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Effects Of Biomass Harvest On Eastern Red-Backed Salamanders, Patrick J. Ruhl

Open Access Theses

In a typical forest harvest, the volume of coarse woody debris (CWD) increases from nonmerchantable material (i.e., tree-tops, limbs, and small-diameter trees) left on the forest floor. Biomass harvesting removes much of this material for bioenergy production. When removed, ecosystem services associated with CWD, such as seedbed substrate, nutrient cycling, and essential wildlife habitat, is reduced. Woodland salamanders have strict microhabitat and soil moisture requirements that make them especially sensitive to timber harvest practices, particularly those that remove CWD, a primary habitat for the group.

I monitored the abundance of Eastern red-backed salamanders ( Plethodon cinereus ) in response to …

Developing Molecular Tools To Assess The Biogeochemical/Microbial Community Structure Of Oil Sand Processed Waste Material, Sabari Prakasan Mullapulli Raveendran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Microbial communities can dominate Fluid Fine Tailings (FFT) in the presence of electron acceptors (e.g. Sulfate). Sulfate reduction can produce hydrogen sulfide, one of several chemical constituents responsible for sediment oxygen demand (SOD). The preservation of RNA is a crucial step to study active microbial populations and their activity in FFT and hence understand the biological factors contributing to SOD. In our study different RNA preservation methods were tested to preserve microbial RNA in FFT sample. The results confirmed that LifeGuard(TM) Soil Preservation Solution (MO BIO Laboratories, Inc, California) is the best preservative method for RNA preservation. Through T-RFLP analysis …