Campus ecology network biodiversity data: York University and The University of Toronto Mississauga

Abstract

A university campus provides an opportunity to explore biodiversity, change, and citizen science. Many course offerings such as ecology, experimental design, or environmental science include a laboratory component. York University and The University of Toronto Mississauga collaborated and developed a collaborative platform entitled 'The Campus Ecology Network'. The goal was to connect the data that undergraduate students at each campus collected during hands-on, field exercises. We adopted the same protocols at each campus, and students surveyed each campus in the Autumn, i.e. Fall Term, in 2016. Students used transects to identify sampling locations blocked by major habitat types such as forest, grassland, disturbed sites (i.e. areas with high foot traffic but vegetated), and impermeable sites. Quadrats were then subsequently used to to explore vegetation - 0.5m x 0.5m quadrats to record herbaceous plants and grasses. On these same transects, the total number of vertebrate animals (including humans) were also recorded during the 3-hour sampling instances. Pan traps and sweet nets were used to assess invertebrate diversity. The primary focus was to document structural and species diversity patterns not composition. The data included species richness for key taxa, native versus exotic plants, canopy cover, ground cover, and total number of flowers at that point in time within each quadrat. These data can be used to explore the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, relationships between richness of different taxa, and canopy/ground cover influences on richness. Longitudinal change can also be examined, and the start point of each transect was also georeferenced for mapping or additional research.