Project Director

Spratt, Henry

Department Examiner

Byant, Mark; Collins; O'Dea, Gregory; Van Horn, Gene

Department

Dept. of Biological and Environmental Sciences

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Levels of microbial biomass were determined for the A and B-horizons of four plots from the Tennessee River Gorge (TNG), establishing a baseline for future studies. The soils were divided into control and fumigated samples. The fumigated soils were flooded with chloroform, and the carbon was extracted from the control and fumigated soils and quantified through a reflux reaction and subsequent titration with ferrous ammonium sulfate. The extractable carbon was then used to determine the amount of biomass in the soil. The extractable carbon ranged from 62-90% higher in the A-horizon than B-horizon soils with the percent biomass from both horizons of all plots ranging from 0.006-0.73%. The mean extractable carbon of the A-horizon was 594μgC · g·1dry, while the mean of the B-horizon was 125μgC · g^-1dry. Future studies of TNG soil microbial biomass may be made to monitor any changes due to human disturbances.

Degree

B. S.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Science.

Date

3-1999

Subject

Soil microbiology--Tennessee; Soil microbial ecology--Tennessee; Microbial populations--Tennessee River Valley

Discipline

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Document Type

Theses

Extent

iii, 28 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Call Number

LB2369.5 .B872 1999

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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