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2013

Environmental Sciences

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Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Macroscopic Investigation Of Ionic- And Nano-Silver Toxicity To Soil Nitrification Process, Abdurrahman Masrahi Dec 2013

Macroscopic Investigation Of Ionic- And Nano-Silver Toxicity To Soil Nitrification Process, Abdurrahman Masrahi

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The worldwide production of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) has grown rapidly in our era because of the popular applications in industrial and consumer markets. Especially silver (Ag) NP is one of mostly common ENPs in our consumer products due to its unique antimicrobial property. However, release of AgNPs into environment through wastewater treatment plants poses a question that what impact AgNPs have on microbially mediated processes in environment (e.g., nutrient and trace element cycles). In the last decades, numerous toxicological studies of AgNPs on bacteria have been conducted in pure culture systems, and several different antimicrobial mechanisms of AgNPs have been …

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Aqueous Geochemistry Of Rhenium And Chromium In Saltstone: Implications For Understanding Technetium Mobility In Saltstone, Amanda Hatfield Dec 2013

Aqueous Geochemistry Of Rhenium And Chromium In Saltstone: Implications For Understanding Technetium Mobility In Saltstone, Amanda Hatfield

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Incorporation of low level radioactive waste in cementitious materials is an important waste disposal technology in practice at a U.S. DOE facility, the Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC. One of the major risk drivers, technetium (99Tc)

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Characterization Of The Hydrogeology And Stress State In The Vicinity Of The Homestake Mine, Lead, Sd, Johnathan Ebenhack Dec 2013

Characterization Of The Hydrogeology And Stress State In The Vicinity Of The Homestake Mine, Lead, Sd, Johnathan Ebenhack

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Underground workings in fractured rock are common worldwide. They have applications in numerous areas and fields of study. These include mining operations, civil engineering projects like tunnels and underground facilities, and research projects that require underground laboratories such as the physics research being conducted by Sanford Laboratory at the former Homestake mine and Fermi Laboratory near Chicago (Bahcall et al. 2001, Elsworth 2009, Sadoulet et al. 2006, bge science@DUSEL, fnal.gov). These excavations can reach several kilometers in depth including the 3.9 km deep TauTona mine in South Africa, the 3 km deep LaRonde mine in Quebec and the 2.4 km …

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Sequential Autotrophic-Heterotrophic Culture Of Scenedesmus Spp. For Lipid Production, Jazmine Taylor Dec 2013

Sequential Autotrophic-Heterotrophic Culture Of Scenedesmus Spp. For Lipid Production, Jazmine Taylor

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Algae are fascinating organisms that are receiving growing attention for their versatility on many fronts of research areas. Immense amounts of research is being conducted to find solutions to challenges in energy and climate change. A large portion of research is focused on algae as a potential solution to both of these issues. The focus of this research is to look at algae closer to home as a local, economical resource to aid in solving both of these problems. The algal genus Scenedesmus was tested for growth in a bi-phased scheme: photoautotrophically for carbon sequestration then heterotrophically on glycerol for …

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Microbial Exo-Enzyme Activities In Soil As Infuenced By Polyphenol Chemistries, Daniella Freese Aug 2013

Microbial Exo-Enzyme Activities In Soil As Infuenced By Polyphenol Chemistries, Daniella Freese

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Soil organic matter decomposition is directly driven by the soil extracellular enzymes excreted by soil microorganisms. Therefore, factors which impede extracellular enzyme activity would result in retarding the rate of soil organic matter decomposition. Several factors in the soil may influence soil extracellular enzymes including the plant secondary metabolites, polyphenols- tannins and lignins. However, thus far few investigations have considered the direct and indirect impacts of polyphenols on soil enzyme activities. Hence, three investigations were conducted to understand the ecological impacts of tannins and lignins on soil extracellular enzyme activities.
Tannins, further classified as condensed and hydrolysable tannins, can hamper …

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Evaluation Of Effects That Can Mask Low Decay Rates Of Tce In Aerobic Groundwater Plumes, Laura Daniels Aug 2013

Evaluation Of Effects That Can Mask Low Decay Rates Of Tce In Aerobic Groundwater Plumes, Laura Daniels

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Current methods for evaluating chlorinated solvent plumes often assume that no TCE degradation occurs under aerobic conditions. It is possible that decay rates with values greater than zero exist in these plumes, but this decay may be masked by effects of parameter values in zero–decay–rate models. This hidden decay can be identified by comparing the zero–decay–rate models with others that have been created with a decay rate greater than zero.
The results of this research and analysis show that it is possible to create matches between the zero–decay–rate models and models with greater than zero decay rates by adjusting model …

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Avian Community Response To Fire-Mediated Regeneration Of Native Pine Stands In The Mountains Of South Carolina, Curtis Walker Aug 2013

Avian Community Response To Fire-Mediated Regeneration Of Native Pine Stands In The Mountains Of South Carolina, Curtis Walker

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To assess the impacts of fire disturbance management on the avian community at Jocassee gorges in the mountains of South Carolina, a total of 1000 10-minute, 50 m radius point counts were conducted in treatment and control plots during the spring breeding seasons of 2011 and 2012. Comparisons of avian communities were made between the burned treatment sites and reference control sites to examine community and priority species response to prescribed fire. Values of species diversity, species richness, and total number of individuals were found to be significantly higher in the burned treatment plots than in the control plots as …

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Multitemporal Floristic And Phenological (Flowering) Analysis Of The Shores Of Lake Issaqueena, South Carolina, Ryerson Pamplin Aug 2013

Multitemporal Floristic And Phenological (Flowering) Analysis Of The Shores Of Lake Issaqueena, South Carolina, Ryerson Pamplin

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The floristic and phenological (flowering) study of Lake Issaqueena in Pickens
County, SC, conducted by William Pamplin in 1970-1971 was reinvestigated in 2011-
2012 using the Carolina Vegetative Survey (CVS) natural community sampling methods
and photo documentation using a GPS-enabled camera to determine floristic and
phenological changes for this site during the forty years separating these two studies.
Phenological events (flowering) were recorded via photographs taken by a GPS-enabled
camera on a monthly basis. Photographs were downloaded and organized by sampling
date in Picasa 3 web albums and stored in a project Google website. Plants were
identified using expert knowledge, …

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Black Bear Encounters In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Upstate South Carolina, Victoria Luke Aug 2013

Black Bear Encounters In The Wildland-Urban Interface Of Upstate South Carolina, Victoria Luke

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As humans move into more remote areas wildlife are displaced and there are an increasing number of human-wildlife interactions. Human dimensions research is important in order to understand social components necessary to maintain healthy wildlife populations while also maintaining healthy relationships between wildlife and the local community. In upstate South Carolina, the number of wildlife nuisance calls received by the Department of Natural Resources has increased. More importantly, wildlife populations, particularly the American black bear (Ursus americanus), continue to move into urban areas. The following study explores black bear encounter report calls coming into the SC Department of Natural Resources …

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The American Lawn: Culture, Nature, Design And Sustainability, Maria Ghys May 2013

The American Lawn: Culture, Nature, Design And Sustainability, Maria Ghys

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Abstract

This was an exploratory study examining the processes and underlying concepts of design nature, and culture necessary to discussing sustainable design solutions for the American lawn. A review of the literature identifies historical perceptions of the lawn and contemporary research that links lawns to sustainability. Research data was collected by conducting personal interviews with green industry professionals and administering a survey instrument to administrators and residents of planned urban development communities. Recommended guidelines for the sustainable American lawn are identified and include native plant usage to increase habitat and biodiversity, permeable paving and ground cover as an alternative to …

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Evaluation Of Dormant-Season Herbicide Treatment Methods For Chinese Privet At Congaree National Park, Karen Vaughn May 2013

Evaluation Of Dormant-Season Herbicide Treatment Methods For Chinese Privet At Congaree National Park, Karen Vaughn

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Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense Lour.) is a non-native invasive shrub that has become ubiquitous throughout the southeastern United States. There is a large infestation of privet at Congaree National Park in South Carolina, and the National Park Service is interested in controlling it with dormant-season foliar herbicide treatments. The primary objective of this study was to determine which combination of herbicide and applicator provides the most effective control of privet, while minimizing damage to non-target plants. Another objective was to document impacts of privet invasion on Congaree's plant communities.
Seven vegetation plots were installed in each of five large privet …

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Nest Success And Habitat Choice Of Wilson's Plovers In Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve, South Carolina, Elizabeth Zinsser May 2013

Nest Success And Habitat Choice Of Wilson's Plovers In Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Heritage Preserve, South Carolina, Elizabeth Zinsser

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Little is known about the reproductive ecology of Wilson's Plover (Charadrius wilsonia). I conducted a study of nest site selection and nest success at a critical breeding area in South Carolina, USA. Data from other coastal nesting birds in the region suggest that a suite of environmental factors including flooding and predation may limit nest success in this region. To assess nest success rates of Wilson's Plovers in an area with limited human disturbance I monitored 72 nests during 2012 and 2013 on South Island and Sand Island located in Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center and Heritage Preserve. I measured environmental …

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Hexavalent Chromium Reduction Using Supported N-Zvi And Metalloporphyrin Matrices, Jonathon Ball May 2013

Hexavalent Chromium Reduction Using Supported N-Zvi And Metalloporphyrin Matrices, Jonathon Ball

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Chromium (Cr) can exist in the environment in many valence states ranging from -2 to +6. Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI) and trivalent chromium (Cr(III) are the most stable forms of Cr and therefore are the most common in the environment. Cr(VI) is very toxic and has been considered a hazardous material and danger to society for many years. One of the main locations of Cr(VI) contamination in the environment is in groundwater aquifers. A simulation of this system coupled with a reduction-precipitation remediation method was utilized. In this research, n-ZVI was used in a supported silica sol-gel matrix by itself and …

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