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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Honey As A Biomonitor For Air Pollutant Deposition In The Eastern United States Using Ion Chromatography And Scanning Electron Microscopy, Cole Cochran
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Anthropogenic activities generate metal, acid, and particulate air pollutants which negatively impact human and ecological health. In the United States, power plant, industrial, and vehicle emissions are leading causes of air pollution, however, the measurement of air pollution at high-resolution spatial regimes remains a challenge. Honey has emerged as a powerful biomonitoring tool to effectively quantify contaminants without the need for a large array of monitoring instruments. I hypothesized that honey could be used to effectively measure and map modern air pollutant spatiotemporal relationships over the Eastern U.S. Using ion chromatography with sulfate as an indicator for air pollution and …
Geologic Controls On 137cs Cycling By Terrestrial Vegetation In The Eastern U.S., Kathleen Chellman
Geologic Controls On 137cs Cycling By Terrestrial Vegetation In The Eastern U.S., Kathleen Chellman
Undergraduate Honors Theses
137Cs is a radioactive trace metal (T1/2 = 30 y) that was dispersed globally by nuclear weapons testing in the 1950s-1960s. Prevailing winds and precipitation systems caused some areas far from the test sites to receive significant fallout, which is still easily measured in soils, sediments and even some vegetation in the Eastern United States. Recent work near Chernobyl and Fukushima indicates that trace levels of 137Cs can harm insects, pollination services, and other ecological functions. In areas with low soil potassium, 137Cs is cycled in vegetation; however, soil potassium alone doesn't consistently predict the 137 …