Final Paper for UBN

Student 2 Biodiversity Media Project

Biodiversity and ecology is very important in our live. It helps us live and make our lives much more easier. For example, plants are able to clean the air around us by converting carbon dioxide into oxygen. They can also be converted into useful materials in our everyday lives like paper and medicine. But the plant population and other populations are decreasing every single day. Many forests are being cut down, habitats are being destroyed, humans are releasing a lot of Carbon Dioxide and other harmful chemicals in the air, and there aren’t many trees in urban areas. This is why biodiversity and ecology are important. If we ignore this, many of our resources, like plants, will not be in reach anymore. If there are no resources, we could live a very difficult life, and in the worst circumstances, humanity would be extinct. I chose to do this project to see how much biodiversity there is in a urban place like New York City. To complete this task, I choose different plots around the city and collected data with applications like google maps, google docs, cameras, and spreadsheets. All these applications were used through smart phones and laptops. The smart phones were taken to the plots and with them, data and pictures were collected. We then returned back to the American Museum of Natural History and transferred the data from the phones to the laptops. From there, we were able to organize the data and work with it to see how much biodiversity there was in the plots. We found statistical analysis like abundance, relative abundance, natural log, and much more. This was all done in spreadsheets.

My first plot is where a lot of biodiversity can be found: Central Park. Central park is very diverse and the home to many plants and animals. Central park is a very big place with about 843 acres of land or 6% of Manhattan (source: http://www.centralparknyc.org/visit/general-info/faq/). The plot I chose was a random plot. The plot was mostly grass and some trees. The plot was divided by a cemented road for pedestrians. It was very big. On one side of the plot there is a pond and the Delacorte Theater. On the other side of the plot there are many baseball fields. The plot was mostly grass. There was a plant on the field which is known as the clover (Trifolium spp.). Around the plot there were many birds and squirrels. The plot had a lot of biodiversity and was mostly undisturbed at the time I was there. There was also no predators and the grass was cut so it would not grow very tall.

-This is the picture of the three-leaf clover. (Trifolium spp.)

The second plot was a regular city street. The biodiversity was very low. There were many people walking but the only biodiversity that I found were some trees and very little grass and moss growing in the cracks of the pavement. There were also some dogs but other than that there was not any more biodiversity. The city streets were very boring visually because the biodiversity was very low and there wasn’t much to see. But for data it’s interesting because it shows how humans have affected biodiversity in a negative way by limiting the amount of biodiversity there could be. This picture shows how biodiversity is missing in the city streets.

As you can see, the sidewalk in this area has little biodiversity. There isn’t much to watch and shows how humans have disturbed habitats.

Both Central Park and the city streets have many threats to biodiversity but it is obvious that the city streets have much more problems than Central Park. The only problems that I found in Central Park was the paved walkway that intersected two ecosystems and humans themselves. The paved walkway is a problem because animals could get killed due to walking pedestrians and bicycles. The people walking by is a big problem. Children could destroy the ecosystem by riping off grass or leaves from a tree. Humans could take their pets to the parks. These pets could damage the ecosystems in many ways. The streets present many problems like cars, humans, bicycles, etc.

As I did this experiment, I saw my surroundings in a different way. I realized that biodiversity should be a big concern for every single person in New York City and the world. Many people don’t realize how important biodiversity is. We use a lot of paper, use our electronics, throw out items that can be recycled, litter, and don’t know that this is affecting our environment. We need to know that those resources are possible because of biodiversity. I think that the best way to teach people to take care of biodiversity is to teach young children at a young age to love, care, and appreciate biodiversity. This way, everybody is aware of biodiversity. The city and state should place more trash cans and recycling bins around the city. This way, there would be less trash and many more items could be recycled. It would also be a good idea to make recycling programs around the city to be able to conserve the resources we have. These are good ideas but it wouldn’t help if the community isn’t interested or doesn’t care. I think that that is the biggest problem; many people don’t find a interest in biodiversity. Many people find biodiversity boring and a topic that does not matter. One way the city could make this more interesting is by accepting students helping out with recycling and other activities community service hours. Teens could use this as community service hours. It would benefit them because most schools ask for community service hours and it would also help the community because it preserves and helps save biodiversity. In these ways, biodiversity can be a concern for the world.