Brentwood’s Biodiversity

28 December 2014Mr. David McCarthy, Director of Academics

In early December we received the results of our participation in a nation-wide biodiversity program organized by the University of Guelph. Along with 70 other schools we set up a Malaise trap in the fall to catch insects on campus over a two week period. The tent-like structure intercepted flying and crawling bugs which then instinctively clambered up to their doom, landing in a bottle of neat alcohol! The specimens were sent to Ontario where each insect had its DNA extracted and analysed at the DNA Barcode of Life project lab. The distinctive pattern of bases in the genome is enough to identify the species without referring to its physical characteristics. Students in Biology 12 AP were excited to learn that our school collected nearly 1000 specimens in a total of 155 species. We were 17th in terms of total insects and 16th (out of 69 schools) in terms of total species. Remarkably there were 82 species that were only found in our trap and nowhere else in Canada. We will definitely participate again in next year’s project and we look forward to comparing the results. Mr. David McCarthy, Director of Academics

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