Life Sciences Commons^™

Chlorophyll A And Primary Productivity Dynamics In Kentucky Lake Mainstem And Embayment Habitats., Morgan Franklin

Scholars Week

Chlorophyll α (Chl α) has been used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, while primary productivity (PP), the rate at which carbon is fixed into phytoplankton cells, is an indicator of how quickly carbon is turned over within the phytoplankton community. The purpose of this research was to examine the spatial distribution of and the relationship between Chl α and PP seasonally in the main channel of Kentucky Lake reservoir and two embayments of contrasting land use. Correlation coefficients (r) for Chl α versus PP were 0.45 in Ledbetter embayment, 0.55 in Panther embayment, and 0.57 in the main …

Hemp As A Livestock Feedstuff: A Review Of Current Literature, Sarah Mead, Alyx Shultz

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Hemp was removed from the list of controlled substances in the 2018 Farm Bill, making regulated hemp production legal in the United States. Kentucky agriculturalists and entrepreneurs are at the cutting edge of the United States hemp production and processing industries. Hemp production generally falls into one of three categories: grain, fiber, or floral (CBD extraction). Each production category also produces byproducts; one such byproduct is meal. In order to make hemp oil and fiber processing viable, markets for the remaining meal must be found. The high fiber, fat, and protein of hemp meal make it a potential feedstuff for …

Chemical Free Edible Flowers, Elise Abbott

Scholars Week

Nature is equipped with all the right systems and services in order to be self sustaining. But in the global flower industry, growers are battling insect infestations like never before because of stricter import laws by the United States Department of Agriculture. In order to ensure the processing of their flowers, growers douse them in pesticides making them inedible and harmful to those who work with them. As edible flowers are making their way into the market on cakes and desserts, fresh salads, specialty spreads and much more it's imperative that they are grown in a sustainable and safe manner. …

Comparison Of Peat-Based Planting Media To Sustainably Produced Planting Medias: Watering And Other Considerations, Mary Grace Jackson

Scholars Week

Researchers are actively addressing the questions that haunts all agriculturalists: Will we be able to feed the projected population of 9.8 billion people in 2050? Newly developed soil mixes might be the key to solving this daunting question. Research is proving that this sustainable media is a way to add nutrients back into our existing soil.

Soil Responses To Various Farming Systems In Western Kentucky, Samantha Peterson

Scholars Week

The interactions among the farming systems and the soil, water, biota, and atmosphere control the effects of cultivation on soil properties. Land conversion from forest or pasture ecosystems into crop fields altered soil properties due to the loss of soil organic matter (SOM) and the increase of soil compaction. However in Kentucky, the magnitude of the changes varied among the soil properties. Therefore, the objective of this research was to investigate the changes of selected soil properties include SOM, soil pH, and compaction under different crop fields such as corn-soybean-tobacco rotation (Field #1), continuous corn field (Field #2), hemp field …

Evaluating Opinions Of Kentucky’S Agri-Science Educators On Climate Change, Emily Cook

Scholars Week

Climate Change is the significant long term changes in the weather and temperatures on a large scale and is seen globally. Scientists have been studying the effects of Climate Change on the planet for decades; foreseeing problems of the future. Global Warming has been escalating over the past hundred years with the amount of Carbon Dioxide gases rising into to atmosphere at an alarming rate. Agri-Science Educators across Kentucky are teaching the topics of Climate Change and Global Warming and this research intends to find the truth and variances in their knowledge. Twenty educators from across the state of Kentucky …

Uncertainties Treatment For Wastewater-Based Epidemiological Estimation Of The Consumption Of Illicit And Prescribed Neuropsychiatric Drugs In Two Urban Communities In Kentucky Using Ammonium Normalized Population And Monte Carlo Simulation, Rhinannon Huffines, Tara Croft, Manoj Pathak, Bikram Subedi

Scholars Week

The conventional estimation of the prevalence of substance use in a community based on self-reported surveys typically underestimates the actual consumption. Drug’s residues in raw wastewater collected from the centralized wastewater treatment plants were utilized – Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) – to determine the consumption rate of illicit and prescribed neuropsychiatric residues in two urban communities in eastern Kentucky and two rural communities in western Kentucky. The ammonical nitrogen content in raw wastewater samples was used to minimize the uncertainty associated with the population dynamicity. Uncertainties associated with the several WBE parameters to back-calculate the consumption rate of drugs such as …

Chlorophyll A And Primary Production Dynamics In Kentucky Lake: 2009-2018, Morgan Franklin

Scholars Week

Chlorophyll α (chl α) can be used as a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, while primary productivity (PP), the rate at which carbon is fixed into phytoplankton cells, is an indicator of how quickly carbon is turned over within the phytoplankton community. The purpose of this research was to examine the spatial distribution of chl α seasonally in Kentucky Lake and to examine the relationship between chl α and PP in two embayments of contrasting land use. The two sites analyzed are Ledbetter and Panther embayments. Data analysis showed that the chl α and PP were highly correlated; r=0.45 in Ledbetter …

Evaluating Soil Surface Properties In Two Contrasting Tillage Systems, Riley Mabe, Kaeden Mollett, Marcus Robertson

Scholars Week

Soil properties are affected by tillage practices. Tillage practices that provides an adequate growing environment for crops and maintains good soil structure is crucial. The objective of this study was to compare selected soil properties collected from no-till (NT) and conventional tillage (CT) systems in Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois. Three undisturbed and three disturbed soil samples were taken from the topsoil at the depth of 0 to 7.5 cm. The samples were analyzed for bulk density (BD), water holding capacity (WHC), field capacity (FC), soil pH, soil organic matter (SOM), and compaction. Bulk density, WHC, and FC of the soil …

Delineation Of Ohio River Flood Zones In Ballard County Using Remote Sensing, Nathan Rister

Scholars Week

The purpose of this study was to use remote sensing to map flood zones in Ballard County as it correlates to the Ohio River flood gauges. This will help Wildlife managers to know which areas are most likely to be flooded by simply looking at river gauges and prevent them to having to check which areas are flooded in person. By using this technique wildlife managers will be able to save time and resources as well as better manage wildlife areas along the Ohio River.

Sustainability Of Organic Soil Amendments On Soil Fertility And Earthworms, Mackenzie Hoffman

Scholars Week

One of the growing concerns of farmers is soil fertility which is defined as the ability of soil to grow and support plant life by minerals and nutrients needed for the plants. Healthy soil leads to better yields which lead to more food produced. Traditionally, soil fertility has been maintained with the use of chemical fertilizers. This research looked at an alternative method of increasing soil fertility: the addition of a soil amendment. Chemical fertilizers can lead to an oversupply of nitrogen which can make the plants more susceptible to diseases and pests and can also reduce the colonization of …

The Piping Plover Problem: A Review Of Management Issues For A Threatened Shorebird, Andrew Lydeard, Gerry Harris

Scholars Week

Andrew Lydeard and Gerry Harris

The Piping Plover (Charadrius melodus) was federally listed in 1986. Since listing, Piping Plovers have been a focus of conservation and management efforts, particularly on their breeding grounds in the Northern Great Plains, Great Lakes, and northern Atlantic Coast. Despite management efforts that have resulted in range-wide population growth of the Piping Plover, growth in individual populations is often slow and reasons for this are poorly understood. A bias towards understanding drivers of declines on breeding sites compared to wintering and migratory stopover sites may be an underlying cause of this lack of …