Project:

Lichen Biodiversity in Different Stages of Forest Succession

Students:

Grace Skolnick, Ava Skolnick, Melanie Schwab

School:

Friends Academy, Nassau

Mentors:

Jennifer Newitt

Abstract:

We will be collecting different lichen in forests from different stages of succession at Friends Academy and Shu Swamp in Locust Valley and Mill Neck, New York. Forest succession is simply the orderly and predictable change in the dominant forest plant species. The shift in dominance occurs because plants that dominate early frequently die early, allowing longer-lived plants to dominate. Later stages of succession typically have more complex food webs and greater biodiversity. Our collection area at Friends will consist of two places that have two different stages of succession. The forest school and playground will be the first area of collection for our lichen project. This is the area of many recent man-made aspects which includes biodiversity being taken away and some plant life added such as trees and bushes. Here we expect to find less biodiversity as most of the man-made areas such as the forest school and playground have been continuously maintained by humans and therefore are

Poster:

Team samples: