This project aimed to ascertain the effect pollution and air quality can have on the biodiversity of New York, using analysis on birds and their species variety/numbers.

Contrary to our initial hypothesis, as pollution decreased, most bird populations actually decreased as well. The one category of birds that increased were raptors, so we decided to expand our search to encompass other possible factors that affect bird populations.

What we found was that a study with this many factors we can’t fully understand the decline in bird populations without taking into account the bigger picture.