Project:

Hard Surface Encrusting Biodiversity

Students:

Gabrielle Pine, sarah munier, Samantha Breen

School:

Long Beach High School, Nassau

Mentors:

Cody Onufrock

Abstract:

Debris can impact marine life in harmful ways, yet, surprisingly, can provide a home for organisms, learning to react in their own distinct ways. Hard-surfaced debris are turned into reefs and many organisms live off of them.(NOAA, 2018) These ‘habitats’ are known as artificial reefs. Artificial reefs can be anything from rocks to sunken ships. Many organisms such as barnacles develop on these artificial reefs, and many schools of fish also use these as their home. Simple things people do every single day can change the world around us. One person throwing something in the water can change the ways and responses of the living things that are present in the environment. (NOAA, 2018) The purpose of this project is to see what type of organisms live on, and around these artificial reefs. We want to perform this project to try and increase knowledge on marine biodiversity, as there is a vast amount still to be explored.

Poster:

Team samples: