The main question our poster covers is whether there is a difference in biodiversity related to light levels at Van Cortlandt Park. We felt this was an important question because Van Cortlandt is home to diverse ecosystems containing a wide range of plant and animal species. Since the park is in an urban setting, light pollution being a common issue in such areas, exploring this topic can contribute to better urban planning. We acquired our data through iNaturalist, a citizen science platform where users share observations of plants and animals. It functions as a community-driven database. We formed our data around the assumption that the exterior sections of the park would contain more light pollution than the interior would. We used iNaturalist tools to export data specifically from several sections along the exterior and interior of the park to compare them. Our hypothesis was that light pollution does impact biodiversity within Van Cortlandt Park. After employing the t-test, we observed no significant difference in biodiversity between exterior and interior sections. In other words, differences in biodiversity between both sections were not due to a relationship with light pollution. Our hypothesis was not supported.

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