Project:

Grass Health in NYC Parks and Its Implications

Students:

Lee Adler, Chelgis Dabashi, Daniella Siso

School:

Frank McCourt High School, Manhattan

Mentors:

Dora Miklos

Abstract:

Poaceae, or grass, is an essential part of NYC and its green spaces. With over 200 species alone in the city, it plays a vital role in maintaining the local ecosystem. Its learned to adapt for life in a wide range of places, exhibiting a variety of breeding mechanisms such as cross-pollination, self-pollination, cloning, apomixis, and hybridisation between species (Huang, 2021), culminating in wide-spread genetic diversity and the ability for different types of grasses to adapt to live almost anywhere in the world, even polar regions, as is the case for the Deschampsia Antarctica (GRID-Arendal, n.d.). Grass serves a vital function for our communities, especially in a polluted, industrial city like NYC. One of the many benefits is the usage of grass as a food source. It produces grain, a main food source for most of the world. The grass leaves themselves can also be eaten directly, albeit, not by humans. However, this doesn’t negate the importance it holds for animals. Grass can also

Poster:

Team samples: