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Full-Text Articles in Biodiversity

Evaluating Soil Health Changes Following Cover Crop And No-Till Integration Into A Soybean (Glycine Max) Cropping System In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Alexandra Gwin Firth May 2022

Evaluating Soil Health Changes Following Cover Crop And No-Till Integration Into A Soybean (Glycine Max) Cropping System In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley, Alexandra Gwin Firth

Theses and Dissertations

The transition of natural landscapes to intensive agricultural uses has resulted in severe loss of soil organic carbon (SOC), increased CO₂ emissions, river depletion, and groundwater overdraft. Despite negative documented effects of agricultural land use (i.e., soil erosion, nutrient runoff) on critical natural resources (i.e., water, soil), food production must increase to meet the demands of a rising human population. Given the environmental and agricultural productivity concerns of intensely managed soils, it is critical to implement conservation practices that mitigate the negative effects of crop production and enhance environmental integrity. In the Mississippi Alluvial Valley (MAV) region of Mississippi, USA, …


Nitrogen Availability In Dune Systems And Its Effect On Root Fungal Endophyte Communities., Haley E. Sage May 2022

Nitrogen Availability In Dune Systems And Its Effect On Root Fungal Endophyte Communities., Haley E. Sage

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Honors Theses

As global change persists, changes in resource availability can influence plant-microbe interactions. To understand how resource availability can influence these interactions and species diversity, I focused this research on how varying nitrogen (N) levels affect root endophyte communities in the plant species Ammophila breviligulata, an ecosystem engineer in the dune system. I analyzed the relationship between nitrogen addition and microbial community composition across 60 plots treated with three nitrogen addition levels (control, low, and high) in a long-term experimental field site in the Lake Michigan dunes. I identified Ammophila breviligulata's root endophyte community after creating a culture collection and …


Diversity Of Bacteriophage In Burkholderia Species, Abigail Price Apr 2022

Diversity Of Bacteriophage In Burkholderia Species, Abigail Price

Honors Projects

Bacteriophages are viruses that infect and replicate within bacteria and offer the potential of a therapeutic alternative to chronic infections that do not respond to antibiotic-based therapies. B. vietnamiensis is one of a number of Burkholderia species involved with chronic drug resistant infections in the lungs of individuals with compromised respiratory systems, as found in those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and, most especially, are of particular significance in patients with cystic fibrosis. The diversity of the Burkholderia species is explored by using online databases and looking at bacteriophage or phage-encoding viruses found in B. vietnamiensis. The open reading frames …


Assessing Environmental Factors That Influence Cyanobacterial Blooms In Skinn Lake, Kloe Atwood Apr 2022

Assessing Environmental Factors That Influence Cyanobacterial Blooms In Skinn Lake, Kloe Atwood

Honors Projects

Global lakes are experiencing an increase in toxic algal blooms that can be damaging to the environment. These blooms are caused by cyanobacteria, specifically a species called Planktothrix. Skinn Lake, in Ohio, is a location of a cyanobacterial bloom that is mainly populated by Planktothrix rubescens. This lake was further examined to identify the major toxin-producing bacteria and identify environmental microbes surrounding the bloom. When the data was examined it was found that the microbiomes of the lake greatly differed between the winter (bloom) months and the summer (non-bloom) months. This difference can be viewed within the nutrient analysis from …


Examining Soil Microbial Diversity In Transition Zones Between Corn Fields And Restored Prairie In The Upper Midwest, Anna M. Burns Jan 2022

Examining Soil Microbial Diversity In Transition Zones Between Corn Fields And Restored Prairie In The Upper Midwest, Anna M. Burns

Scripps Senior Theses

Prairies were once the largest ecosystem in North America, but agriculture and settlement has destroyed up to 99% of their pre-colonization extent. Prairie restorations are a strategy to recover the biodiversity and carbon sequestration functions of these grasslands, but typically occur in isolated strips between agricultural fields. My thesis analyzes how effective prairie restorations in the Liberty Prairie (northeastern Illinois) are at recovering the diversity of the prairie soil microbiome, focusing on verrucomicrobia abundance, alpha diversity, and soil physical characteristics.


Degradation And Nitrogen Cycling In The Context Of Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Relationships In The Inquiline Bacterial Community Of Darlingtonia Californica, Megan Teigen Jan 2022

Degradation And Nitrogen Cycling In The Context Of Biodiversity-Ecosystem Function Relationships In The Inquiline Bacterial Community Of Darlingtonia Californica, Megan Teigen

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Biodiversity-ecosystem function (BEF) research aims to explain how species and their environments interact with each other. Microbial communities engage in vital biogeochemical pathways in a variety of natural ecosystems, and yet there are large knowledge gaps about the specific metabolic pathways in which they are involved. Degradation specifically contributes to nitrogen cycling globally through the breakdown of large organic nitrogen compounds into small inorganic nitrogen that is necessary for the survival of many other organisms. In this study, I focused on the degradative function of the inquiline microbial communities found within the carnivorous pitcher plant, Darlingtonia californica. Darlingtonia grows in …


The Influence Of Hydrogen Peroxide On The Enrichment Of Fe(Iii) Reducing Bacteria From Acid Mine Drainage, Susami Seth Jan 2022

The Influence Of Hydrogen Peroxide On The Enrichment Of Fe(Iii) Reducing Bacteria From Acid Mine Drainage, Susami Seth

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

It is hypothesized that the ocean of Europa, a Jupiter moon, hosts bacteria on its oceanic floor. Understanding how Fe(III) reducing bacteria (FeRB) from AMD utilize organic materials within its surrounding environment outlines how FeRB could thrive and tolerate extreme conditions. FeRB are known to tolerate metals and highly reactive oxidants species (ROS), but in this experiment, H2O2 was the experimental factor to further test FeRB tolerance. H2O2 is a common ROS and is damaging to living material such as proteins, DNA, and RNA. A range of H2O2 concentrations were fed …