Project:

The impact of the biodiversity of fungi on tree density within forests in Northern New Jersey

Students:

Amit Yogev, Ella Zviran

School:

Tenafly High School,

Mentors:

Alan Brandstaedter

Abstract:

Fungi have been shown to damage and harm trees by decomposition in such living organisms [6] and through disease to the roots [7]. In this project, we plan to collect fungi samples from regions of varying tree density (tree/m^2) – which will be counted per outlined region, and calculated. Upon collection the DNA of the fungi samples will be analyzed within a laboratory setting to assess and determine the biodiversity of fungi within the outlined regions (of varying tree densities). Through this research we hope to demonstrate a potential correlation between low tree density and high fungi biodiversity; such correlation will be highly relevant to modern problems such as climate change encompassing trees’ effect on greenhouse gas quantity in the atmosphere.

Poster:

Team samples: