Project:

The Biodiversity of Plants in a Freshwater Ecosystem

Students:

Ethan Perez, Sophia Chen, Kaitlyn Arichabala, Evelyn Miller

School:

Mount Sinai High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Allison Elfreth

Abstract:

A diverse array of coastal plant species in a freshwater ecosystem signifies a healthy environment. Having diverse plant species in an ecosystem is important to the health of the ecosystem as it provides habitats and food sources to other animals, helps clean the air and soil of pollution, and adds essential nutrients to the soil. Additionally, having high biodiversity in an ecosystem allows it to be more resilient to external factors that affect the ecosystem, such as droughts, floods, and the introduction of invasive species. We will collect 15 leaf samples from different plants that are coastal and some in the riparian zone. Ultimately, the plants will be within 30 feet of the shoreline. Using those samples we will isolate their internal transcribed spacer genome, amplify it with a polymerase chain reaction, and use a DNA database to determine each species of plant. We hypothesize that the riparian and coastal zones of the freshwater ecosystem that we are studying will demonstrate a

Team samples:

See all samples for project