2017 Macaulay Honors College Alley Pond Park BioBlitz

Every year, Macaulay Honors College holds a fall BioBlitz as part of their Science Forward curriculum. At our first BioBlitz in Central Park, over 300 sophomores teamed up with about 40 scientists to find a total of 571 different species in the park, including a few that had never been seen before there. In 2014, our students and scientists focused on the Thain Family Forest in the New York Botanical Garden, which is the largest piece of old growth forest in New York City. We found 530 species at the NYBG BioBlitz, excluding our microbial diversity analysis. In 2015, Macaulay conducted a BioBlitz at Freshkills Park on Staten Island and found 320 species on what was once the world’s largest landfill. Last year, we held our BioBlitz at Brooklyn Bridge Park, a new park built on reclaimed shipping piers.

This year, we are excited to hold our BioBlitz in Alley Pond Park in partnership with the Alley Pond Park Environmental Center. The park is 635 acres on the Harbor Hill terminal moraine deposited here during a past ice age. It features a variety of habitats, such as freshwater and saltwater wetlands, kettle ponds, wooded areas, and meadows.

We hope to achieve our two main goals of the BioBlitz: educating students about the science of ecology in the city and cataloguing as many species as possible in 24 hours. Students will get a transformational educational experience with real scientific data collection in a complex ecosystem and also contribute to the environmental monitoring efforts of New York City. ​ less ↑