Project:

Analyzing the Biodiversity of Sharks off of Long Island

Students:

Adam Schultzer, Farihah Chowdhury

School:

William Floyd HS, Suffolk

Mentors:

Victoria D'Ambrosia

Abstract:

Due to the importance of sharks as apex predators in the ecosystem, it is important to make sure that they do not disappear from the ecosystem. There are not many studies on sharks around Long Island, as the most recent classifier of what inhabited just the Long Island Sound was from 1997. The procedure will be to collect water samples from Smith Point Beach, filter, isolate, amplify, and analyze the COI gene for species identification. This will allow the analysis of shark biodiversity in the area which can be associated with the health of the ecosystem. The expected results are that during the colder months of the year, larger shark species will be more prevalent, with less species overall.

Poster:

Team samples: