Barcode Long Island Team BrilliANT
Program:
Barcode Long Island
Year:
2019-20
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Animals: Invertebrate

Project:

Biodiversity of Ants on Glen Cove Campaign
Students:
Joseph Thom, Grace Spoto, Doris Serrano, Andrew Palafox
School:
Glen Cove High School, Nassau
Mentors:
Kerry Bunyan

Abstract:

We are studying the biodiversity of ants on the Glen Cove High School campus based on their habitat conditions. We predict that ant species found near trees, and darker, damp parts of the woods will be more diverse than in the open grass. We think there will be less biodiversity near the school due to the smaller variety in plant life. For our experiment, we will place traps with tuna on them to attract the ants. Once we find the ants on the trap, we will use plastic spoons to pick up, and place the ants into a test tube. We will then use a Sharpie to label each test tube to keep track of how many ants we collect. We will freeze the ants in order to preserve their DNA until we can perform DNA barcoding. After extracting the DNA, we are going to amplify the COI gene using PCR. We are going to analyze the ants’ DNA, in order to identify the species of each ant collected. We are hoping to learn if there are any positive or negative impacts of these ants to human health and the environme

Poster:

Team samples: