Project:

Biodiversity of Butterflies from Long Island Aquarium

Students:

Brady Pfeffer, Julia Ver Straten, Shiloh Torres

School:

Eastport South Manor Junior Senior High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Rachel Neville

Abstract:

During this project, we will be looking into why there is such limited knowledge on the butterfly species diversity and how come they all look physically similar. We know that the reason that most butterflies look relatively similar is because they live in isolation and adapt similarly to the similar habitats. We also know that there are several kinds of butterflies and hope to identify them all. We hope to create a DNA database for these unknown species by using DNA barcoding which is a method of specimen identification using short, standardized segments of DNA. We also hope to help these butterflies find a new habitat because they have been decreasing in biodiversity due to habitat lost. The reason we are carrying out this project is because we need to constantly measure and maintain the biodiversity of these species because the more biodiversity there is within an ecosystem, the more stable it is. And since we rely on ecosystems, we need more biodiversity. So that is the reason why

Poster:

Team samples:

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