5 research outputs found
Soil organic carbon accumulation in restored native prairies over time
No full textWith the recent focus on the causes and effects of climate change, the relationship between agriculture and climate change has become an important concern. Conventional farming maximizes crop production at the expense of ecosystem services like soil carbon storage. As the human population grows, it is vital to develop practices that balance crop production and ecosystem services.
We investigated organic carbon accumulation in restored prairie soil over the course of a decade. Our goal was to determine how organic carbon levels and soil bulk density changed over time, and how that change was influenced by species diversity and soil depth. We hypothesized that more organic carbon would be stored in soil over time, and bulk density would decrease, both of which we found to be true. We also hypothesized that the amount of organic carbon stored would increase with greater species diversity (1-species, and 5-, 16-, and 32-species mixes) and it would decrease with soil depth. Our results showed us that species diversity has no noticeable effect on organic carbon levels, with the 5-species mix being the exception, as it stored very low levels of organic carbon. In both soil depths (0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm), bulk density increased the first 5 years, then decreased drastically over the next 6 years, but when we compared 0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm depths with each other, we found an overall decrease in the upper layer. We concluded that organic carbon accumulation increases over time in restored prairie soil regardless of species diversity or soil depth. As time passed, growing roots loosened up the soil, increasing and then decreasing bulk densit
Raman Analysis of Fluorescent Minerals and Rocks at the Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption
No full textThe Shrine of the Grotto of the Redemption is a religious tourist attraction in West Bend, IA, which also happens to be the world’s largest grotto. A Catholic priest, Fr. Dobberstein , constructed the grotto using precious stones from all over the US about a hundred years ago, and the caretakers have questions about the chemical compositions of the rocks and minerals, both natural and synthetic. Raman Spectroscopy is a non destructive method for qualitative and quantitative analysis of chemical compounds. In this project, Raman analysis was performed on various fluorescent rocks found at the grotto. This included both natural and synthetic rocks. Natural rocks were evaluated for impurities. It was found that the natural rocks are mostly pure, and the synthetic rocks have near identical composition.https://scholarworks.uni.edu/chemanaly_fa2022/1006/thumbnail.jp
Using Atomic Force Microscopy to Study DNA and RAD51 Protein Interaction
No full textRecombinase proteins, such as RAD51, play a central role in repairing double-strand breaks of DNA through the process of homologous recombination. In this project, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) was used to generate scans of RAD51 proteins bound to double-stranded DNA. Due to the cooperativity of RAD51 binding, we observed a nucleation effect where RAD51 proteins generally tended to bind to DNA that already had other RAD51 proteins bound
Soil Organic Carbon Accumulation in Restored Native Prairies Over Time [Poster]
No full textWith the recent focus on the causes and effects of climate change, the relationship between agriculture and climate change has become an important concern. Conventional farming maximizes crop production at the expense of ecosystem services like soil carbon storage. As the human population grows, it is vital to develop practices that balance crop production and ecosystem services.
We investigated organic carbon accumulation in restored prairie soil over the course of a decade. Our goal was to determine how organic carbon levels and soil bulk density changed over time, and how that change was influenced by species diversity and soil depth. We hypothesized that more organic carbon would be stored in soil over time, and bulk density would decrease, both of which we found to be true. We also hypothesized that the amount of organic carbon stored would increase with greater species diversity (1-species, and 5-, 16-, and 32-species mixes) and it would decrease with soil depth. Our results showed us that species diversity has no noticeable effect on organic carbon levels, with the 5-species mix being the exception, as it stored very low levels of organic carbon. In both soil depths (0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm), bulk density increased the first 5 years, then decreased drastically over the next 6 years, but when we compared 0-7.5 cm and 7.5-15.0 cm depths with each other, we found an overall decrease. We concluded that organic carbon accumulation increases over time in restored prairie soil regardless of species diversity or soil depth
Inheritance pattern of earliness and yield traits in half diallel crosses of spring wheat
No full textHalf diallel mating system was used to evaluate six wheat cultivars and their F1 and F2 populations for inheritance of earliness, morphological and yield traits. These genotypes were crossed in a half diallel fashion during 2010-11 to get 15 cross combinations. The 6 Ă 6 wheat F1 and F2 half diallel populations and their parental cultivars were assessed through randomized complete block (RCB) design during 2011-12 and 2012-13, respectively. Genotypes revealed significant (pâ ¤0.01) differences for all the traits in both generations. According to scaling tests, additive-dominance model was partially adequate for all the traits in F1 and F2 generations. Diallel analysis revealed significant values for additive (D) and dominance (H1, H2) genetic components of variance for majority traits in both generations, however, over dominance type of gene action was predominant for inheritance. Additive gene action was observed for days to heading and plant height in F1, tiller per plant and grain yield per plant in F2 generation. In the loci (H2The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author
