Coney Island Creek vs. Coney Island Beach: Exploring Two Sides of the Same Coin
How does the mode of economic development of a waterfront community affect its treatment and water quality?
The Effect of Climate Change on the Habituation of Spotted Lanternflies in Central Park
Have you see those red spotted flies at your every step? Spotted Lantern Flies have emerged since 2014 on the Eastcoast but why have we seen them more recently? Click here to learn more!
How Spotted Lanternflies Disrupts The Food Chain Of Native Species In Manhattan, New York
The Spotted Lantern flies are Spreading Quickly, Figure out what they are doing to the Native Species of Your Area and Why they should be stopped soon
Campus as a Lab
If you want to research a climate change issue that affects your school community, this is for you! Campus as a Lab explores a project pushing sustainability in the classroom.
The Common Buckthorn and Reduction of New York’s Biodiversity
The common buckthorn plants’ invasive properties have reduced biodiversity in dramatic and irrevocable ways, find out how!
Effect of Industrialization on Bird’s Habitat Preference
In this study, we asked the question: how does the presence of industrialization in an area impact the population densities of different bird species?
Spotted Lanternflies in NYC
The population of Spotted Lanternflies is growing rapidly. There are a few reasons why this is happening, these invasive species are attracted to various objects that are very common around the city.
Trend Analysis Study on Different Butterfly Populations in New York
Monarchs are highly abundant in NY and we observed several monarch butterflies during our time at the 2022 bio blitz. A variety of research points to bright colors being associated with a species being poisonous or dangerous (i.e. Monarch eating milkweed plant). We extrapolated on this knowledge and decided to conduct this study to see if colorful butterfly species would be more abundant than less colorful or cryptic butterflies. We compiled data into graphs of three different categories – Monarch butterflies were our control, colorful butterflies – were butterflies with more than 2 colors, and cryptic butterflies with 2 or fewer colors. One of the graphs we compiled lists the populations of 8 different species of butterflies from 2019 to 2022, graph 2 shows the percentages of butterflies over the total number of species, and graph 3 shows the portion of the population of butterflies as we placed them in three categories – colorful, cryptic, control. We were able to determine that the most common butterflies observed in the study were the Monarch, Painted Lady, and Cabbage White. The least observed butterflies were Pipevine swallowtail, Eastern tiger swallowtail, Zabulon Skipper, and Black Swallowtail. Our graphs suggest that the cryptic butterflies were on average more abundant than colorful butterflies, thus suggesting that our initial hypothesis had to be modified. Our research was a preliminary study and we hope to expand on this research in the future.
How has climate change contributed to the livelihood of birds in NYC?
Upon discovering that 100 of the 350 birds in NYC have fallen into an area of concern, we decided to investigate whether climate change as contributed to this trend. We hypothesized that climate change is why NYC birds have declined and that no bird could thrive in warmer conditions. Our results found that climate change would contribute to the loss in different species impacting Arctic birds the most.
The Invasion of NYC by the Spotted Lanternfly and its Negative Effects on Agriculture
Spotted Lanternflies have taken over the east coast and we are tasked with squishing them on sight. But how do these pests pose a threat to our city, specifically agriculture?
