Life Sciences Commons^™

Optimizing Systems For Cold-Climate Strawberry Production, Tiffany L. Maughan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Producing fruits and vegetables in the Intermountain West can be challenging due a short growing season, extreme temperatures, and limited availability of irrigation water. This is particularly true of strawberries, where commercial production is limited due to late fall and early spring frosts that shorten the growing season. With the increasing demand for local produce as urban populations grow and as consumer buying habits change, growers are looking for ways to overcome these climatic challenges. High tunnels are one option growers can use. High tunnels are similar to greenhouses, but less expensive to construct and to maintain. Another way to …

Evaluating Integrated Weed Management: Russian Knapweed Control With Goat Grazing And Aminopyralid, Clarke G. Alder

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Invasion of natural communities by introduced plants is considered one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. Weeds in rangelands cause an estimated loss of $2 billion per year in the United States. These costs include losses in forage quality and yield, grazing interference, animal poisoning, lowering land values, depleting soil water and resources available to native plants, increasing costs of managing livestock, and impacts on wildlife habitat and forage. Integrated weed management (IWM) is a way for land managers such as farmers, ranchers, and government agencies to control invasive weeds. IWM uses several different control methods working in conjunction to …

Studies On Nitrogen And Silicon Deficiency In Microalgal Lipid Production, Curtis Adams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Microalgae are single celled plants that inhabit aquatic and terrestrial environments across the planet. Many species are oleaginous, which means they are capable of producing oils, similar to many higher plants we are familiar with like canola, safflower and coconut. Different from higher plants, however, algae have simple structures that allow them to grow at very high rates. Due to these characteristics—oil production and rapid growth rates—algae are considered a promising future source of oil. Algal oils could be useful for production of food for people, feed for animals, biodiesel, detergents, and many other applications.

Algae have not been heavily …

Forage Yield And Quality Of Binary Grass-Legume Mixtures Of Tall Fescue, Orchardgrass, Meadow Brome, Alfalfa, Birdsfoot Trefoil, And Cicer Milkvetch, Steven R. Cox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Managed pasture forms the foundation for much of the U.S. livestock iv production. Increased forage yield and quality can be achieved with nitrogen (N) fertilizer but increases the cost of pasture production. Rising prices of N have led to a return to the use of grass-legume pastures to reduce or replace commercial N fertilizer. There is a need to identify viable grass-legume mixtures and species planting ratios for the region of the Intermountain Western United States The purpose of this study was to identify grass-legume combinations and planting ratios that maximize forage production and forage quality in irrigated pastures. The …

Physiological Response Of Kentucky Bluegrass Under Salinity Stress, Lijun Wang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Salinity is a significant stress for plants world-wide. In agriculture, salts reduce germination, overall growth, yield, and sometimes death in crop plants. Salinity similarly affects turfgrass in our urban landscapes. Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) is the most widely used cool-season grass in the northern part of the United States, including the cool-arid West, but generally is a salt sensitive species. The overall objectives of this study were to study the physiological responses of Kentucky bluegrass to salt stress and to evaluate the genetic similarity among the cultivars used in the research.

Four Kentucky bluegrass entries, two salt-tolerant and …

Phosphorous And Potassium Fertility Management For Maximizing Tart Cherry Fruit Quality And Productivity On Alkaline Soils, Sean D. Rowley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Suitable orchard land in regions of the Intermountain West is becoming more limited due to urban sprawl. With the loss of suitable farmland, increasing production costs, and the lack of sound fertility information for these regions, fruit growers face challenges to produce high quality fruit for market demand. Current standard management practices are not sufficient to optimize yield and fruit quality in the marginal farm land that is currently be used for fruit production. Fertility management of orchard trees is vital to tree health, yield, and fruit quality.

Three different approaches were used to investigate the effects of Phosphorus (P) …

Integrated Management Of Downy Brome (Bromus Tectorum L.) Infested Rangeland, Heather Elwood

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Invasive weed species are a threat to the health and functionality of many rangeland systems. Downy brome (Bromus tectorum) is an invasive annual grass that affects the productivity of rangelands by decreasing the grazing capacity for livestock as well as altering the wildfire cycle and competing against more desirable vegetation for limited resources.

In 2006, an Invasive Plant Management Plan and Environmental Assessment was approved for Dinosaur National Monument, calling for prioritization of invasive species management on high value wildlife habitat, vector areas, and for species with a high ecological impact. The Cub Creek Watershed was identified as a priority …

Effects Of Non-Surface-Disturbing Restoration Treatments On Native Grass Revegetation And Soil Seed Bank Composition In Cheatgrass-Invaded Sagebrush-Steppe Ecosystems, Alexandra D. Reinwald

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The sagebrush-steppe communities of the Great Basin have been dramatically transformed by the invasion of the non-native annual grass cheatgrass. In many areas of the Great Basin, this invasion has resulted in the loss of native plant species and ultimately the conversion to cheatgrass-dominated communities. As healthy sagebrush communities provide multiple ecosystem services such as diverse wildlife habitat, forage for cattle grazing, and water filtration, restoration of these communities is a high priority to landowners and land management agencies. Established perennial grasses can successfully compete with non-native annual grasses and increase the resistance of plant communities to invasion by non-native …