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Environmental Sciences

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Virginia Commonwealth University

Theses/Dissertations

2010

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Factors Influencing Macroinvertebrate Diversity And Community Composition In Riverine Freshwater Rock Pools, Chtaura Jackson Dec 2010

Factors Influencing Macroinvertebrate Diversity And Community Composition In Riverine Freshwater Rock Pools, Chtaura Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

I examined a system of 378-riverine rock pools situated along the James River in Richmond, Virginia, to uncover the factors influencing their macroinvertebrate diversity and community composition. I characterized (total = 60) the physical characteristics, water quality, hydrology, and community assemblages in July 2009 for a subset of pools. I examined whether selected environmental factors (pH, nearest neighbor distance, depth, surface area and inundation height) were related to macroinvertebrate diversity and community composition. Species richness and total abundance of all taxa increased with pool pH and surface area. Ordination indicates that nearest neighbor distance (NND) and pH varied significantly among …


Phytoremediation Of Copper Contaminated Waste Water Using Lemna Minor, Mark Apelt Nov 2010

Phytoremediation Of Copper Contaminated Waste Water Using Lemna Minor, Mark Apelt

Theses and Dissertations

The use of natural remediation methods to remove contaminants from waste water is becoming more popular. Plants have been used for several decades, yet their use for municipal waste water contaminated by heavy metals is limited to a few studies which focus on the Mercury and Chromium (Bennicelli, et.al, 2004). This study specifically attempted to determine the viability for using Lemna minor to remediate municipally generated wastewater contaminated with copper. The study used 100 ml samples of wastewater, artificially spiked with 8 mg/L of copper sulfate and seeded with approximately 100 Lemna minor fronds. Each treatment was repeated 15 times …


Patterns In Fish Community Structure In A Regulated River, Richard Davis Apr 2010

Patterns In Fish Community Structure In A Regulated River, Richard Davis

Theses and Dissertations

I examined the abundance, composition, and distribution of fish communities in the lower Roanoke River, a hydropeaking system in North Carolina. Fishes were sampled at before and after peaking events over three years; 2007 to 2009. I evaluated trends in species richness, diversity, and assemblage composition. There were no significant differences in either richness or diversity suggesting consistent trends in richness and diversity throughout the study. I used non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMDS) to create a community composition model. Fish composition was noticeably greater post-peaking and changed minimally across time and event. There were no statistically significant differences in species composition …