Project:

Exploration of Heavy Metal and Spider Diversity at The Stony Brook School

Students:

Kaibo "Kevin" Tang, Xiao "Louise" Lin, Jiayi "Mary" Wang, Yinchi "Candy" Zhou

School:

The Stony Brook School,

Mentors:

Erol Altug

Abstract:

Spiders are vital in ecosystems. However, the presence of human activity in forms of motorways and waste compilation exposes spiders to a variety of heavy metals such as cadmium, zinc, and lead, which severely changed the life cycles of spiders. To determine the relationship between spiders and heavy metal level in their living environment, we hypothesize that, on an individual level, heavy metal level within the spiders’ bodies has a positive correlation with the soil heavy metal level and that, on a population level, the spider density and diversity vary depending on surrounding environmental types and heavy metal concentration. The soil samples and spider samples will be obtained at places with higher heavy metal level such as the parking lot and near the railroad and places with low to no heavy metal contamination such as the field on campus that is far away from major roads. To determine the data required in the research, we intended to use Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS) t

Poster:

Team samples: