Barcode Long Island Team Ants in Your Pants
Program:
Barcode Long Island
Year:
2021-22
Research Topic:
Biodiversity & trade
Taxonomic Group Studied:
Animals: Invertebrate

Project:

Comparing Ant Biodiversity in an Industrial Area, Residential Area (Fragmented woods) and the Connetquot State Park
Students:
Varshith Basa, Tarkan Oz, Nicholas Marotta, Bishal Das
School:
Connetquot HS, Suffolk
Mentors:
John Halloran

Abstract:

One of the leading causes of biodiversity loss is deforestation, which is the removal of a forest which is then converted to a non-forest use [1]. One species threatened by deforestation are ants, which are crucial to their environments [2]. Therefore, in our ant campaign we intend to study the amount of biodiversity in areas with varying levels of human caused deforestation such as Connetquot State Preserve, residential (fragmented woods) areas and industrial areas, in order to determine the effects of human activities (deforestation) on biodiversity. The hypothesis for this project is that there will be a higher biodiversity in the fragmented forest than in an industrial building lot. The Connetquot State Preserve will be a baseline so we can compare it to the other spots since it is not as affected by deforestation. DNA Barcoding will be done to determine the amount of different species collected to help in determining biodiversity.

Poster:

Team samples: