Our project is about comparing frequency of insect sightings by different types of habitats throughout Van Cortlandt Park. We wanted to see if there was some sort of significant relationship between how often you see insects in a certain area and the type of habitat that area is. Additionally, we wanted to see if there were human related factors that could explain the type of relationship that would be researched, like noise levels.

We used this year’s BioBlitz event for our data samples. We specifically used this year’s iNaturalist insect entries because of their precise location coordinates and species name. Initially, we attempted to use the data manually logged by all teams but the locations were too general. We split up location habitat type into three groups: forested, trail, and field. Forested locations are generally anything surrounded with trees. Fields are open patches of grassland unobstructed by anything. Trails are simply around the park trails.

After mapping out all the iNaturalist insect sightings on a Google Earth map, we manually decided what habitat type a sighting was based on the visual surroundings. We counted how many unique species there were for each of the three habitat location types, and in addition to that how many unique species of each habitat type different recognizable sites on the park map there were. For example, the site around the Golf Lake House where the BioBlitz participants met up had only 2 unique species: 1 was in a forested habitat and 1 in a trail.

After doing our statistical analysis, we found there is not really a strong relationship for how often you can find insects in an area and the habitat type that area is. Our counting was done by hand, the data set may have been too small. This type of project is better for a group with more time or experience, ideally using some sort of technology to analyze the Google Earth map by pixels instead of by human hand.