Life Sciences Commons^™

Assessing The Spatial Variability Of Soil Physical Properties Under A Corn Field In Kentucky, Usa, Sai Neela Kesumala

Scholars Week

Analyzing soil physical properties is crucial for advancing sustainable and precision agricultural practices in today's world. Sustainable agriculture emphasizes responsible resource utilization and preservation. Precision agriculture utilizes technology, data, and targeted decision-making to optimize resource usage and minimize environmental impacts. Assessing soil property variability aids in efficient input application, irrigation adjustment, nutrient runoff reduction, and fertilizer management. This approach prioritizes soil conservation, boosts sustainability, and supports long-term agricultural productivity. This study aimed to evaluate the spatial distribution of specific soil physical properties across the four border rows, central corn field area, and sod area. Seventy-two soil samples were collected from …

Adaptive Plasticity Of Coloration In Response To Environmental Change, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. …

Leaf Area Index And Light Interception In African Violets (Streptocarpus Sect. Saintpaulia), Chintakunta Keerthi Reddy, Venkat Sai Chatla

Scholars Week

LEAF AREA INDEX AND LIGHT INTERCEPTION IN AFRICAN VIOLETS

(Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia)

ABSTRACT Chintakunta Keerthi Reddy, Venkat Sai Chatla Hutson School of Agriculture Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

African violets are a genus of six flowering plants from tropical eastern Africa, commonly known as Saintpaulias. They can thrive indoors in low light conditions and bloom all year round. They require less light than other blooming plants and can bloom during regular daylight hours in the US and Canada if given proper exposure. Several light intensities were used for the African violet (Streptocarpus sect. Saintpaulia) experiment, which showed a significant variation in …

Effects Of Salinity, Alkalinity, And Acidity On Crop Growth And Development On Pea (Pisum Sativum), Laxmi Prasanna Shakamudi, Rasagna Chamakura, Vineela Bathula

Scholars Week

Effects of salinity, alkalinity, and acidity on crop growth and development

on pea (Pisum sativum)

Authors: Laxmi Prasanna Shakamudi, Rasagna Chamakura, Vineela Bathula

Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

Hutson school of agriculture, Murray state university

Pea (Pisum sativum) is one of the vegetables that belong to the Fabaceae family, is a pulse crop that has been widely used and cultivated in all parts of the world. As with many crops pea plants also experience abiotic stresses that affect the plant’s growth, development, and productivity. Abiotic stresses that affect crop growth and development include soil salinity, alkalinity, and …

Effects Of Planting Depth Of Soybean (Glycine Max) On Growth And Development, Hannah Dejournett, Mallory White, Mason Welden

Scholars Week

Effects of Planting Depth of Soybean (Glycine max) on Growth and Development

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray, KY

Mentor: Dr. Megan Taylor

Hannah DeJournett, Mallory White, Mason Welden

The objective of this study was to examine the effects of soybean (Glycine max) seed placement on growth and development. Several abiotic and biotic factors influence germination and emergence, planting depth is no exception. Planting depth is a management practice that can be controlled at the time of planting, making it an ideal candidate for experimentation. To determine the effect of planting depth on soybeans, soybeans were established at different depths. Previous …

Effect Of Seed Storage On Germination Of Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.), Corn (Zea Mays), And Soybean (Glycine Max), Sangam Dangal, Disha Ande, Harshaditya Bijapuri

Scholars Week

Effect of Seed Storage on Germination of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), Corn (Zea mays), and Soybean (Glycine max)

Disha Ande, Harshaditya Bijapuri, Sangam Dangal, Dr. Megan Taylor

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University, Murray, Kentucky

Disha.ande@gmail.com, Harshadityabijapuri@gmail.com, Sangamdangal121@gmail.com

Seed germination is an essential stage in the plant cycle for growth and development, resulting in the yield's quantity and quality. It is a complex process that is influenced by various biotic and abiotic factors. The storage of seeds leading up to planting is an essential management practice of crop production, as it directly …

Effects Of Soil Salinity, Alkaline Conditions And Acidity On Crop Growth And Development On Radish (Raphanus Sativus), Anvesh Kumar Dasarla, Chandan Prasanna Lakshmi Kumar Sunkavalli, Turki Alanazi

Scholars Week

Effects of soil salinity, alkaline conditions and acidity on crop growth and development on Radish (Raphanus sativus)

Authors:Anveesh Kumar Dasarla,ChandanPrasanna Lakshmi Kumar Sunkavalli,TurkiAlanazi.

Hutson School of Agriculture

Murray State University

Radish (Raphanus sativus) a member of the mustard family, it is a root veggie. This plant, which can be perennial root. The radish is a vegetable that was probably domesticated in Asia or the Mediterranean region. The veggie, which has few calories, is typically consumed raw, though the young leaves can be prepared similarly to spinach. There are numerous radish varieties, one of which is …

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys Molitrix Movements In The Lower Cumberland And Lower Tennessee River, Miranda Belanger

Scholars Week

Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix are an invasive species making up a large portion of the fish biomass in the lower portions of the Tennessee River and the Cumberland River. This species is expanding its range throughout the upper portions of these rivers, beginning with Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. Silver Carp rarely spawn in Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley, but they can enter these reservoirs through the lock chamber. Thus, the bottleneck created by lock chambers can be used to control expansion of invasive Silver Carp. Although Silver Carp movement patterns have been studied in other portions of the Tennessee …

Adaptive Plasticity Of Coloration In Response To Environmental Change, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. …

Reactive Chlorine Species Reversibly Inhibit Dnab Protein Splicing In Mycobacteria, Daniel Wahl

Scholars Week

Intervening proteins, or inteins, are mobile genetic elements translated within host polypeptides and removed at the protein level by splicing. In protein splicing, a selfmediated reaction removes the intein, leaving only a peptide bond in place. While protein splicing can proceed in the absence of external co-factors, several natural examples of conditional protein splicing (CPS) have emerged. In CPS, the rate and accuracy of splicing is highly-dependent on environmental conditions. As activity of the intein-containing host protein is compromised prior to splicing, and inteins are highly abundant in the microbial world, CPS represents an emerging form of …

Cougars In The Eastern United States, Justina Raleva, Kenneth Rieche

Scholars Week

Since the 1900s, cougars have been extirpated from nearly everywhere except the western United States parks and wilderness areas. In recent years, cougars have been starting to spread their range outside of the Rocky Mountains, towards eastern states like Illinois, Missouri, and Louisiana. The purpose of this project is to conduct outreach and education through a brochure that would educate locals in Kentucky and Tennessee regarding cougar safety and conservation importance.

Retrieve, Race, Release, Karamello Young, Paige Mccord, Madison Morrison, Emily Fitzgerald

Scholars Week

Title: Retrieve, Race, Release

by: Paige McCord, Karamello Young, Madison Morrison, Emily Fitzgerald

Abstract: This poster represents a service-learning project that was done for our conservation biology class. Our main goal is to educate the public about the negative impacts of turtle derbies. We did this by using educational materials to raise awareness about turtle races and the impact of painting them with toxic substances before releasing them into a habitat that is not their natural one. We did not seek out to prohibit or stop the races as that would cause people to shut down and not listen as …

Evaluating Gizzard Shad Dorosoma Cepedianum Populations In Two Kentucky Reservoirs Recently Invaded With Silver Carp Hypopthalmichthys Molitrix, Nathan Klein

Scholars Week

Gizzard Shad Dorosoma cepedianum are an ecologically important fish species found in many reservoirs throughout the southeastern United States such as Kentucky Lake and Lake Barkley. One current challenge that Gizzard Shad may face in these two reservoirs is competition with the invasive Silver Carp Hypophthalmichthys molitrix. However, quantifying the impacts of this competition may be difficult because of limited baseline population data for Gizzard Shad in these two reservoirs. The objective of this study is to describe size structure, condition, age, growth, mortality, and spawning potential of these two populations. Gizzard Shad were collected by boat electrofishing and …

Assessing The Influence Of Urban Greening On Urban Arthropods, Brendon Lawrence

Scholars Week

Green Heart is an urban greening experiment in Louisville, KY seeking to create new urban green spaces to ultimately increase air quality and improve human health. Changes in biodiversity in response to urban greening may influence human health via multiple hypothesized pathways including reducing harm (e.g. medicine provisioning), restoring capacities (e.g. reductions in stress), building capacities (e.g. increasing activity outdoors), and causing harm (e.g. zoonotic diseases). Arthropods are one component of diversity that may influence human health via each of these pathways. However, few studies have assessed the influence of Arthropod diversity on human health. Thus, the objective of our …

Relationships Between Different Management Practices And Selected Soil Health Indicators, Erika Lambert, Jack Howard, Sammuel Tapp

Scholars Week

Relationships Between Different Management Practices and Selected Soil Health Indicators

Jack Howard, Erika Lambert, Samuel Tapp, Corey Hale, Mallorie Snider, Dr. Brian Parr, and Dr. Iin Handayani

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University

Abstract

Soil health is essential for growing crops productively. Healthy soils help to reduce erosion, improve nutrient cycling, and lower input cost. Understanding how crop rotations and tillage systems affect soil is key to preserving soil while also improving agricultural income and efficiency. This study was conducted in Calloway County, Kentucky to observe the effects of different management practices over nine sites of management on the …

The Impacts Of Land Management Practices On Soil Organic Carbon And Soil Physical Properties, Kinsey Hamby, Raelee Story, Dallas Patey

Scholars Week

The Impacts of Land Management Practices on Soil Organic Carbon and Soil Physical Properties

K. Hamby, R. Story, D. Patey, C. Hale, I. P. Handayani, B. Parr, and M. Snider

Hutson School of Agriculture, Murray State University

ABSTRACT

To understand how to care for our soils, an understanding of soil physical properties must first be established. Soil organic carbon (SOC) refers to the carbon component of the organic compounds found in soil organic matter (SOM). SOC can be an indicator of soil structure, tilth, aeration, drainage, and stability. Soil pH is the measure of hydrogen ions suspended in a soil …

A Gud Toolbox: Implementation Of Giving-Up Densities With Mammals, Brandon Preston, Jordan Tandy, Kundil Patel, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

Giving-up densities are the density of food remaining within an artificial foraging patch over a specified time and are an indicator of how an organism perceives its environment. The GUD method is particularly useful to study the foraging behavior of an organism relative to predation risk and interactions with other environmental variables (e.g., cover, conspecifics, and food quantity and quality) to address larger ecological and evolutionary questions. The GUD methodology is commonly used with the mammalian taxonomic group due to their general size, detectability, and abundance in comparison to other taxa. However, development of protocols that maximize the potential for …

Adaptive Plasticity Of Coloration In Response To Environmental Change, Karissa Coffield

Scholars Week

When rapid environmental changes occur, different selective forces can create phenotypic trade-offs in which a trait can provide fitness benefits or costs under different environmental conditions. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to environmental change, and previous research has revealed that some species will plastically respond to variation in temperature and ultra-violet radiation (UVR) by altering their coloration. Divergent selection on coloration may change with elevation and climate induced shifts in temperature because high temperatures are likely to result in lighter color morphs but as elevation increases, UVR exposure increases leading to the prediction that darker color morphs will be more common. …

Using Modeling To Investigate Factors Driving Avian Diversity In Urban Ecosystems, Clay Bliznick

Scholars Week

Anthropogenic influences have altered global landscapes considerably throughout the past two centuries, resulting in the decline of natural land cover types. Conversely, land cover types such as cropland and urban areas that are derived from human activities have experienced vast expansion. This landscape transition has serious implications for ecosystem services. To mitigate the loss of these services, it is necessary to maintain ecological integrity within these anthropogenically-influenced systems. Being able to support high biodiversity is an indicator of well-functioning ecosystems, thus quantifying biodiversity and assessing its contributing factors can be useful for developing management strategies in artificial environments. Our objective …

Soil Quality As Affected By Hemp And Grain Production Systems In Western Kentucky, Jack Eaker

Scholars Week

Since 2018, hemp cropping systems have become increasingly popular in Kentucky. However, there is limited data on soil’s behavior/changes under these management practices as compared to corn and soybean cultivation systems. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine soil characteristics including soil organic matter, bulk density, water holding capacity, macroporosity, and water at field capacity in hemp and grain cropping systems. The thirty undisturbed soil samples were collected from three different hemp fields and a corn, soybean, and a bare field adjacent to these hemp fields. Each field was located at Murray State University West Farm, Calloway County, …

Probing Large Intrinsically Disordered Regions Through Novel Sortase-Mediated Ligation, Leah Kjormoe

Scholars Week

In the realm of proteins, it is widely accepted that structure informs function. However, there are many proteins that contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs). These regions are areas in which the protein lacks defined structure, and IDPs are also often unstable, which complicates structural studies. NMR spectroscopy is an established method for probing protein structure and has been applied to that end in small IDRs. However, larger IDRs often have spectral overlap that makes data difficult to interpret. Furthermore, low-concentration samples limit spectral clarity. One method to address these difficulties is to use sortase ligation and segmental labeling, which increases …

Microplastic Monitoring In Richardsonius Balteatus From Ross Lake, Wa, Sarah Vanlandingham, Anne Fuenzalida

Scholars Week

Recent work has shown that microplastics are present in glaciers. This is a concern for water bodies such as Ross Lake (WA) where glacier runoff may transport the microplastics into the watershed and be available to aquatic organisms. Currently there is no evaluation of how organism storage methods may impact microplastic recovery. In this study microplastic type and color in whole body Richardsonius balteatus (redside shiners) from Ross Lake were counted. Fish were collected from Ross Lake on July 6th, 2019. Approximately half of the samples were stored in ethanol and the remainder on ice. Characteristics including color and type …

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 …

Cytochrome P450 Protein Family 4 Conservation And Diversification Among Flies, Kevin Croft

Scholars Week

Commercial fruit pests, such as flies within the Tephritidae family, have a large economic impact on the global food supply due to their ability to infest a wide range of host plants. The genus Rhagoletis, which contains the apple maggot fly, has become an important organism for understanding the process of switching and adapting to new hosts. The enzyme group responsible for this ability in Rhagoletis flies is the Cytochrome P450 proteins. This superfamily of proteins is also known to help organisms deal with various environmental stressors, such as detoxification of plant defensive compounds or insecticides. The Rhagoletis zephyria (the …

Effects Of Sport Fishing On Harbor Seal Hunting Success, Madison Mckay

Scholars Week

Competitive interactions between marine mammals and fisheries are well documented. For example, pinnipeds (seals and sea lions) may impede the recovery of commercial fish stocks, and fisheries can negatively affect seals via bycatch and by diminishing food availability. However, the interactions between pinnipeds and sport fishers are not well documented, despite the fact that both utilize the same resources. I aimed to investigate whether sport fishermen affect the hunting success of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina). Whatcom Creek, a small and accessible river located in downtown Bellingham, WA, is a common place for sport fishers and harbor seals to aggregate and …

A Molecular Traffic Jam: How Overexpression Of Pericentrin Restricts The Movement Of Ift20 Between The Golgi Apparatus And The Primary Cilium, Josh Mcnamara

Scholars Week

Virtually every cell in the human body has a small antenna projecting from its surface called a primary cilium (plural, cilia). Proteins must be constantly moved to and from cilia in order for cilia to continue their function. This movement is referred to as protein trafficking. IFT20 is a protein that is heavily involved in protein trafficking in and out of cilia. The trafficking patterns of IFT20 can be studied by making it visible under a fluorescent microscope. We are particularly interested in how IFT20 interacts with another protein around the cilium called Pericentrin and how their interaction affects IFT20 …

Does Adaptation To Harsh Environments Provide Protection Against Parasites?, Arielle Michaelis

Scholars Week

While host-parasite coevolution is generally well studied, much less attention has been paid to how parasite-host relationships are impacted by variation in the abiotic environment. This may be especially important when the host species' range includes both moderate and extreme environments, since the parasite might not be able to tolerate both climates. In such cases, adaptation to extreme environments might be a potential strategy to reduce parasitization. Studies have shown that parasites are more successful in the environment in which they originally coevolved with their host than in an environment with new abiotic stressors. In Washington, snowberry flies infest snowberries …

The Effect Of Anthropogenic Noise Disturbance On Day-Time Haul Out Patterns Of Harbor Seals (Phoca Vitulina) At Two Sites Available At All Tide Levels., Wyatt Heimbichner Goebel

Scholars Week

Harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) are one of the most abundant pinniped species in the northeast Pacific. Harbor seal haul-out behavior is influenced by a variety of factors, including anthropogenic disturbance. One component of anthropogenic disturbance is increases in ambient noise levels due to human activities, such as construction. There is evidence that noise disturbance can affect harbor seal hearing as well as cause short-term changes in haul-out behavior. However, it is unclear how noise disturbance affects harbor seal haul-out patterns over long temporal scales. In this proposed study, I aim to investigate the effect of ambient noise levels on long-term …

Unraveling Genetic Interactions At The Primary Cilium, Bailey Mccurdy

Scholars Week

Down syndrome is one of the most common genetic conditions in the world, with a prevalence of 1 in 700. Down syndrome is caused by an additional copy of chromosome 21. Although all individuals with Down Syndrome have an extra copy of chromosome 21, the clinical outcome of Down Syndrome varies. Why is this? One possibility is that disruption of other genes that are not on chromosome 21 also contributes to the clinical outcome. I have identified a strong genetic candidate called NPHP1 that disrupts a structure called the primary cilium—a vital signaling structure that is essential for human development. …

Nucjuke: A Web Tool For Re-Ranking Crispr-Cas9 Grnas Based On Chromatin Accessibility In Yeast, Gaea Turman

Scholars Week

A variety of papers published in the last decade have suggested that chromatin accessibility could have significant influence over the success of CRISPR-Cas9 experiments in S. cerevisiae; where chromatin accessibility refers to nucleosome presence at a targeted genomic location. It has been found that nucleosome presence can physically impede Cas9 from making a double stranded break at a specific target site, causing a decreased experimental efficiency. We have created a web-tool called NucJuke that seeks to mitigate this problem by categorically re-ranking gRNAs based on having high, partial, or low chromatin accessibility (referring to no nucleosome occupancy, partial nucleosome occupancy, …