Project:

Ecology of Plankton in Varying Areas of Salinity in the Great South Bay

Students:

Alyssa Grasso, Paisley Narra, Gianna Pillitteri

School:

West Islip High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Mary Kroll

Abstract:

Natural disasters can cause changes to our water ways. Hurricane Sandy caused a breach to form in Fire Island, and the breach caused water to flow more freely into and out of the bay. The salinity changed because of that event, and we don’t know how that has affected zooplankton species diversity. Zooplankton are scientifically important because if their population is low or not diverse, this will affect estuary food chain interactions, and possibly make it harder for higher level consumers to find food, causing them to leave in order to find food elsewhere. Therefore, our research question is: Does the diversity of larger zooplankton change with varying salinity in the Great South Bay? We hypothesize that species of zooplankton in an area of higher salinity will differ from those found in a brackish or lower salinity. We think this because all organisms have different adaptations for different environments.

Poster:

Team samples: