Runoff containing excess nutrients from agricultural land use causes eutrophic conditions in freshwater systems, including harmful algal blooms. The nutrient storage capacity of wetlands may help mitigate recurring annual harmful algal blooms that the Western Basin of Lake Erie experiences due to excess phosphorus (P) loads. Wetlands are hot spots of carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and P cycling, and wetland plants temporarily store C, N, and P. We investigate how plant tissue chemistry (total P, total organic C, and total organic N) varies by plant taxa and tissue type (leaf vs. stem) within a well preserved Lake Erie coastal wetland. In the summer of 2019, we sampled aboveground plant tissues of two plant types in the Old Woman Creek estuary wetland: emergent plants (Phragmites and Typha), and floating leaf plants (Nelumbo and Nymphaea) to measure total C, N, and P concentrations of plant biomass as an index of plant nutrient storage. We predict that the emergent plant types (Phragmites, Typha) will have higher C and N concentrations than the floating leaf plant types (Nelumbo, Nymphaea) due to their higher allocation to structural tissues like rigid stems. We also predict that there will be higher P concentrations in the leaf tissues than in the stem tissues of all plant types. Plant tissue chemistry improves understanding of nutrient storage capacity of different plant types, thus informing wetlands preservation and management decisions.

Earthworms move through soil by a peristaltic wave of muscle contraction through a series of fluid-filled body segments. Sequential contraction and expansion of these segments results in the worm’s locomotion both above ground and within soil. Here, an earthworm-inspired soft robot is prototyped. The prototype consists of three polyethylene segments, which are inflated and deflated in a sequence that mimics the earthworm’s peristalsis. The current prototype is able to move through tubes of varied dimensions, and is an early step toward developing a soft robot that can explore buried environments. This may be especially applicable to archaeology, which often strives to explore such settings with minimal damage to a site. An earthworm-inspired robotic probe could provide information where currently used methods (such as geophysical sensing, excavation, and rigid soil probes) are ineffective.

The purpose of this comprehensive chart was to compile the possible categories, relationships, and qualities of ancient basket weaving techniques as they relate to bending active structures and textile weaving. Bending-active structures are structural systems that include curved beam or shell elements that base their geometry on the elastic deformation from an initially straight or planar configuration. These weaving attributes are then studied for their viability for the application of coconut coir fiber textile growing systems. The chart begins with an ancient weaving pattern either from Japanese or Native American descent and creates connections to current day projects that use similar techniques. From these ancient practices, we discovered new ways of deploying geometry, form, surface, and connection for possible coconut coir hydroponic growing textiles. The chart summarizes the similarities and attributes for the projects within each category or typology. The chart concludes with the hybridization of material assemblies and effects found within the outstanding basket weaving and joinery system potentials. The investigation of this study evolved from the involvement in a research project, BeTA Pavilion, that explored the formal opportunities of biotensegrity using bent fiber reinforced plastic rods and CNC knit textiles in a bending-active system. The global geometry of the structure was inspired by human anatomy and animal vertebrae typologies to reach structural equilibrium with a bandwidth of dynamic motion. The characteristics of pre-stressed and self-stabilizing modules prompted the investigation of basket-weaving techniques and their possible applications in architectural tectonics and hydroponic textile creation. The CNC knit textile for this project led to the next step in the study of creating a hydroponic textile to span between the tetrahedron vertebrae to deploy a lightweight growing system.

As green roofs gain popularity in North America, innovation is making roofs more ecologically productive and biologically diverse. One way to increase biodiversity is through selecting and planting local and regional native plant species in the roofs. Many native plants have been shown to survive and grow on green roofs. The question then becomes, what native plants can best establish and survive on green roofs? To answer this question, this study focuses on the native green roof plant establishment in the Great Lakes region. Through three separate studies: 1) creation of a native plant database for the Great Lakes green region; 2) analyzing native plant reseeding data, and 3) recording plant establishment methods. We hope to better understand how to design a biodiverse green roof that thrives in Northeast Ohio.

Green roofs are an innovative method of revitalizing urbanized areas and capturing stormwater. However, the conditions of a green roof ecosystem pose unique difficulties that can limit the success of plant growth. To help maximize the benefits of green roofs, we performed research examining the effects of mycorrhizal inoculation on the vitality of green roofs. The eventual goal is to use this information to create an optimum green roof, reflecting natural ecosystems by utilizing symbiotic organisms. This study aims to determine the most important factors that impact mycorrhizal colonization. We examined the effect of a commercial mycorrhizal fungal inoculum, and three substrate types, on mycorrhizal colonization of the plant species Liatris apera over the span of a year. The controlled experiment was set up using 36 plots at the Cleveland Industrial Innovation Center (CIIC). The substrate types included “Movable Meadow” (MM) with sandy loam soil, “Conventional Green Roof” (CGR) of engineered clay and shale media, and “Quasi-Traditional Green Roof” (QTR) which utilized worm castings. Half of the plots were inoculated with mycorrhizae and the other half uninoculated. Root samples of Liatris apera were collected, stained, and examined under the microscope to quantify mycorrhizal colonization. Preliminary results indicate that mycorrhizal colonization on average was lower in the inoculated treatment. However, it appears that this difference leveled out over time. These results suggest that mycorrhizal inoculation may not be necessary to promote colonization on green roofs. Additional research is being conducted to examine the effects of mycorrhizal inoculation on other plant species.

Human-managed and occupied ecosystems may mimic naturally occurring habitats, either spontaneously or by design. Understanding how communities of organisms assemble and use these novel spaces provides a key opportunity to understand, and potentially shape, the ecosystem functions and services delivered in human-dominated landscapes. For example, green roofs are a type of living architecture in which plants are intentionally grown on top of a human-built structure. Structurally analogous natural ecosystems are relatively rare, but some thin-soil environments can be found here in the Great Lakes Basin. As the natural habitats provide vital ecosystem functions, green roofs have the potential to provide urban areas with many services. Insects are the ideal focal taxa to examine for this project: in addition to their ubiquity, facilitating large scale data collection, insects play a variety of critical roles in ecosystem function and service, making them ideal sentinel organisms. The project focuses on characterizing insect communities and vegetation in green roof and natural thin soil environments to examine and quantify the services those insects provide (i.e. pollination, pest control, and decomposition). Characterizing the function and worth of insect services in natural and urban ecosystems is critical to supporting conservation decision-making in these human-managed ecosystems.

Microplastics (plastic debris with diameter <5mm) are of particular concern to the environment. However, there is a scarcity of information concerning the effects of conditioning films on bacterial colonization of microplastics in freshwater ecosystems. The formation of conditioning films on substrate surfaces is a critical step in the priming of substrates for bacterial colonization in aquatic systems. Conditioning films are comprised of dissolved organic solutes that are deposited on to surfaces of substrates, which attract bacterial colonizers. Moreover, the thicknesses of conditioning films are influenced by the physicochemical properties of substrate surfaces. This study aimed to understand the effects of different conditioning films on bacterial colonization of microplastic surfaces in freshwater. Five types of conditioning films were analyzed: Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA), sodium alginate (medium and very low viscosity), humic and fulvic acid; all are components of biofilms on four types of microplastic disks (diameter <5mm): polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and low-density polyethylene (LDPE). The disks were analyzed for conditioning film thicknesses using AFM (atomic force microscopy) and 16S rRNA sequencing to determine compositions of bacterial communities in the presence of different conditioning films. Understanding these questions will provide insights on fates of microplastic debris in freshwater.

Natural wetlands intrinsically heterogeneous, and are typically composed of a mosaic of ecosystem patches with different plant types. The adaptation of these plants communities to water-dominated environment is the basis for their use in improving the water quality in constructed wetlands. The understanding of wetland vegetation effects on the environment is the key to determine which plant to grow in a constructed wetland in term of nutrients removal. Wetland vegetation can influence water movement. The plant density and life form affect the drag and thus controls the residence time of water in different parts of the wetlands, as well as the rate of deposition of suspended solids. Furthermore, emergent plants with high transpiration rates can lower the water level. Accurately identifying the vegetation patches is important to understanding their hydrological effects and further effects on nutrients removal. Compared to labor consuming field survey, remote sensing is an efficient way to monitor plant communities in wetlands. However, wetlands are typically small and vegetation patches within wetland vary at an even smaller scale, such that moderate resolution will not be able to discern the different vegetation. Alternatively, the NASA’s Harmonized Landsat Sentinel-2 (HLS) makes it possible to acquire moderate-high spatial resolution imagery at high temporal resolution, which creates the opportunity to build time series of wetland vegetation characteristics at sufficient spatial and temporal resolutions. This study aims to use NDVI time series generated from NASA’s HLS dataset to classify vegetation patches at an estuarine wetland. We collected HLS data for the year of 2019 and generated the NDVI time series for each pixel of the wetland. Unsupervised classification was then applied on these pixels using the time series. And results will be evaluated with ground truth points.