Project:

Comparing The Prevalence of Invasive Insect Species vs. Invasive Plant Species in Forest Park

Students:

Pranav Agarwal, Haydan Babadzhanov, Lauren Wilkes

School:

The Kew-Forest School, Queens

Mentors:

Amanprit Kaur

Abstract:

The concept of invasive species includes non-indigenous species and those potentially harmful to the environment. Forest Park is one example of an ecosystem that could contain many invasive species because it is a public area that people frequently visit and is in close proximity to highways. Forest Park is an ample green space in the center of the urban environment of Kew-Gardens and Forest Hills, Queens. Forest Park is uniquely positioned to have a wide array of plant and insect species. Insect species, similar to plant species, can also be invasive and, thus, potentially harmful to an environment. In New York, the Spotted Lantern Fly is a commonly known invasive insect. To investigate the different effects of and potential environmental solutions to invasive species, the team collected various samples of other plants and insects to determine the presence of invasive species. Their DNA will be extracted and amplified with rbcL primer for the plants and 16S and 12S rRNA primer for the

Poster:

Team samples: