Project:

The effect of soil moisture on the biodiversity of beetles on long island

Students:

Ashian Islam, Blake Jaworowski

School:

Lynbrook High School,

Mentors:

Stoycho Velkovsky

Abstract:

Our experiment will show the effect of soil salinity and moisutre on population diversity of Coleptera on long island. Studies show that most insects are affected by salinity in soil, the effects include population decrease, inability to reproduce and a shorter life span for some insects. The Coleptera though carries an immunity to salinity and thus collecting our samples from a park near a beach and a park on dry land shouldn’t affect the results to our best knowledge. The beetles will be collected in large leaf litter clumps and then sifted through a berlese funnel into ethanol alcohol to kill them. The soil will be collected and then probed by a salinity and moisture meter. The results can be displayed by seeing which beetles are more probable to appear in more moist and salt rich areas

Poster:

Team samples: