Project:

Using Aquatic Invertebrates to Compare the Biodiversity of Manmade and Natural Bodies of Water at Friends Academy and Shu Swamp

Students:

Adriana Lloves, Vedant Rawat, Rachel Na

School:

Friends Academy, Nassau

Mentors:

Jennifer Newitt

Abstract:

Many individuals are unaware of how the abundance of aquatic invertebrates in man-made and natural bodies of water compares. What impact will the different pond structures have on Nassau County's (Long Island) aquatic invertebrate biodiversity? According to research (link), a man-made pond will have equal amounts of biodiversity of aquatic invertebrates as a natural pond. In this study, aquatic invertebrate communities in both man-made and natural water bodies on Long Island will be compared. The pond we are going to be collecting from is located at Friends Academy in Locust Valley, NY and the natural pond is located in Mill Neck, NY. Species abundance was documented and species diversity was determined using DNA barcoding, a process that can potentially identify a species using sequence information from a specific region of the DNA.

Poster:

Team samples: