Project:

The Impact of Pollutants in Heavily Trafficked Areas on the Biodiversity of Mushrooms

Students:

Emma Donnelly, Charles Pedersen, Alexandra Seletskaya

School:

Shoreham-Wading River High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Dana Schaefer

Abstract:

Studies have been indicating a recent decline in fungal biodiversity however there have been little studies done on the possible causes of this phenomenon. This study focuses on the effects of urbanization on mushroom biodiversity on the Shoreham Wading River Highschool campus. Samples collected for our study were collected from a nature trail area on campus and an urbanized area on campus. Taxonomic identification of the samples is very unreliable in that many species of multicellular fungi appear very similar to each other in terms of physical characteristics. Through DNA barcoding we expect to find a significant decrease in fungal biodiversity in the urbanized area on campus compared to the non-urbanized area on campus.

Poster:

Team samples: