Abstract

This is one of the first time series studies of bacteria in soils supporting actively growing corn crops. Mathematically modeling bacteria population dynamics has the potential as a tool to more precisely assess the economic optimal nitrogen fertilizer rate for farmers. As a first step in this modeling effort, we examine the possibility that the bacteria population growth might be described by a dynamic model developed in the food sciences describing bacteria growth in food meant for human consumption. We make the assumption that air temperature above the soil can be used as an approximation for soil temperature. Also, because there were two rates of data collection (one for bacteria and one for weather), the weather data was averaged between bacteria samples to obtain the same number of samples per data set. It is under these assumptions that we demonstrate in this thesis that this model, developed by McMeekin and Chandler, fails to apply to bacteria in agricultural soils.

Degree

College and Department

Ira A. Fulton College of Engineering and Technology; Electrical and Computer Engineering

Rights

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