Project:

The Effects of Urbanization on Ant Biodiversity

Students:

Shivani Muthukumar, Farah Raufi, Gabriela Kuriakose

School:

Commack High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Jeanette Collette

Abstract:

Ant biodiversity is essential for a healthy ecosystem. Urbanization has an effect on the biodiversity of ants. Urbanization affects land cover changes and habitat fragmentation, causes temperatures to be higher, and affects pollution which influences soil composition. All these effects of urbanization impact ant biodiversity. DNA Barcoding is an instrument used for identifying various species by using DNA sequences. You would compare the sequence found to an existing library of DNA barcodes to match your sample to determine the evolutionary relationship between species. We aim to examine the biodiversity of ants in both natural and more urbanized environments within the Commack, NY community to see proof of the effect of urbanization on the biodiversity of ants. We expect to see that the natural environments have a higher level of biodiversity than the urbanized environments. We plan to hand collect and use bait traps to collect ants in the natural and urbanized environments and then i

Poster:

Team samples: