Project:

Assessing biodiversity in a restored estuary

Students:

Nistha Boghra, Kelly Chaudhry, Chelsea Fonseca

School:

Sachem North High School, Suffolk

Mentors:

Monica Marlowe

Abstract:

We will be sampling at Sunken Meadow State Park, specifically, Sunken Meadow Creek, which is an estuary on the north shore of Long Island. Sachem North students have been working at this site to monitor and aid an estuary restoration since 2010. The dam was removed in 2012 to restore tidal flow to 132 acres of estuary. Our main goal is to sample the biodiversity of benthic invertebrates from Sunken Meadow Creek, both upstream and downstream from the former dam. We also will sample water quality parameters at each site. We hypothesize that we will find a greater biodiversity of benthic invertebrates below the former dam. This area was never impacted and has always been an estuary system. Above the former dam was previously a freshwater environment and we predict that there will be less invertebrates colonized in the sediments.

Poster:

Team samples: