How does plant density affect insect diversity

Question

Hi,

Can anyone outline an experiment for this ecology question, please?

I have quadrats, pitfall traps and transect line to carry out the experiment.

How do you measure plant density?

Thank you

Answer 1

The best way I can think to measure plant density is to setup a plot system.

Lets say you have 4 plots with a different number of plants (at least one plot with 0 plants as a control) each plot is treated the same, same plant type, same sunlight, same watering, same fertilizers and everything. The only difference is the number of plants in each plot. You would then let the plots grow for a number of weeks lets say you have a 6 week period. Each week you would count the number of insects per plot. You would then take the 6 weeks from the 4 different plots add insect totals and take an average.

You can then see that if a higher number of plants would have more insects than a lower number of plants to create your conclusion.