Project:

Prosser Pines Nature Preserve, Middle Island NY ~ A Changing Preserve's Biodiversity

Students:

Agranil Das, Sean Logan, Julissa Spooner, Liam Berg

School:

Newfield High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

James Nelson

Abstract:

Biodiversity is the variety of life in a particular habitat or ecosystem. In many places on Earth temperature and rainfall amounts have been changing due to climate change, and inadvertently, impacting biodiversity. In the last few years, Prosser Pines Preserve in Middle Island, NY is undergoing some changes. An invasive plant, known as Frangula alnus (alder buckthorn), is taking over the Pinus strobus (white pine) trees' understory, but a section of the preserve has remained unaffected from the invasive species. This will serve as a "control" of what the preserve was prior to the buckthorn. Since invasive species can reduce biodiversity, biodiversity of both parts of the preserve will be found and compared. In this study, DNA barcoding will be used to identify both plants and invertebrates species, and it will be used for looking at the biodiversity of the preserve. Data will be analyzed by DNA Subway and after that by using Simpson’s Diversity Index(D=(Σn(n-1)/N(N-1). The biodiver

Poster:

Team samples: