Group Members: Mark Kashani, Karishma Malhotra, AJ Johnson

1. What is the final version of the question you are interested in asking?

How does the variation of plant life in NYC Parks affect each respective environment?

2. List some keywords to use when searching for related scientific literature. Be specific!

Ecosystem, air quality, water quality (acidity), variation, germination, roots/taproots, chlorophyll, chloroplast

3. Where will your data come from? Do you need to collect new data? Please describe.

Our data will primarily come from the BioBlitz research that has been conducted over the past few years in the various NYC parks. The BioBlitz observations will enable us to understand what fauna and flora are found in the parks; however, we will be doing some outside research to figure out exactly how the specific plants found in these areas affect the surrounding environment.

4. What will you be measuring or comparing? What are the dependent and independent variables?

We will be measuring the characteristics of certain plants in different parks, then comparing those characteristics to see the effects on the surrounding environment. The independent variables will be the plants, and their characteristics, found throughout NYC Parks. Meanwhile, the dependent variables will be the surrounding air quality, water quality, animals, and insects with respect to plant life.

5. Please make a list of your methods. If you are using existing BioBlitz data, you do not need to describe those data collection methods on this worksheet, but you do need to describe how you are extracting the relevant data from the entire BioBlitz data set.

  1. Begin by analyzing our own plant observations from BioBlitz (which we have a picture of), and cross-reference them with other plant observations to find the most abundant species
  2. Then use previous BioBlitz data to collect information on plant life in other NYC Parks
  3. Organize our data to portray the 5 most abundant plant species in each park
  4. Then go back to the BioBlitz Data Base, including observations from this year, and write down observations about air quality, water quality, animal life, and insect life
  5. Lastly, use outside research to connect how these specific plants found in the parks impact their surrounding environment and lead to the outcomes shown by the dependent variables

6. Why is this question interesting to you? Why should others care about this topic?

This research question is of interest to our group because after visiting Inwood Hill Park, we realized the variation of plant life in each park across NYC and the major impact it had on each environment it was placed in. Others should share this same concern because they may live in many similar environments and there may be plant life in our experiment that can improve the quality of their environment.