Project:

The Effect of Air Quality on the Biodiversity of Lichens

Students:

Kate Santoli, Katy Gottlieb, Gabriella Ramirez

School:

Lynbrook High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Stoycho Velkovsky

Abstract:

A lichen is a symbiosis of a fungus and an alga. Lichens are commonly used as indicators for pollution because of changes in biodiversity, anatomy, and physiology of lichen species in the presence of pollutants. The goal of this study is to determine the effect of air quality on the biodiversity of lichens. 20 lichen samples will be collected from Eisenhower Red Golf Course in East Meadow and Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale. It is hypothesized that the biodiversity of lichens will be greater at Bethpage State Park due to its far distance from New York City, where air quality is low. Lichen species will be visually identified using physical characteristics, and pictures will also be taken for further analysis. The samples will be scraped from oak trees in 1 cm by 1 cm chunks using a scalpel and taken back to the lab for DNA barcoding. Barcoding will be used to get taxonomic information about the samples and to identify the number of species at each site

Poster:

Team samples: