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Environmental Microbiology and Microbial Ecology

Masters Theses

Soil

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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Effects Of Traditional And Microbially-Focused Restoration Techniques On Soil Communities In Tallgrass Prairies, Zachary J. Whitacre Jun 2021

Effects Of Traditional And Microbially-Focused Restoration Techniques On Soil Communities In Tallgrass Prairies, Zachary J. Whitacre

Masters Theses

Tallgrass prairies have virtually disappeared in many parts of their former range due to the conversion of this ecosystem to farmland. In more recent years there have been efforts to restore these prairies on reclaimed agricultural land. However, these restored prairies do not resemble their remnant counterparts in many ways, such as in soil microbial community composition and metrics related to carbon storage. In Chapter 1, I show that bacterial communities in a restored prairie and an adjacent remnant prairie in southwest Michigan differ in their immediate and longer-term responses to prescribed fire, a commonly used prairie restoration and maintenance …


Revealing The Ecological Role Of Gemmatimonadetes Through Cultivation And Molecular Analysis Of Agricultural Soils, Mariam Naomi Fawaz May 2013

Revealing The Ecological Role Of Gemmatimonadetes Through Cultivation And Molecular Analysis Of Agricultural Soils, Mariam Naomi Fawaz

Masters Theses

Bacteria belonging to phylum Gemmatimonadetes are frequently detected in a variety of environments using culture-independent methods. Despite their ubiquity and prevalence, almost nothing is known about their physiology or ecology because so few strains have been isolated. The first objective of this study was to determine the distribution of Gemmatimonadetes within soil aggregates and the response of the relative abundance of Gemmatimonadetes to dry/wet cycling and soil management. The second objective was to analyze the effects of soil management, aggregate size, and atmospheric conditions on cultivability of Gemmatimonadetes. Universal and Gemmatimonadetes-specific 16S rRNA gene primers were used to …