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- All Subjects: Ecology
As the world’s population exponentially grows, more food production is required. This increasing food production currently has led to the un-sustainable production of chemical fertilizers and resultant overuse. A more sustainable option to enhance food production could be the use of fertilizer derived from food waste. To address this, we investigated the possibility of utilizing a fertilizer derived from food waste to grow hydroponic vegetables. Arugula (Eruca sativa) ‘Slow Bolt’ and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) ‘Cherokee’ and ‘Rex’ were cultivated using indoor deep-flow hydroponic systems at 23 ºC under a photosynthetic photon flux density of 170 µmol∙m−2∙s−1 with an 18-hour photoperiod. Plant nutrient solutions were provided by food waste fertilizer or commercial 15:5:20 NPK fertilizer at the identical electrical conductivity (EC) of 2.3 mS·cm–1. At the EC of 2.3 mS·cm–1, chemical fertilizer contained 150 ppm N, 50 ppm P, and 200 ppm K, while food waste fertilizer had 60 ppm N, 26 ppm P, and 119 ppm K. Four weeks after the nutrient treatments were implemented, compared to plants grown with chemical fertilizer, lettuce ‘Rex’ grown with food waste fertilizer had four less leaves, 27.1% shorter leaves, 68.2% and 23.1% less shoot and root fresh weight, respectively. Lettuce ‘Cherokee’ and arugula grown with food waste fertilizer followed a similar trend with fresh shoot weights that were 80.1% and 95.6% less compared to the chemical fertilizer, respectively. In general, the magnitude of reduction in the plant growth was greatest in arugula. These results suggest that both fertilizers were able to successfully grow lettuce and arugula, although the reduced plant growth with the food waste fertilizer in our study is likely from a lower concentration of nutrients when we considered EC as an indicator of nutrient concentration equivalency of the two fertilizer types.
The objective of my thesis project is to help bridge the gap between entertainment and science. I grew up reading the warrior cats, and I assume I was similar to many other children and young teens who did not understand domestic cats or ecology enough to question anything in the books. I know that much of these books are fictional, but that does not mean that it can’t be analyzed and used as a tool for teaching. The goal is to reach common ground with those people who have an interest in the warrior cats series, and help them understand it in a new light, as well as the world around them. I aim for the takeaway of this series to encourage people to explore the concepts I discuss and consider expanding upon the ideas within the Warriors universe or with their own cats.
Interdisciplinary research has highlighted how social-ecological dynamics drive the structure and function of the urban landscape across multiple scales. Land management decisions operate across various levels, from individuals in their backyard to local municipalities and broader political-economic forces. These decisions then scale up and down across the landscape to influence ecological functioning, such as the provisioning of biodiversity. Likewise, people are influenced by, and respond to, their environment. However, there is a lack of integrated research, especially research that considers the spatial and temporal complexities of social-ecological dynamics, to fully understand how people influence ecosystems or how the resulting landscape in turn influences human decision making, attitudes, and well-being.
My dissertation connects these interdisciplinary themes to examine three questions linked by their investigation of the interactions between people and biodiversity: (1) How do the social and spatial patterns within an arid city affect people’s attitudes about their regional desert environment? (2) How are novel communities in cities assembled given the social-ecological dynamics that influence the processes that structure ecological communities? (3) How can we reposition bird species traits into a conservation framework that explains the complexity of the interactions between people and urban bird communities? I found that social-ecological dynamics between people, the environment, and biodiversity are tightly interwoven in urban ecosystems. The regional desert environment shapes people’s attitudes along spatial and social configurations, which holds implications for yard management decisions. Multi-scalar management decisions then influence biodiversity throughout cities, which shifts public perceptions of urban nature. Overall, my research acts as a bridge between social and ecological sciences to theoretically and empirically integrate research focused on biodiversity conservation in complex, social-ecological systems. My goal as a scholar is to understand the balance between social and ecological implications of landscape change to support human well-being and promote biodiversity conservation.