New York’s Invasive Plants Wreak Havoc On Native Ecosystems
Group Members: Nicole Sergeyev, Robert Adler, Aiden Cheema
Our group began with a research question: “What characteristics of the most widely observed invasive species have allowed them to thrive in an urban environment? After our question was solidified, we collectively worked to filter the Bioblitz data to only contain the kingdom Plantae, and to only contain plant species within the New York region using bounding latitude and longitude coordinates. Then, our group went through our list of plant species and bolded any species that are invasive. To do this we referred to two lists: “DEC Prohibited and Regulated Invasive Plants” and “Research Guides: Invasive Plants: Invasive Plants – Research Guides at New York Botanical Garden”.
We were able to gather a total of 83 invasive plant species out of the 2,390 plant species in the data set. In order to identify invasive plant species that were missing a full identification, we analyzed pictures of the plant on the BioBlitz data website and matched it to similar, already identified samples. Our group then researched the effect of invasive plant species in New York and found that they are one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and are capable of competing with native organisms for resources, causing extinctions of native plants, and even altering habitats. Based on this information we hypothesized that the invasive plant species of New York will have a significant negative impact on their surrounding ecosystem and on the endangered plant species within it.
For our final stage of the project, we narrowed our data set to the 6 most widely identified invasive species in New York and ranked them based on their threat level with the help of New York Invasive Species ( NYIS.info). From our literature search, we were able to assess their ecological impact, the difficulty of control, ecological aptitude and distribution, biological characteristic, and dispersal ability. We found that most species on our final list had a “high invasiveness” rank and posed a serious risk on biodiversity and surrounding native plants, thus confirming our hypothesis.
The visual presentation of your poster is very eye-catching and well done! It was also laid out in a way that made it easy to find the points you wanted to emphasize. As to the content of your research, it was interesting to see how you connected the BioBlitz data to the topic of invasive species in the city. Did you account for possible entries of invasive species into iNaturalist from locations outside the city?