Barcode Long Island Team Ant Stealers
Program:
Barcode Long Island
Year:
2020-21
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Animals: Invertebrate

Project:

Effects of Soil Composition on Biodiversity of Ants Biodiversity
Students:
Valerie Finke, Christie Stevkovski, Han Chen, Morgan Pilo
School:
Westhampton Beach High School, Suffolk
Mentors:
Dianna Gobler

Abstract:

Currently, there are 10,000 named species of Formicidae, making it one of the largest insect genus (“National Geographic'', 2012, para 1). Their size is impressive, even more remarkable is the role they play in the environment. Ants aerate the soil, help create space for water to reach plant roots, help with seed dispersal, and are integral in the food web (“Harvard Forest''). Their interactions with the environment have continuously been studied as a premise for evolutionary questions about adaptation, communication, and coevolution. One such research, Adaptation of Ant Supercolony Behavior to Solve Route Assignment Problems in Integers, studied ant routes and simulated an ant’s colony and movement using an algorithm to help create an efficient road network (Lahna & Said, 2018, 423). Most solitary insects communicate for a sole reason: mating; whereas eusocial insects communicate to allocate duties, maintain societal structure, defense, etc. Eusocial insects communicate using se

Poster:

Team samples: