Project:

Our Sandy Ants: Exploring Ant Diversity on a Suburban Barrier Island Beach Using DNA Barcoding

Students:

Samuel Adler, Hannah Bloom, Samantha Feingold

School:

Long Beach High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Robyn Tornabene

Abstract:

This project explores the biodiversity of ants on the sandy suburban beaches of Long Beach, NY. Although ants inhabit beaches worldwide, the biodiversity of beach ants is not well understood. We are attempting to collect ants from various areas of the beach to try to see which species are present and if different species are more prevalent in different areas such as the jetties, the wrack line, or sands near the boardwalk. We predict that we will find Tetramorium caespitum and Lasius neoniger the most because they have been previously identified in local areas. We will try bating, hand collecting, and sifting to obtain ants, and specimens will be frozen for storage. Photographs will be taken to document physical features useful for traditional taxonomic identification. Barcoding of the COI gene will be used to further identify species.

Poster:

Team samples: