Project:

The Perils of NYC Pollution: Invertebrates in Decline

Students:

Nicole Liu, Rachel Mak, Sarah Ibrahim

Institution:

Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School, Manhattan

Mentors:

Julie Nadel

Abstract:

Biodiversity is the variation of species within a given area and is determined by measuring species richness and evenness. Factors that can affect biodiversity are air and water pollution, chemical and waste contamination, climate change, and infectious diseases. Air pollution has been shown to decrease biodiversity of invertebrates. Invertebrates are essential to sustain all ecosystems: they play the role of being a significant food source for other species, decomposers which provide nutrients for soil, and transporters of food for plants. Our project aims to measure the effect of air pollution, specifically black carbon pollution, on invertebrate biodiversity in parks in Brooklyn, NY (Sunset, John Paul Jones, and Dyker Beach Parks) by identifying invertebrates captured in pitfall traps through DNA sequencing. Due to local high pollution in NYC, we expect a correlation between pollution and invertebrate biodiversity, and hope these experiments will encourage conservation efforts.

Poster:

Team samples: