Abstract
Concepts to preserve and maintain an ecosystem have been analyzed through community composition. Ideally, these experiments provide capability to predict the maximum diversity within a disturbed site and the survivorship of two species with the same limiting resources. Yet, these factors are never determined by a single factor. Measuring the disturbance levels within three separate areas at the power line in front of Founders Road at York University, the focus of the experiment is the relationship between species richness and disturbance. It is assumed that with the increase in disturbance there is an introduction to high competition, which results to an incline in diversity. From the positive relationship of diversity within a quadrat to the soil temperature determines that more diverse plant communities have promoted plant productivity.
While it is seen that there appears to be higher species richness with increased disturbance, there becomes a question of whether these were due to invasive species, human development within the site, or other factors. Though the experiment focuses on whether there is a relationship in disturbance levels compared to the soil temperature and diversity within these areas, there is an introduction to high competition and a need for high productivity. Thus, soil temperature must be regulated through soil respiration by the C cycle to ensure there are optimum amounts of nutrients.
Introduction
Throughout the studies of ecosystems, relative to the diversity, there are several conceptual ecological theories, such as the intermediate disturbance hypothesis (IDH) and
Tilman’s model (Svensson et al 2009; Tilman et al 1996). These studies and theories correlate to species abundance and its life history; how a species is capable of surviving in competitive and disturbed areas. However, there are several weaknesses to these studies, such as, failing to distinguish different biogeographical response variables under the general heading of diversity; and a general failure of ecological theory to deal adequately with geographical scale (Whittaker
2001). Analyzing the environments in a global setting becomes impossible, where there are several different factors that vary between different ecosystems even amongst regional scales.
Community composition and diversity have shown to influence the functioning of an ecosystem. For surveying and preserving ecosystems, it becomes ideal to be able to predict the maximum diversity within a disturbed site and the survivorship of two species with the same limiting resources. As mentioned previously, it is hard to determine a single factor that leads to these changes in community composition. Though it is common to focus on competition, there becomes a disregard on disturbances and its overall influence on the community. Human disturbances, such as maintaining the field near the industrial site, maintenance of the GO train tracks and expressway development, and students delving into the area to conduct experiments, have influenced the overall community composition.
Analyzing the diversity within a power line found at Founders Road and Steeles Street in
Toronto, Ontario, there are three notable areas viewing a change in disturbance levels. These areas are categorized as: the forest, claimed to be the least disturbed site, the areas between the power lines for intermediate disturbed sites, and the field near the industrial building and roads, which is the most disturbed sites. The experiment will focus on whether there is a relationship in disturbance levels compared to the soil temperature and diversity within these areas, where the hypothesis is that there is a correlation between disturbance levels to soil temperature and

diversity. It is assumed that with the increase in disturbance, there is an introduction to high competition and a need for high productivity. For this model to occur, soil temperature must be regulated through soil respiration by the C cycle to ensure there are optimum amounts of nutrients.
Methods
The lab was done in three separate areas at the power line in front of Founders Road at
York University: the forest, designated spots within the lanes of the power lines, and designated spots near an industrial building (Fig 1). The data collection took place once every three weeks, where each location had ten data sets. Within each area a transect was laid to cover an area of 17 meters. Within the 17 meters, ten quadrats were randomly placed, and percent coverage for plants were calculated. Percent coverage was calculated by counting the abundance of one species, and dividing it by the total number of species found. The soil temperature was recorded using a soil thermometer that was placed within each quadrat, whereas the outside temperature was recorded from a weather application on the phone. A separate column was then added to view the richness found in each quadrat, which was done by the COUNT function on Excel. The data sets were collected into an Excel master file, where an ANOVA was used to calculate the species richness to the three different disturbance sites, and a scatter plot graph was placed to compare the species richness to the three different disturbance sites and species richness to the soil temperature.
Fig 1. Satellite appearance of the surveying area where yellow indicates the sites for disturbed sites, red indicates the sites for intermediate disturbed sites, and blue indicates the least disturbed sites. Image was taken from Google Maps when on satellite mode, and edited through Preview.

Results
There is a significant difference found in species richness to the disturbance sites with the significant value less than 0.05 (Tab 1). Further analyzing the disturbance sites, by separating the areas into the weeks the data was collected, to view which disturbance site carries the most species. It was separated into different weeks as the data was collected in different locations rather than the same area for each disturbance with the exception of the least disturbed. There appears to be an overall trend viewing that most disturbed sites commonly have more species than disturbed sites (Fig 2). When comparing species richness to the soil temperature, there is a positive correlation indicating that as there are more species found, the soil is warmer (Fig 3).
Table 1. ANOVA constructed through SPSS comparing species richness to the disturbance sites when the p-value is 0.05.
Fig 2. Comparison of species richness in each quadrat within each area, where each graph analyzes the different weeks the data was collected so that i) week one, ii) week two, iii) week three

25
20
15
10 y = 0,3501x + 13,155
R² = 0,0532
5
0
0 2 4 6
Species Richness
8 10 12
Fig 3. Correlating the species richness to the soil temperature, in Celsius, from all disturbance area indicating that the R 2 value is 0.053.
Discussions
Overall community composition and diversity have shown to influence the functioning of an ecosystem. Conceptual ecological theories, such as the intermediate disturbance hypothesis
(IDH) predict maximum diversity at intermediate levels of disturbance, while Tilman’s model predicts that when two competition species uses the same limiting resource the species that has a lower R* value of that liming resource would outcompete its competitor (Svensson et al 2009;
Tilman et al 1996). Yet, it is common to focus on competition, there becomes a disregard on disturbances and its overall influence on the community. Human disturbances, such as maintaining the field near the industrial site, maintenance of the GO train tracks and expressway development, and students delving into the area to conduct experiments, have influenced the overall community composition. However, these disturbances may have led to the creation of a new ecosystem, such as the site used to analyze diversity within the least disturbed site, which was not seen on Google Earth in 2002. The possibility that there would show more diversity within the disturbed sites can be derived from invasive species, human disturbed influences, and abiotic or biotic factors that were not measured.
Reflecting back on the question: is there a relationship in disturbance levels compared to the soil temperature and diversity within these areas? From this research, it can be assumed that there is. Though there appears to be a significant difference that diversity is related to disturbance, and that diversity is commonly seen in disturbed sites it cannot be proven to be true
(Tab 1; Fig 2). Some factors that were disregarded were the introduction of isolation and abundance. Though the data sets focused on several different sites and levels of disturbances, the selected sites could have been isolated from the categorized disturbed sites. If there is an introduction to isolation suggests the occurrence of extinction for density dependent species and the existence of external deterministic factors that constraint species richness (Honnay et al
1999).

Industrial and urban areas, such as Toronto, show a variety of areas that differ in their size, climate, vegetation, and human development (Rivard et al 2000). The research conducted within the ranges of the power lines exemplifies this statement, where the area shows a variety of disturbances viewing changes in species richness and soil temperature. The implication of a positive relationship in species richness and soil temperature determines that more diverse plant communities have promoted plant productivity (Fig 3). This promotion leads to the importance of soil respiration and how diversity within these disturbed communities influence each other.
Yet, there are trade-offs that occurs, such as the nutrients within the soil. Though there appears to be more diversity in high soil temperatures there becomes a decrease in nutrients within the soil due to soil respiration and the C cycle, which would lead to a decline in germination of plant species (Dias et al 2010; Hoyle et al 2013).
It is impossible to control disturbance on property that can be mowed or from the sudden construction introduced to the site. The destruction of the area, eliminating abundance and diversity during the process, becomes a limitation to the overall experiment. However, these disturbances lead to future studies that reflect the composition of disturbance and species richness in areas similar to climax communities, and whether it will follow the same trend of its previous site. By introducing these extreme disturbances, studies have found that when there are major disturbances the native species richness were reduced, while there becomes an increase in exotic species richness (Ross et al 2002). Other studies reflect on the relationship of species richness to productivity and disturbance. These studies would analyze how superior competitors succeed in areas with high productivity while inferior competitors succeed with higher disturbance (Kondoh 2001).
With the continuation of studies on communities and the focus on the changes in the community to the overall influence to an ecosystem, there become further studies on how to preserve these habitats to maintain diversity and abundance. Whether these focuses reflect abundance, diversity, competition, and other factors, the applications of these are needed to keep track of the yearly changes of ecosystems. With the consistent disturbances that arise within communities, such as urban expansions, it becomes harder for a study to prevent disturbances.
Continuing experiments that reflect on diversity and organism’s life history traits promotes strategies to preserve species and increase survivorship.
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