Project:

The Hunt for Invasive Species in NYC Parks

Students:

Sofia Aita, Lily Siegel, Julieth Guzhnay

School:

Frank McCourt HS,

Mentors:

Dora Miklos

Abstract:

For years, New York has been battling species invasive to the land that cause massive threats to the current biodiversity to the city. Biodiversity refers to the variety of organisms around us including plants, animals, insects, fungi, and other microorganisms (Hancock, n.d.). Working together these organisms work together to maintain an equilibrium in the park's ecosystem. New York city has been susceptible to invasive species for ages from the amount of human activity as it is an unfortunate byproduct of traveling and trading. These invasive species cause massive threats to biodiversity in New York “What winds up happening is that these species replace the native plants that are really important to our native animals," said McIntyre. "We lose our native animals, we see an ecosystem decline” (McIntyre, 2019). There are around 524 invasive plant species in New York, many of which overrunning parks and threatening the biodiversity of these areas and damaging the wildlife native to t

Poster:

Team samples: