Browsing by Author "Miao, Ruolin"

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    A Survey of Fungal Community Composition along a Gradient of Recovery on the Mine Sites in the Carolinas
    (2019-05-06) Miao, Ruolin
    In the era of Anthropocene, an increasing part of the terrestrial environments is losing their ecosystem services and function, negatively affecting both human economics and the ecological system. Phytoremediation, the use of plants to reverse degradation and to restore ecological function, has been a promising approach. However, the symbiotic soil microbiota that influence the effectiveness of this method is not fully understood. I sampled the soil and roots of Pinus spp. (pines) at four sites along a gradient of vegetation recovery on the Superfund Site Brewer Gold Mine (SC), the Henry Knob Mine (SC), and Russell Gold Mine. The acidity, nutrient profile and heavy-metal contamination of collected soil is determined. DNA is extracted from the soil and root samples with PowerSoil DNA Isolation Kit, followed by preparation of multiplex PCR samples of the ITS region. Sequence reads generated through Illumina Miseq is processed through QIIME pipeline and taxonomy assigned through UNITE database. The results show a pattern of succession in fungal communities along a recovery gradient. While the mycorrhizal fungi on the least recovered site are dominated by Rhizopogon sp. and Pisolithus sp., sites with more recovered vegetation reveal a more diverse array of symbiotic fungi, including Amanita sp. and Russula sp.. These diverse fungi, although came later in the succession pattern, likely brings more diverse benefits to help their hosts cope with the stressful environment. This “bioprospecting” method could be applied to extract and amplify symbiotic fungi to facilitate revegetation efforts.
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    The Role of Gender and Race/Ethnicity in Environmental Identity Development through Duke Undergraduate Students’ Narrative
    (2019-05-06) Miao, Ruolin
    Recent work in environmental psychology and environmental education emphasizes environmental identity as important in predicting a broad array of environmental behaviors. However, there are gaps in our understanding of how other identities interact with environmental identity. We addressed this gap by conducting semi-structured interviews with 30 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds at Duke University. Our interviews supported the hypothesis that gender and race/ethnicity affect the development of Duke undergraduate students’ environmental identity by differentially influencing (1) significant life experiences (SLE) with nature and (2) social influences on environmental identity. In particular, we found that ethnicity shaped travel experiences to different environments, gender and race impacted relationships with mentors, gender stereotypes limited potential SLE in nature, and female-identification resulted in physical constraints to environmental activity. Other themes that emerged included the effects of socio-economic status on SLE in nature and nature as a source of empowerment for gender and racial minorities. Our work suggests more research is needed on the interplay among different identities and environmental identity, and that more work is needed to make the environmental field inclusive for all.