Project:

Treesearch on The Masters School Campus - How Can Lichen Be Used as an Indicator of Tree Health?

Students:

Ileana Katzman, Iona McWhinnie

School:

The Masters School, Other

Mentors:

Catharine Boothroyd

Abstract:

The main goal of our proposal is to determine whether lichen can be an accurate indicator of tree health. We have found that lichen is present on many trees in a specific area of our school's campus; as lichen could potentially be used to analyze the health of the tree, we want to determine if there is a correlation between the amount and diversity of lichen present on the trees and the health of those trees. We will do this by taking samples of lichen from each tree observed (if lichen is present) and determining the species of lichen through DNA barcoding. Once we obtain the results, we will be able to compare the health of trees with the amount and diversity of lichen on those trees. Then, we can hopefully determine whether there is a correlation between the amount and diversity of lichen on relatively healthy versus unhealthy trees.

Poster:

Team samples: