Project:

Finding Macroorganisms in the Northwest Corner of Argyle Lake

Students:

Kate O'Brien, Olivia Moriates, Olivia Conti

School:

Babylon Junior-Senior HS, Suffolk

Mentors:

Claire Donaldson

Abstract:

Aquatic macroinvertebrates are being collected from the Northwest corner of Argyle Lake in Babylon, NY, which is conveniently next to our high school. The macroinvertebrates being collected are going to be barcoded, due to the fact that these macroinvertebrates drain from the lake into the canals and bay where we get our food from. Although these organisms aren’t eaten, the seafood that is caught and prepared as food from the bay use these organisms for nutrional value. Eventually, contamination will make it up the food chain to the humans eating seafood. Once the organisms are collected, they will be frozen to preserve them and kill them without denaturing the proteins. Next the samples will be mashed up, and their DNA will be extracted. Then the samples will be put through the PCR process of replicating our gene of interest, CO1. The purpose of this is to find possible new organisms, or organisms that have never been barcoded yet. The organisms come from a body of water that is a s

Poster:

Team samples: