Plant Sciences Commons^™

Identifying And Addressing Soil Property Issues Affecting Roadside Vegetation Establishment, Xu Li, Martha Mamo, Walter H. Schacht, Tala Awada, Humberto Blanco-Canqui

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Attaining adequate vegetation cover along highways is important for NDOR to comply with EPA’s stormwater regulations. However, low plant cover is a common problem on shoulders (first 16 feet off the pavement) of many highways in Nebraska. The ultimate goal of this study is to identify cost-effective engineering solutions that assure adequate seed beds (i.e., soil conditions) for establishment of selected seeding mixtures. The objectives of this study are to (1) characterize the soil properties along roadsides where vegetation stands have not developed well, and (2) verify the effects of select soil property parameters on plant germination and establishment.

Sampling …

07. The Effects Of Seed Mix Diversity On Soil Conditions And Nesting Of Bees In Prairie Restorations, Nicholas Anderson, Alexandrea Harmon-Threatt

North American Prairie Conference Proceedings

With the goal of conserving native bees, current recommendations for improving habitats include increasing available floral resources by planting diverse seed mixes. However, these recommendations only account for the nutritional needs of bees while the availability of equally important nesting resources is often ignored. Here we used a novel system to investigate the effects of seed mix diversity on abiotic factors previously associated with nest sites of ground-nesting bees—available bare ground and soil temperature, moisture, and compaction—and on the occurrence of nests. We used standard bee-collecting techniques and a newer method using soil emergence tents (E-tents) to assess how seed …

Comparison Of Pea Seed Germination Due To Manipulation Of Soil Conditions, Ariel M. Kershner

Faculty Curated Undergraduate Works

This experiment was done with the intent to understand optimal soil conditions for pea seed germination. We investigated this using three soil conditions – 100% potting soil, 50% potting soil/50% sand, and 100% sand. Seemingly healthy pea seeds were planted and observed over five weeks. We measured both the total number of sprouts per week and the combined weight of the plants and seeds per condition before planting and after uprooting. We expected to find that the 100% potting soil condition would germinate the best, resulting in the most sprouts and heaviest weight of the condition’s seeds and plants. This …