Project:

Ants as a Bioindicator of Soil Quality

Students:

Isaiah Lee, Anthony Yu, Lisali Peiris, Aleena Zaidi

School:

Friends Academy, Nassau

Mentors:

Jennifer Newitt

Abstract:

Our project will investigate the use of ants as bioindicators to assess soil quality by analyzing the relationship between ant biodiversity and varying nitrate (ppm) levels in the soil. Specifically, we aim to determine how many different ant species we can find in soil with high versus moderate levels of nitrate and figure out the relationship between the ant diversity and nitrate levels. We will do this by planting 10 ant pitfall traps on a local farm called Youngs Farm and 10 on our Friends Academy school grounds. Youngs Farm grows their crops without the use of pesticides or toxic materials which could impact our research. We will be collecting the Friends Academy samples from a trail that is not impacted by humans either. Friends Academy will serve as a control group as we expect it to have moderate to low levels of nitrate due to its regular amounts of decomposition and plant life. Youngs Farm is what we will be analyzing as the large amounts of vegetation and rich soil should ha

Poster:

Team samples: