Ash trees around the world have a significant role in our lives from medicine to religious purposes. Recently, ash trees have been in decline in the U.S. due to the Emerald Ash Borers (EAB) which are small beetles that were first detected in North America in 2002. The rapid decline of ash trees can seriously impact ecosystem and species biodiversity. This project determines how arthropod biodiversity is affected after an EAB invasion. We predicted that in locations where there are EAB, the diversity of other arthropods present will be negatively affected. We will use publicly available datasets of arthropod biodiversity to compare locations where EAB is present and those where EAB is absent to test our prediction. We predict that factors such as competition for food resources could impact the abundance of other arthropod species. The overall findings will shed light on how EAB invasions on the ash trees can impact ecosystem and species biodiversity in an invasion site. This research could bring insight on how to shift prevention methods against EAB along with being aware of the changes in the surrounding biodiversity.
