Graduate Student Research

Project Title:  Comparing Forestry BMPs for the Control of Water Movement and Soil Erosion on Bladed Skid Trails

Investigator(s): Charlie Wade, M.S.

Project Summary:

This study is a controlled experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of best management practices for preventing sediment production from bladed skid trails used for timber extraction. Actual sediment data is being collected and used to verify model predictions. The study contains 6 replications of 5 skid trail closure BMP treatments for a total of 30 experimental units.

Project Title:  Comparing Forestry BMPs for the Control of Water Movement and Soil Erosion on Overland Skid Trails

Investigator(s): Clay Sawyers, M.F.  

Project Summary:

This study is a controlled experiment designed to analyze the effectiveness of best management practices for preventing sediment production from overland skid trails created by repeated extraction machine travel. The study contains 4 replications of 5 skid trail closure BMP treatments for a total of 20 experimental units.

Project Title:  NSF Silviculture x Density x Clone Study in loblolly pine

Investigator(s): Nick Bonzey, M.S. 

Project Summary:

Student will be sampling soil at the study site to determine spatial variation among the plots in the study. The student will also measure the initial growth response of the trees.

Project Title:  Protein interactions and the regulation of biomass in Populus

Investigator(s): Xiaoyan "Isaac" Jia, M.S. 

Project Summary:

This project will study a randomized, replicated field trial of transgenic poplars overexpressing modified versions of poplar genes implicated in wood formation.  Phenotypic effects on wood formation, tree growth and development will be studied and  proteins from wood-forming tissues of these trees will be isolated to identify protein complexes important for biomass production.

Project Title:  Physiological drivers of clonal loblolly pine growth responses

Investigator(s): Jeremy Stovall, PhD

Project Summary:

This goal of this project is to determine the physiological mechanisms responsible for the widely varying growth responses to fertilization found between clones of loblolly pine.

Project Title:  Rapid screening techniques for woody plant herbicide development

Investigator(s): TDB, M.S.