Project 13:
EPS (exopolymeric substances or exopolysaccharides) are sticky biopolymers commonly exuded by soil biota such as those found in biological soil crusts (biocrusts). EPS is critical for developing soil stability and preventing erosion, which is of particular concern in regions affected by soil contaminants such as uranium mine tailings–a common concern on the Arizona Navajo Nation. EPS have also been shown to have potential as a bioremediation agent that can bind to certain heavy metals. The student will inoculate soil patches adjacent to a known uranium mine tailing repository with biocrust, and use complex chemical assays to assess whether biocrust inoculation, and associated EPS development, has an effect on uranium concentrations in the soil.
The student will be involved in setting up the biocrust experiment, which may involve travel to the Navajo Nation and preparing and deploying biocrust treatments. The student will have the opportunity to participate in soil sample collections at the experimental site. We anticipate that the student will spend about ~25% of their total time on this project in the field, and ~75% on lab work (processing soil samples and extracting EPS). The student will also have the opportunity to use Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) to examine uranium concentrations in collected soils, as well as to analyze the data produced during her tenure on the project. The student will be actively involved in every stage of the project, including dissemination.
We hope that this project will form the basis of the student’s proposed accelerated master’s degree in Chemistry at NAU, and that she will have the opportunity to turn these results into a thesis chapter and potentially a published first-author paper. During her time with the Space Grant, the student will be an undergraduate. She will be expected to present her work at the Space Grant Symposium, with the opportunity to share it at other discipline specific conferences and the Undergraduate Research Symposium.