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

Project:

Ants Biodiversity in Human-Made Forest Edges
Students:
Alexander Doboli,, Anne-Sarah Nichitiu, Marc Nichitiu, Qingyuan (Harry) Zhang
School:
The Stony Brook School, Suffolk
Mentors:
Erol Altug

Abstract:

Due to their large biomass and the variety of their ecological functions, ants play an essential role in numerous ecosystems (Lach et al. 2010). The difficult morphological delineation of ants species makes barcoding the preferred tool for their correct identification by neophytes. Complementing a previous early March ants campaign done in the Three Village Area, the current study intends to assess the patterns of ants distribution at the forest edge areas of the Three Village Area during the warmer autumn season, when the ant colonies reach their peak size. The use of insecticides was prohibited at all collection sites. We measured the physical characteristics, such as ph, temperature and water content of the sites. The objective is to determine the preferred foraging sites of the native species and investigate the correlation of taxonomic and functional ant biodiversity with the degree of the site plant variety.

Poster:

Team samples: