Project:

Identifying Invasive Species at The Kew-Forest School

Students:

Lauren Wilkes, James Tu

School:

The Kew-Forest School, Queens

Mentors:

Akira Wong

Abstract:

Invasive species are defined as species that are both non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or will likely cause environmental or human harm. Aldo’s Green is a green space found within the Kew-Forest school located in Queens, New York and possesses various species of fauna. Due to its open nature as well as the high level of human activity found within Aldo’s Green, our team suspects that there is a high likelihood for invasive plant species to spread to Aldo’s Green through both natural and manmade pathways. In order to detect the presence of invasive plant species in Aldo’s Green, our team will collect samples from each plant in Aldo’s Green, extract their DNA and amplify with rbcL primer, and sequence the amplified segment. Using BLAST and DNA Subway, our team will identify the species of our collected samples to determine whether or not they are invasive to Aldo’s Green. Information on the plant species present in Aldo’s Green c

Poster:

Team samples: