Project:

Exploring Time Collection Bias in Ant Biodiversity Studies

Students:

Amelia Gobetz, Zohayr Adnan

School:

Connetquot HS, Suffolk

Mentors:

John Halloran

Abstract:

Previous scientific research may be biased due to the time the data was collected at. Biased data or sample collections can lead researchers to make faulty conclusions. Of the top ten Google search results of “ Ant DNA Barcoding Experiments”1-10 we found that 7 of the published experiments we had access to don’t mention the time of collection, and we can not rule out that samples were likely collected in the day, the time most scientists work. If ant traps are only set in the day, it only catches ants that are active then and would not collect any of the species that are “exceptionally active during the night.” This leads to limitations in data, as there are many nocturnal ants that only work at night. We will set up traps in the morning and night and compare the results of the species found to determine if there is a difference in data. We will use DNA barcoding to determine the species of the ants we collect. Nocturnal ants may play an important part of an ecosystem being s

Poster:

Team samples: