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Model Testing Of Soil Bacteria Population Dynamics, Adam Harlan Heninger

Theses and Dissertations

This is one of the first time series studies of bacteria in soils supporting actively growing corn crops. Mathematically modeling bacteria population dynamics has the potential as a tool to more precisely assess the economic optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate for farmers. As a first step in this modeling effort, we examine the possibility that the bacteria population growth might be described by a dynamic model developed in the food sciences describing bacteria growth in food meant for human consumption. We make the assumption that air temperature above the soil can be used as an approximation for soil temperature. Also, because …