Project:

Deforestation of Lichen Habitats Proposal

Students:

Olivia Lanteri, Aimee Quinlan, Elizabeth Charpentier

School:

Lynbrook Senior High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Kathleen McAuley

Abstract:

Tanglewood Preserve is a wooded area in Rockville Centre, NY, that is next to Morgan Days Park, where deforestation is taking place. With an ever-growing population, urbanization and especially deforestation have been ongoing issues on a local as well as global level. Our project’s goal is to observe how impacts of deforestation affect lichens. For our experiment, we plan to take samples of lichens from both Morgan Days Park where trees are being cut down and Tanglewood Preserve in an area where there is little human interference. In order to collect our samples, we plan to use a knife to scrape dampened lichen off a tree with as little damage to the species as possible. By comparing these results of the two regions, we will be able to determine how the biodiversity of lichen is impacted by deforestation.

Poster:

Team samples: