Project:

Hempstead Lake State Park Aquatic Project

Students:

Hector Rivera, Joyce Campos, Ivy Fernandes

School:

Carle Place High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Carol Nicosia

Abstract:

The goal of this project is to increase the amount of information there is in the database for DNA barcoding. To achieve this goal, samples will be collected and sent to a laboratory. The location is at Lake Hempstead. At Lake Hempstead, the goal is to collect a variety of aquatic samples from docks, the coast and buoys. Lake Hempstead is a good selection because there are three ponds that are available for sampling. Hempstead Lake is also the largest lake in Nassau County. The other two lakes, McDonald Pond and South Pond, also have a variety of specimens in them that allow for a variety of specimen collection (“Hempstead Lake State Park”). Lake Hempstead is an area of 167 acres. This large area allows for the collection of samples to be diverse (“Hempstead Lake, Hempstead Lake State Park”). The team hopes to find new species of chiggers at these two locations through DNA barcoding.

Poster:

Team samples: