Digital Commons Network^™

Molecular Characterization Of Penstemon Scariosus (Plantaginaceae), Mikel R. Stevens

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The objectives of this project: Our objective was “to develop an understanding of the genetic structure of the varieties within P. scariosus. With a specific intent to test the hypothesis that P. scariosus var. albifluvis is distinct within P. scariosus” while mentoring no less than four undergraduate students. We have meet and exceeded the academic objectives proposed and then funded by this MEG as attested to in the following paragraphs and attachments to this report. As a result of our most excellent success in this project we have four additional students who are volunteering on the project. It is our …

Characterizing Endophyte Interactions That Enhance Tolerance Of Water Stress And Disease In Economically And Culturally Important Succulent Crops, Agave And Yucca, Claire Poore, Ryan Stewart

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Agave and Yucca species are both cultural and economically important in the south western United States and Mexico. As desert plants, Agave and Yucca have adapted to hot and dry conditions and with increasing global temperatures, have the potential to fill even more important roles in modern agriculture¹. The Navajo people place immense value on Yucca due to its source for food, twine, hair cleanser as well and its role in religious ceremonies. Agave has long been valued as a crop in Mexico and is used for food, fiber and beverages. Fusarium oxysporum is a major plant disease …

Increases In Fresh Weight Yield From Low Tunnels And Nitrogen Fertilization In Opuntia (Cactus Pear, Nopal) Species In Utah, Kennedy Christian, Mena Nicolas, J. Ryan Stewart

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With the global human population spiraling upward and the intensity of climate-change-induced drought events increasing, there is a growing need for identifying and developing highly productive, stress-tolerant crops that can be cultivated in marginal lands (Yang et al., 2015). Species within the Opuntia genus exhibit several traits, which enable them to withstand drought while growing in nutrient-poor soils (Nobel, 2010). However, these Opuntia species lack sufficient cold hardiness to be produced beyond northern Mexico (Felker et al., 2006) despite an increase in consumer demand of these pads from the Intermountain West and other parts of the U.S (Huffcut, 2004). Our …

Increasing Water Use Efficiency By Nitrogen Management In Turfgrass, Austin Hopkins, Dr. Neil C. Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This project identifies turfgrass practices to conserve water by optimizing nitrogen (N) fertilization and irrigation strategies. Turfgrass is the most irrigated crop by area (163,800 km2), accounting for 1.9% of the continental U.S. This causes negative environmental impacts and puts the future of irrigated turfgrass in question due to increasing water scarcity, especially in the western U.S. More information is needed on how to irrigate in droughts as turf provides significant benefits in our environment such as aesthetics, cooling effects, carbon sequestration, and preventing soil erosion.

Composition Of The Community Of Small Mammals In The Great Basin Desert, Samantha Elizabeth Phillips

Theses and Dissertations

Small mammals are a keystone guild in arid ecosystems; often exhibiting top-down control of the diversity and structure of plant communities. However, changing climate, shifting fire regimes, and the invasion of exotic plants are modifying the structure of arid systems. Environmental changes in these arid systems are likely altering small mammal communities, and therefore, their ecological role. We examined two aspects of the community composition of small mammals in the Great Basin: changes in community composition since large scale sampling of the region began in 1930, and the current population of a sensitive species of small mammal, the dark kangaroo …

An Ecological And Distributional Analysis Of Great Basin Bristlecone Pine (Pinus Longaeva), Gregory Watson Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the impacts of climate change is critical for improving the conservation and management of ecosystems worldwide. Ecosystems vary along a precipitation and temperature gradient, ranging from tropical jungles to arid deserts. The Great Basin is a semi-arid eco-region that is found within the western United States. Plant communities within the Great Basin range from sagebrush valleys to sub-alpine conifer forests found at high elevation areas. It is predicted that the Great Basin will experience prolonged periods of drought, more intense fires, and greater variability in average annual and monthly precipitation, all in response to changes in climate patterns. At …

Biochemical Characterization Of The Oat Cslf6 Mixed-Linkage Glucan Synthase, Alexander E. Chu, Eric N. Jellen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The central dogma of molecular biology teaches that the information of life is stored in DNA, a linear chain of nucleotide molecules. The information in DNA nucleotides is then transcribed into RNA, which encodes the amino acids needed to make proteins. These chemically active proteins are responsible for nearly all the processes of life in the cell. Thus, a single gene, consisting of relatively inert DNA, can give rise to a protein with a highly specialized function, and the collection of genes contained in a genome can give rise to the diversity of biomolecular function needed to sustain a living …

A Metagenome-Wide Association Study Of Gut Microbiota In Drosophila Cancer Metastasis., Anthony Caruso, John Chaston

Journal of Undergraduate Research

It has been established by past scientific research that the gastrointestinal microbiome plays a defined role in many human diseases. Some of these diseases include inflammatory bowel disease, autism, hypertension, and even cancer. A common symptom seen in many of these diseases is the dysbiosis of intestinal microbiota. Studies investigating several of these ailments have shown that model organisms can be rescued from negative symptoms through the addition of health promoting bacteria to their gastrointestinal tracts. While these fascinating correlations between levels of gut microbiota and disease have been well established, the specific genes of the bacteria and the inter-organism …

Incorporating Ground Juniper Wood Into Sagebrush Seed Agglomerates As A Fungicide Alternative, Benjamin Hoose, Matthew Madsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Sagebrush seed agglomerates (referred to as ‘agglomerates’ in the remainder of the report) are small balls of seed, clay, and compost that allow us to treat sagebrush seeds with germination enhancers. The goal of my project was to determine whether we could use the antimicrobial properties of juniper wood to reduce fungal attack of sagebrush seed by replacing the compost component of agglomerates with ground juniper. We met our goal, and determined that juniper wood does not act as an effective fungal deterrent. However, we did successfully incorporate juniper into agglomerates, which added consistency and repeatability to the agglomerate recipe …

Bioactivity Of Secondary Metabolites Of The Alaskan Fungus, Phellinus Igniarius, Johnathon Kreider, Brad Geary

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Drug testing is one of the most important activities of the Life Sciences. As biotechnological resources like genetically modified mice or artificial skin become more commonplace and accessible to drug researchers, testing has become more efficient. One of the reoccurring problems, though, is that for new drugs to be tested they must first be found. Research has shown that plants and fungi are the best places to look: over 70 percent of drugs that have been introduced in the last quarter century have been derived from natural resources (Newman& Cragg 2012). Notable examples such as Taxol from the Yew tree, …

Microbiota Effects On Ethanol Tolerance In Drosophila Melanogaster, Rebekah Rushforth, John Chaston

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly, is one of the primary organisms for genetic study because it contains a small genome that allows for easy study of mutations. Furthermore, Drosophila is a choice model for host genetics. The human gut microbiome contains hundreds to thousands of different species of microbiota; where the microbiota of a fruit fly is approximately 40 species. In addition, we can make the flies axenic (bacteria free). This allows us to mono or multi associate different bacteria groups in order to identify causation in phenotype changes in the host organism. In this project, we test axenic …

Exploration Of The Gossypium Raimondii Genome Using Bionano Genomics Physical Mapping Technology, Christopher Jon Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

Cotton is a crop with a large global economic impact as well as a large, complex genome. Most industrial cotton production is from two tetraploid species (Gossypium hirsutum L. and Gossypium barbadense L.) which contain two subgenomes, specifically the AT and DT subgenomes. The DT subgenome is nearly half the size of the AT subgenome in tetraploid cotton and is closely related to an extant D-genome Gossypium species, G. raimondii Ulbr. Characterization of the structural variants present in diploid D-genome should provide greater insight into the evolution of the DT subgenome in the tetraploid cotton. Bionano (BNG) optical mapping uses …

Characterizing The Spatial Variation Of Crop Water Productivity For Variable-Rate Irrigation Management, Jeffrey David Svedin

Theses and Dissertations

Irrigated agriculture is the primary consumer of limited worldwide freshwater resources. Drought, growing world populations, and environmental demands compete with irrigation for freshwater resources"”threatening sustainable global food, fuel, and fiber production. This escalating global crisis demands that agriculture produce more food using less water. Traditional irrigation management has used technology to apply uniform irrigation rates across landscapes"”ignoring natural environmental variation. This provides inherent inefficiencies of over- or under- irrigation within individual fields. Variable-rate irrigation (VRI) is modern technology that employs global positioning systems and geographic information systems to match irrigation to spatially variable crop water demands within a field. Although …

Plane Of Energy Nutrition On Blood Metabolites, Milk Production And Lamb Growth In Friesian Sheep, Rebekah Paige Jensen

Theses and Dissertations

Small ruminant species are utilized for their diverse products including meat, dairy products, and wool. Effective and humane management are essential to maintain high production rates and comfortable animals. To attain this objective, managers needs to have an extensive knowledge of husbandry techniques, understanding of physiological processes, and familiarity with nutritional requirements. We examined the effects of varying feed components on two different ruminal species. In Chapter 1, we conducted a study to evaluate"¯the effects"¯of a low metabolizable energy (LME) and high metabolizable energy (HME) diet on twenty-two Friesian/Lacuane"¯cross ewes and lamb nutritional status."¯Effects on milk production during early lactation …

Plant Functional Groups And Success In A Changing Environment: Modeling Physiological Niches Of Colorado Plateau Plants, Anne Thomas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Quantifying the environmental and physiological niches of plant species is crucial to predicting their sensitivity to global change, and aggregating plant species by functional type is fundamental both to ecological theory and to the practicality of large-scale efforts to predict the consequences of global change. However, traditional functional types are not always predictive of individual species’ responses to change. Here, an inverse species distribution modeling approach is used to identify functionally similar species based on physiological niche in order to better anticipate the consequences of climate change on the Colorado Plateau, USA. The Colorado Plateau is a semiarid region particularly …

Microbial And Co2 Responses To Water Stresses Show Decreased Productivity And Diversity Through Time, David Michael Robinson

Theses and Dissertations

Some bacterial taxa when stimulated by water additions will break dormancy, grow, and become dominant members of the community and contribute significant pulses of CO₂ associated with the rewetting event. These pulses of activity are associated with high levels of bacterial productivity in soils. (Aanderud et al. 2011) We examined the bacterial taxa that resuscitate and become metabolically active following two forms of water stress (soil drying-rewetting and freeze-thaw cycles) and we captured and measured the CO₂ emanating from those soils. Specifically, We used target metagenomics, which uses a specific gene pool within bacteria that is associated with …

Landscape Foundations: A Practical & Technical Guide To Landscape Maintenance, Marco Crosland

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Many homeowners struggle to maintain healthy landscapes. Often, they simply don’t understand basic principles that, if followed, would make a significant difference in the health and appearance of their landscape. The hope of Landscape Foundations is to help homeowners maintain healthy and excellent landscapes by teaching these “correct principles”.

What makes Landscape Foundations different than other landscape guides is that it brings in current research and explains it in a simple way. This guidebook provides pictures and additional resources to explain landscape maintenance principles. It teaches both the practical and technical sides.

Landscape Foundations is written for both beginners and …

Testing The Potential Of Novel Grain Crop Cultivation In Rural Malawi During The Dry Season Through Irrigation And Soil Modification, Jessica Truman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research project studied the germination and growth rates of oat and quinoa crops in Mtalimanja, Malawi. This project was part of a larger effort by General Mills and Brigham Young University researchers to increase the diversity and nutrient content of crops in impoverished countries worldwide. It was conducted from May to August 2017 during Malawi’s dry season. Tetraploid oats and quinoa, both modified to increase the protein content of harvested grains, were planted under three different soil conditions: unamended soil, soil mixed with composted chicken litter, and soil with surface-applied granular fertilizer. The research plots were watered daily except …

Survival Of Neonate Mule Deer Fawns In Southern Utah: Effects Of Coyote Removal And Synchrony Of Parturition, Jacob Tyler Hall

Theses and Dissertations

Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) are an iconic species of wildlife, and populations of mule deer across much of the western U.S. have experienced recent fluctuations in size. Factors that affect the survival and subsequent recruitment of juveniles may be the preeminent cause of population fluctuations for mule deer in many areas. Many factors, including habitat loss, extreme weather, intense predation, timing and synchrony of parturition, and competition with other species may be influencing these changes. We studied two potential factors that can influence the survival of neonate mule deer in southern Utah. To better understand how predation affects …

The Genome Sequence Of Gossypium Herbaceum (A1), A Domesticated Diploid Cotton, Alex J. Freeman

Theses and Dissertations

Gossypium herbaceum is a species of cotton native to Africa and Asia. As part of a larger effort to investigate structural variation in assorted diploid and polyploid cotton genomes we have sequenced and assembled the genome of G. herbaceum. Cultivated G. herbaceum is an A1-genome diploid from the Old World (Africa) with a genome size of approximately 1.7 Gb. Long range information is essential in constructing a high-quality assembly, especially when the genome is expected to be highly repetitive. Here we present a quality draft genome of G. herbaceum (cv. Wagad) using a multi-platform sequencing strategy (PacBio RS II, Dovetail …

Microbial Community Response To Fumigation In Potato Soils, Trevor Blake Smart

Theses and Dissertations

Soil microorganisms have a variety of beneficial and deleterious effects on plants, impacting such processes as plant growth, soil nutrient cycling, crop yield, disease resistance and tolerance to an array of biotic and abiotic stressors. The disruption of soil microbial community structures, particularly when beneficial soil biota are altered, has been shown to reduce crop yield and leave plants susceptible to disease. Long-term disruption of microbial communities may occur with repeated fumigation, being the application of gaseous pesticides, in agricultural soils. For this reason, we characterized bacterial, fungal, oomycete and nematode populations in paired fumigated and nonfumigated potato fields located …

Improving Post-Wildfire Seeding Success Using Germination Modeling And Seed Enhancement Technologies, William Charles Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

Arid and semi-arid rangelands are important ecosystems that are consistently degraded through disturbances such as wildfires. After such disturbances, the invasion and dominance of annual grasses, like cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum L.), can lead to an overall loss of ecosystem productivity and an increase in fire frequency. To reduce weed dominance, native and introduced perennials species are typically be seeded in the fall. High mortality is seen from these seeded plant communities due to germinated seed being exposed to freezing, drought, fungal pathogens, and other biotic and abiotic stressors during winter months. We utilized wet-thermal accumulation models to first further …

Emerging Seed Enhancements To Reduce The Risk Of Sagebrush Post-Fire Seeding Failure, Ryan Scott Call

Theses and Dissertations

The sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe is undergoing rapid ecological change. The degradation of sagebrush steppe rangelands has resulted in the listing of more than 350 animals and plants as species of conservation concern. In addition, there has been a decrease in recreational values, reduced forage production, degraded water resources, and an increase in fire frequency. In the sagebrush steppe, success rates for seeding sagebrush after wildfire are notoriously low. Not only are sagebrush seeds hard to sow due to their small size and associated flower parts, but seedlings are exposed to numerous stresses that lowers their survivability. To improve …

Abscisic Acid Seed Coating Delay Data, William Richardson

ScholarsArchive Data

This data is from a study which determined the effect different application rates of abscisic acid have on the total germinability and germination time of seeds. Germination count data, calculated germination indices, and field germination predictions are all included within the data set.