Project:

Wetland Indicator Plants and Water Quality in Two Central Park Bodies of Water

Students:

Iris Mou, Isabella Fogelman

School:

The Dalton School, Manhattan

Mentors:

Andy Chen

Abstract:

By looking at two of NYC’s artificial wetlands, we hope to see the effect of the environment of bigger bodies of water on smaller, connected ones. We will mostly focus on plant life, which is central to the very definition of a wetland. With the NWPL as a resource, we can preliminarily classify Azalea Pond based on its plant life. Additionally, by examining water quality with temperature, pH, nitrate/nitrite levels, dissolved oxygen, salinity, turbidity, and phosphates, we hope to find more information about each body of water and their differences. Although this is less specific to the classification of wetlands, it could be an interesting factor to explore. More broadly, we wonder if the wetland status of larger lakes or bodies of water also apply to nearby ponds, streams, etc. that flow into them. The Lake and Azalea Pond could be a case study of such an argument, if true. We aim to see if more monitoring of these bodies of water, which, as we noticed through our research, was lac

Poster:

Team samples: