Project:

DNA Barcoding of Freshwater Insect Larvae as Indicators of Watershed Health on LI

Students:

Jack Lu, Zachary Nasruddin, Eliam Rohmer, Genevieve Rochlin

School:

Stony Brook School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Danielle Davey

Abstract:

Many insect larvae live in water bodies like streams, ponds and wetlands while they mature and are sensitive to temperature, pollution, and dissolved oxygen. Two key structures in our project are the Mill Pond Bridge, and the Flax Pond bridge, as we view them as the main source of human disturbance on the water condition. By testing water conditions, barcoding different types of larvae, within our two collection sites in East Setauket, we predict that the further away from the bridge there will be a great proportion of sensitive taxa: mayflies, stoneflies, caddisflies, dragon flies/damselfly nymphs, whereas degraded waters will have lower diversity in larvae and also more tolerant taxa like midges and aquatic worms. We also anticipate for whichever site's overall water condition appears better that there will be a greater amount of biodiversity and taxa richness, which we can gauge using the EPT% and Simpson index.

Team samples:

See all samples for project