BIOL 3504 - section 280 (1 credit hr) | FALL 2022 - Fridays @10AM to 12PM.
Co-requisites | BIOL 3220 | BIOL 3221 - you are required to take BIOL 3220 and 3221 at the same time as BIOL 3504 (sect 280). Consent of instructor required.
Instructor: Dr. Ariane Peralta, Associate Professor of Biology
RESEARCH QUESTION | How does fertilization and disturbance by mowing influence soil wetland microbiomes?
LEARNING OUTCOMES
- Describe how complex microbial communities (i.e., microbiomes) are examined using culture-independent sequencing.
- Employ practical computing and bioinformatics code to process bacterial sequences.
- Analyze environmental and microbial data using modern statistical approaches.
- Communicate science using digital literacy tools (e.g., Adobe InDesign, Spark).
Microbiology Research Summary | Wetlands occupy about 7% of Earth’s land surface; however, they are estimated to store about 40% of carbon on a global scale. Wetlands are effective at storing carbon because of high rates of vegetation growth and generally low rates of soil carbon losses from decomposition. Like many ecosystems, wetlands are exposed to nutrient enrichment/fertilization effects because of human activities. Often, fertilization effects can increase microbial activity, leading to higher rates of carbon loss through decomposition. Thus, wetland carbon storage is vulnerable to environmental change, which can result in reduced capacity for wetlands to buffer climate change effects. Wetland carbon storage potential could be overestimated when impacts of nutrient enrichment and microbial physiology are not incorporated into the earth system context. This research will provide insights into microbial controls on soil carbon processes, which has implications for broad national interests in energy, natural resources management and conservation, and climate change mitigation.
Education Research Summary | The purpose of this education-based research is to evaluate Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) as a possible opportunity to improve retention and academic achievement for students in Biology. This study will focus on comparing student success and assessment of CURE-based experiences. A subset of students (~16 students per year) will participate in an additional research-intensive Microbiology lab section to serve as an extension of already established lab-based activities in Microbiology for Majors. We will assess how the more extensive CURE-based experiences compares to the traditional Microbiology lab experiences. By doing this research, I hope to learn whether CUREs provide intensive research experiences that are useful in mastering course content and provide an enriching research opportunity in a classroom setting. Your participation in completing these surveys before and after the course is completely voluntary.
Credits:
Photo credit: Ariane Peralta