?

How many diff insects are there in the habitat?

-Does time of day change what insects will be there?

-Do some places in the habitat have more insects than other places?

These are the questions, and I do not know how to set up an experiment on them.

How Do I carry out this experiment?

How do I measure plant density?

Do I take a small area of land, or do I look at two different sites?

I can use Quadrats, pitfall traps, transect lines.

Answer 1

Hi Vivien,

Sounds like your experiment already has the start of a hypothesis. Sounds like your asking, "Does plant density affect insect diversity?"

You ask a lot of great questions about the relationships of the insect and the plants, all of which would be considered 'variables' in the experiment:

-How many diff insects are there in the habitat?

-Does time of day change what insects will be there?

-Do some places in the habitat have more insects than other places?

and last is the how!

Which is where the Quadrants, pitfall traps, transect lines, and size of the land comes in.

I would suggest doing a literature search for similar experiments, to help you form your hypothesis for this experiment. Then, you will test your hypothesis for the questions above. I can provide more support on how to conduct the expermient if you would like to message me if you would like to schedule a time to dive deeper into some of these topics!