Project:

Vine Cutting as an Effective Forest Management Technique on the South County Trail: A DNA Barcoding Study

Students:

Jonathan Tang, Olivia Shpak

Institution:

Ardsley High School, Other

Mentors:

Diana Evangelista

Abstract:

Abstract: The biodiversity of the plants in a forest is critical to the overall health of a forest due to many ecosystem services provided. An influx of vines can threaten the health of the forest. Therefore, forest management techniques exist to preserve the forest. The cutting & removal of invasive vines is a common forest management technique. However, the effectiveness of the method along the South Country Trail in Ardsley, NY has not been evaluated. Four plots along the South County Trail with differing amounts of maintenance on the invasive vine, Porcelain Berry, were sampled. One quadrat plot had never been cleared and served as the control. The other three were cleared 16 months, 36 months and 60 months ago. Biodiversity and quality of soil quality were used as methods of quantifying the overall health of the ecosystem. The flora in each plot were recorded in order to test the biodiversity through the Simpson’s index. The initial Simpson Indices from year 1 do not provide cle

Poster:

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