Project:

Peconic River Estuary

Students:

Jason Caesar, Veronica Cardeno, Lia Mangano, Molly Heneghan

School:

Eastport South Manor Jr/Sr High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Robert Bolen

Abstract:

The Peconic Estuary has many different species in the river and around the site, but over time human activities have impacted the environment. Through DNA sequencing of our samples we hope to…. ~Identify the different species found in the soil around the Peconic Bay based upon the barcode information of our samples compared to the known species in a DNA database. For larger organisms we directly removed them from the soil, and put them in a container. For smaller organisms living in the soil we used a Berlese funnel system to extract some of the invertebrates. Goals of this study include: ~Find variations among the species. ~Determine if our species are native or invasive. ~Establish a baseline of the organisms present for comparative purposes present at the test site over the next 5 years.

Poster:

Team samples: