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Project Pivotal-Rig

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A Proposal for Product Development Standardized Assessments of the Biological Activity of Soils of Alpha Units, Ecosystem Components Project Pivotal-Rig A potential project of Rural Nelson

Objective:

1. To develop a set of objects that are useful in estimating the biological activity in soil in field conditions.
2. To develop descriptive standards and statistics for the objects in relation to soil conditions.
3. To describe (map) summer soil activity estimates for county-wide mapping within the mountains and Piedmont of Virginia

Overview:

In this project we propose to develop a substance that correlates well with the basic forces affecting decomposition, degradation, and breakdown of biological materials and contaminants in forest floor litter over large areas. We first advance an expectancy-theory-based concept of ecological degradation. The hypothesis is that generally temperature, moisture, and solar radiation are dominant ecological phenomena influencing biota and other operatives in the complex degradation process. We develop a new standard degradation measurement device, place these in the field (often using a computer-aided sampling strategy), observe degradation rates, develop models. We then produce reports and computer maps of these rates. The maps are hypothesized to express the major integrated forces of degradation.

The project allows gross assessment of degradation phenomena, and ecosystem dynamics. The devices can be used to:

1. assist in waste site location
2. assist in long-term hazard or risk evaluation of contaminants in the field
3. assist in clean-up evaluation (i.e., natural vs induced or post-treatment
4. suggest between-area comparisons for allocating scarce resources

A forest, a field, a complex area of military operation, an area to which a pesticide has been applied, even a waste dump, is subject to many factors that influence the changes that take place in the items or substances present. Forest-floor litter decomposition has been studied for many years.

Plastics, are analyzed for their biodegradability. We propose to develop a synthetic view of ecological degradation, one that includes the action of plant and animal life but also chemical, mechanical, and light phenomena. The change in the mass of a decomposing, degrading substance is likely to be described well (Fig. 1) as a linear equation such as

log M = a - b log (Time + 1).

Fig.1. Relative chage over time is to be studied as suggested in this hypothetical graph. Change in the ecosystem will be studied as a function of the primary factors: site-specific precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation.

In Fig. 1, we would hypothesize that a shift in rate to a much higher one might be produced by cleanup or treatment. The change in weight of test substances in the field would show the effects of the treatment.

We propose to replace this simplistic empirical relation of time, T, with cumulative solar radiation (several spectra), S*, and to include in the mass-state hypervolume the factors of temperature (K) and precipitation (P).

At a particular mappable site in a geographic information system (GPS coordinates), the differences in the mass of items at a site after a stated time can be hypothesized to be describable, predominantly as:

M = f (K,P,S*).

Fig 2. Relative ecodegradation rates among map cells (as shown above) can be mapped at a scale of a county or area of operation (shown at the right). Many factors are known for each cell and can be related to the degradation estimates.

There are many other factors in ecological systems, probably hundreds. Rather than attempt to address them separately and then try to re-synthesize them, the spirit of this project is to develop an integrative substance, one that can be simply used and that has very strong relations to factors that others have discovered as dominant in ecosystems. We also propose to elaborate this theory fully and relate it to various spatial models of ecosystem function such as Holdridge's life zones. The objects we develop will be analogous to a "first cut" analysis of an ecosystem, a stethoscope in a preliminary physical exam.

Representation of how the distance-weighting variable was developed. Temperature is estimated for each site based on the records from the numbered weather stations. The distance from the site provides a weighing device. Temperature at a site is related to degradation rate at that site.

The Substance

As in other complex environmental projects, it is difficult to decide what needs to be discussed first. We shall discuss the three relevant factors (K, P and S*) later. Next, we describe the standard substance which we propose to develop as the means by which the interaction over time and space of these three phenomena (K,P, and S*) can be evaluated.

Project 1

Procedures

Objective 1 - To develop a set of standard eco-degradable substances such that when each isplaced at a contaminated (or restored) field or forest site in the several biomes of the world, the loss in weight will indicate microbiological and macro-anthropod activity and other ecosystem-related changes.

Significant changes are taking place in forests, agricultural, military, and other environments around the world. Some are natural, some the result of planned as well as unplanned military personnel actions; some catastrophic, some subtle. It is essential that people keep attuned to these changes for they affect our ability to grow crops and forests, to use water, and even to breathe air. They can express before-and-after changes; express effects of cleanup and natural weathering; relate natural to planned efforts; and provide the basis for research, legal action, and education. Contaminants of all types tend to be judged harmful because many are lethal. There is genuine long-term concern for the life in the soil and water for many reasons. The reasons vary from those practical and production-oriented (whether it will ever produce crops or trees) (Thomas et al. 1973) to those that are metaphysical. Monitoring of changes in environments is difficult and thus expensive. However, monitoring of such change has become essential. A low-cost and effective means for monitoring changes over wide areas is needed so that comparisons can be made, hazards can be seen, causes detected, trends predicted, and controls initiated to assure an environment of suitable quality for modern people.

An idea of high merit that will accomplish some of the above has been conceived and, in the opinion of several scientists, is worthy of exploration. The general idea is to develop an inexpensive substance that has a uniform weight, composition, and shape that can be placed in an environment and after a period of time will be partially consumed or used by the biota of an area and degraded by other chemical and physical pathways. The changing weight of the substance over time will reflect changes in gross ecological activity. Such changes are recognized as an "integrator," a synthesizer of many of the factors of an environment as well as their associated dynamics. The change in weight of the substance will be taken to be an index to ecological activity of a relatively large community or ecosystem. Average values from many such placements can reflect the dynamics of a large area. These are gross weight changes and are done to obviate the need for costly taxonomic or diversity studies.

Many scientists have studied organic decomposition rates in forests and fields (Van Cleve 1967). Many techniques have been used, such as the rate of 002 emission as an indicator. I used this with evaluation of malathion insecticide effects on a forest in 1963 (Giles 1964). Others, as I, have done correlative studies of the change in weight of forest litter placed in position inside of nylon net bags within a forest. Again, the change in weight was the measure of effect of contaminants. Nylon net bags have been used with rice to measure change in rates of water discharge, and filaments have also been used as an index (Glime and Clemons 1972) often only as an artificial substrate from which organisms are counted. (See also Tatum 1965, Kormondy 1968, and Dickson et al. 1971.) All of these suggest interest in (and acceptability of the concept of) a means to evaluate the relative rate of change in a major part of an ecosystem.

Years ago, I experienced the high costs, technical difficulties, and great variability in C0₂ emission studies (Giles 1964). Though of low cost, the nylon-net-bag approach to assessing area change was interesting but resulted in unacceptably high variances, mostly, I believed, from the unstable material, mechanical breakage, material lost from the bag, etc. It was a case of the measurement instrument radically affecting the conditions being measured.

The literature of modern ecology is replete with discussions and studies of nutrient cycling and energy flow. These studies have suffered from grossness of methods, compartmentalization of research, and difficulties in extrapolating between studies. Known original amounts of nutrients or energy are often lacking. The situation is one needing attention.

Many years ago, workers of the AEC (Shanks and Olsen 1961), studying the effects of radioactive fallout on plant and animal communities in the Smoky Mountains, put leaves inside 15 x 15 cm nylon net bags and watched changes in the leaves as caused by the soil microarthropods and other ecological factors. The leaves were variable in size, weight, and composition, and thus the variability of their results was high. The technique of the bags may still have usefulness, however; the bag contents must be more uniform to provide suitable comparisons. Giles (1964) used the same bags to evaluate the effects of an aerial application of a pesticide to the total life activity of a forest floor.

Egglishaw (1969) reported that he had put 10 grams of rice in nylon bags, tossed them into a stream, and used the changed weight as an index of differential stream fertility and health. Other workers have placed forage in nylon bags within the rumen of fistulated ruminants.

These works were the source of the idea which is to develop an artificial "leaf"or "rice," some standard substance that will be very uniform and that will allow improved research into the environment, especially as it is influenced by contaminants and their cleanup or breakdown.

Subsequently, I have planned to create a low cost, readily-standardized substance, an "ecological agar" that, when cast as standard-weight rods, pellets, or wafers could be placed in a contaminated area and rates of change in the weight of the item determined.

One of the objects of standard substance to be designed and developed in this project would be useful in terrestrial situations only. Another version may be necessary for aquatic systems. The substance can become the basis for before-and-after treatment work in cleanup, in before-and-after work, and in experimental work of all types (establishing the "control").

The project proposed has the major advantage (from one perspective) of avoiding the costs, time, and taxonomic difficulties of more conventional methods. It is believed to have a role in monitoring and providing information on changes in the ecosystem within a particular period.

The substance developed will be of a standard weight. It will be weighed after a period in the field. Accurate calculations of change, not only with time, but with some land uses or "treatment" such as forest clear-cutting or sewage pollution will be possible. Total weight changes in the item (tentatively called "ecorods" eco-wafers, or ecoagar) will be reflective of nutrient movements in forest breakdown and thus the aggregate, gross physiology or functional strength of a system.

Potential Uses

The following is a list of potential uses for the ecorods. Their usefulness will be largely self evident, particularly when considered for a particular project or research objective. A market for the commercially-produced new substance will be developed. The major uses (and markets) are:

1. Comparing rates of change in streams or rivers before and after cleanup, building of a factory or dam, radiation fallout, or the influence of irrigation or storm drain waters.

2. Comparing rates of change in bogs, marshes, or streams, e.g., in Europe and the U.S.

3. Use in sewage processing beds to monitor suitability of treatment before releasing to a water course.

4. Predicting changes in certain ecosystems based on past rates of change.

5. Measuring gross changes (increases or decreases) in wildlife and waterfowl marshes (or any area, for that matter) as a result of fire, military vehicle operation, herbicide application, fertilization, or planting of special seeds.

6. Gaining data to enable optimization of turnover rates by various forms of habitat or environmental manipulation.

7. Use by biological and ecological classes to learn of differences in communities and the reasons for such differences.

8. Many forms of ecological research, especially on trends in habitats of threatened or endangered species.

9. Observing effects of heavy wildlife foraging on the health or vigor of areas.

10. Determining the time it takes for certain communities (e.g., a pond) to stabilize.

The substance will be useful as proposed herein for ecological monitoring; it is an integrative, indicator-substance; and is likely to be useful for comparisons on military bases around the world. The substance will provide a standard, gross, wide-range, broad-spectrum, biological-activity indicator. It is not likely to be useful in high-precision studies; it would not likely be useful (except perhaps for selecting sites for instrumentation or sampling stratification), but that is yet to be evaluated.

The Nature of the Substance: Design Criteria

The substance will be a broad-spectrum, outdoor culture "agar." It is likely to be polyethylene with starch and urea. Design criteria suggest potentials for several (e.g., one for terrestrial and one for aquatic environments). The substance, tentatively conceived as a cigarette-size rod, 2 cm x 9 cm wafer (5-10 grams) , or I cm square should, where possible, have the following characteristics:

1. Be easily produced, i.e., without major equipment or special skills or techniques. (Allen et al. 1975)

2. Be of a uniform weight (less than 0.01 gram deviation); we must have no requirement to weigh the unit before use.

3. Have a constant initialsurface area.

4. Have constant nutrient content (± 0.1%).

5. Be relatively non-soluble in a stream environment.

6. Be non-attractive to rodents or carnivores but attractive to ants, collembola, etc.

7. Be consumed by microorganisms and microarthropods, aerobes and anaerobes (Weiner et al. 1980).

8. Have a non-attractive color; i.e., brown, olive, or gray.

9. Cost less than $.50 each. (e.g., 30 samples for $15.00).

10. Be useful in deserts, fields and forests (perhaps in aquatic systems).

11 . Have rates of consumption that will not change or, if so, have an easily operated interpretive PC program to accompany it. Environmental "decay" needs to be readily expressed before an "end point" is reached.

12.Be possible to order with a special mix of nutrients (to meet "custom" project needs).

13.Be useful worldwide with minimal explanation or training. 14.Attached and easily, consistently recovered.

Procedures:

1. Further refine and test the above criteria.

2. Conduct necessary literature search on natural organic matter decomposition, use of artificial substrates, and nontaxonomic measures of biological activity in ecosystems.

3. Alternative shapes will be explored to learn of manufacturing limits, ease of handling, relevant weights, change in weight with change in volume and surface area, and other phenomena.

4. At present we intend to explore starch- and lignin-based substances, but a stable plastic matrix may have to be developedq (Griffin and Mivetchi 1975). The literature on "biodegradable plastics" will be reviewed extensively. It appears that this entire field of such great interest in a variety of solid waste disposal issues is at the core of this project. We shall seek a standard-weight "plastic" substance that can be monitored and its weight change correlated well with ecosystem conditions. Dean W. Glasser (Glasser et al. 1994) of this college has assured us of full cooperation and the use of his laboratory. The Summer Conference 1993,Cellulose, Paper, and Textile Division, ASC had a set of papers of the type that we shall explore as we develop the substance. These included:

Narayan, R. Biodegradable Water Soluble Polymers.

King, L.W. and Pettigrew, C.A. Biodegration Studies on Polymers Intended for Composting.

Glasser, W.G. A Comparative Enzyme Degradation Study on Cellulose, Starch, and Xylan Derivatives.

Gardner, R.M., C. Buchanan, R. Komarek, A. White, and D. Dorschel.

Determining the Inherent Biodegradation Potential of Polymers.

It appears that an esterified starch, starch propionate melt mixed with biodegradable linear polymer poly(6-caprolactone) (20-40 weight percent) can produce a leading-candidate substance. This thermoplastic is tough, biodegradable, and humidity stable. It was described by Paul D. Tatarka, Novon Products Division, Warner-Lambert Co., New Jersey in the 1993 conference (above).

5. Working with research assistants from Virginia Tech and elsewhere we shall:

a. Develop experimental standardized mixtures of known biologically useful substances and, at first, attempt to produce a starch-base or Iignin-base extruded rod. A tentative notion about these things is a cigarette-size piece of a long extruded rod.

b. We shall place 50 on the top of the soil and in the soil in 3 unshaded outdoor areas. (1) one sterile sand, (2) another of field top soil, and (3) another of screened woodland soil. We anticipate the straight line logarithmic decay rates (sketched previously) but at different rates.

c. We shall repeat these types of studies in a wetland area - Suffolk, VA; a mixed oak forest - Roanoke, VA; and a high elevation wilderness area -Mountain Lake, VA.

d. We shall repeat these three studies in a local forest area with 3 significantly different site index values. (We hypothesize that the rate of change in weight will be greater on the better (higher site index) lands.) We shall study the extent of variability within map cells (e.g., Fig. 3 above).

e. We shall observe one set of 30 disks in a "standard soil" in an environmental chamber. "Standard" curves because the substance is our standard and the rate of change reflects the difference over time, before-and-after, treated or not-treated, and control-to-treated comparisons, not a comparison of site rate to standard rate. The curves we report will be "typical" or "representative," not "standard." The changes are reflections of ecosystem function, all combinations of many factors--any permutation--it makes no difference. The end result, weight change, is the parameter of interest.

f. We shall place triplets of disks along an elevational transect on Fort Lewis Mountain, Roanoke, VA, and Mountain Lake, VA, to demonstrate temperature (and other) effects on change. These, as others above, will be graphed and equations developed.

g. Apparently, biodegradability standards have now been set and we shall attempt to describe the substance developed in terms of the ASTM Institute standards.

6. We shall develop a sampling strategy and the statistics for a program to analyze quickly the weights from pared disks or rods and to express area rates of change.

Literature Cited

Allen, S.E., H.M. Grimshaw, J.A. Parkinson, and C. Quarmby. 1975. Chemical analysis of ecological materials. Hoisted (Wiley): New York. x + 566 pp.

Anderson, D.R. 1981. A climatoiogical information system for natural resource management: temperature. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, VPI&SU, Biacksburg, Virginia. 175 pp.

Dickson, K.L., J. Cairns, Jr., and iC. Arnold. 1971. An evaluation of the use of a basket type artificial substrate for sampling macroinvertebrate organisms. Trans. Amer. Fisheries Soc. 100(3): 553-559.

Egglishaw, H.J. 1969. The quantitative relationship between bottom fauna and plant detritus in streams of different calcium content. J. Applied Ecol. 5(3): 731-740.

Allen, S.E., H.M. Grimshaw, J.A. Parkinson, and C. Quarmby. 1975. Chemical analysis of ecological materials. Hoisted (Wiley): New York. x + 566 pp.

Anderson, D.R. 1981. A climatological information system for natural resource management: temperature. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. 175 pp.

Dickson, K.L., J. Cairns, Jr., and iC. Arnold. 1971. An evaluation of the use of a basket type artificial substrate for sampling macroinvertebrate organisms. Trans. Amer. Fisheries Soc. 100(3): 553-559.

Egglishaw, H.J. 1969. The quantitative relationship between bottom fauna and plant detritus in streams of different calcium content. J. Applied Ecol. 5(3): 731-740.

Giles, R.H. 1964. The ecology of a small forest ecosystem treated with the insecticide Malathion - 535o PhD Dissertation, The Ohio State University: Columbus (Wildl. Monogr. - In press)

Glasser, W.G., B.K.M. Cartney, G. Samaranayake. 1994. Cellulose derivatives with low DS.lIl: The biodegradability of cellulose esters using a simple enzyme assay. Biotechnology Progress (In print).

Glime, J.M., and R.M. Clemons. 1992. Species diversity of stream insects on Fontinolis spp. compared to diversity on artificial substrates. Ecology 53(3): 458-464.

Griffin, G.J.L., and H. Mivetchi. 1975. Biodegradation of ethyiene/vinylacetate copolymers. Proc. 3rd international Biodegradation Congress, Univ. Rhode Island.

Gruen, K.A. Davis. 1993. Mesoscale temperature estimates for southwestern Virginia. M.S. Thesis, VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia.

Koeln, G.T. 1980. A computer-assisted general aviation airport location and evaluation system for Virginia. Unpub. PhD Dissertation, VPI and SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. xii + 235 pp.

Kormondy, E.J. 1968. Weight loss of cellulose and aquatic macrophytes in a Carolina bay. Limnol. Oceanogr. 13: 522-526.

Lawrence, G.E. 1976. A computer-based insolation mapping algorithm for large areas. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. vii + 99 pp.

Martin, S.M. 1988. Select geomorphological components of wildlife habitat in the Ridge and Valley Province of Virginia. Unpub. M.S. Thesis, VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. 239 pp.

Shanks, R.E. and J.S. Olson. 1961. First year breakdown of leaf-litter in southern Appalachian forests. Science 134(3473): 194-195.

Smart, C.W. 1976. A computer-assisted technique for planning minimum impact transmission right of way routes. Unpub. PhD Dissertation, VPI&SU, Blacksburg, Virginia. xiii + 192 pp.

Tatum, W.M. 1965. Bioassay of industrial pollution by use of masonite plate samplers populated with chironomids. Proc. Southeastern Assn. of Game and Fish Commissioners 19: 253-257.

Thomas, W.A., G. Goldstein, and W.H. Wilcox. 1973. Biological indicators of environmental quality. Ann Arbor Science, Ann Arbor, MI. 254 pp.

Van Cleve, K. 1967. Nutrient loss from organic matter placed in soil in different geographic regions. PhD Dissertation, University California, Berkeley, CA.

Wajda, R.K. 1993. A site-specific rainfall model for western Virginia ecosystems. M.S. Thesis, VPIandSU, Blacksburg, VA. 143 pp.

Weiner, R.M., D. Hussong, and R.R.C. Colwell. 1980. An estuarine agar medium for enumeration of aerobic heterotrophic bacteria associated with water, sediment, and shellfish. Canadian J. of Microbiology 26(11): 1366-1369.

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