Barcode Long Island Team Water mites
Program:
Barcode Long Island
Year:
2018-19
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Animals: Invertebrate

Project:

Water mite Tidal and Seasonal Variation
Students:
Vincent Fattizzo, Edward Mendez, Ashley Hart, Noelle Estrada
School:
William Floyd High School, Suffolk
Mentors:
Victoria D'Ambrosia

Abstract:

Water mites are the most plentiful, varied, and ecologically essential group of freshwater arachnids (Sabatino et.la, 2007). Many species of water mites possess a life cycle that includes a parasitic larval stage and predatory nymphal and adult stages. However, recently water mite diversity has been on a declining trend, due to pollution in the water and flow regulation, which is decreasing survival of water mites. The flow rate influences the amount of marine and aquatic organisms in an ecosystem. Water mites are essential to the aquatic ecosystem because they impact the size and structure of the insects in the water surrounding them. Samples of the water mites will be taken from the top of the Forge River on Long Island to test and identify how different tides affect the amount of water mites seasonally present in the freshwater. Using the species collected, DNA will be extracted by using Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center DNA Barcoding protocols to determine the speci

Poster:

DNA Barcoding Poster
View team poster (PDF/PowerPoint)

Team samples: