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The role of biological interactions in determining the abundance, distribution and persistence of rare plants, and their vulnerability to environmental stress, is poorly known. This study will analyze the consequences of competition and seed predation on the population dynamics of a federally-listed threatened species, Cirsium pitcheri.The proposed research will use field experiments to reduce the impact of biological factors and interactions along a climatic gradient in the dune systems around Lake Michigan.

9408243 Stahl In this project the structure of microbial communities of Lake Michigan anoxic sediments is being characterized using molecular methods (RNA sequencing and DNA probes), culture-based techniques, and measurements of rates of reduction of alternative electron acceptors. This research will identify and quantify the most abundant microbial populations at different depths in the sediments and relate them to depth-associated changes in redox state and respiratory mode.

In this SGER, a geotechnical site characterization program will be performed by Georgia Tech (GT) using in-situ seismic piezocone (SCPTu) and seismic flat plate dilatometer tests (SDMT) to capture the geostratigraphy, soil properties, and small-strain stiffness at three sites. Two sites involve specially-instrumented large excavations at the Ford Design Center on the Northwestern University campus and the Prentice Women's Hospital in downtown Chicago. The third site is the National Geotechnical Experimentation Site (NGES) on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Abstract for Takoudis, EEC-0453432:This REU site in Novel Materials and Processing in Chemical and Biomedical Engineering supports a total of twelve undergraduate students annually for three years in the Departments of Chemical, Mechanical and Bio-Engineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Students are recruited from regional community colleges, universities with high minority enrollments (e.g.., Chicago State and U. of Puerto Rico), other universities across the nation, and UIC for 10-week summer research projects.

Proposal: 0754590PI Name: Linninger, AndreasThe three year REU site award will provide a unique summer research experience focused in the area of bioengineering and biomedicine for mixed teams of undergraduate students who will be collaborating with math and science teachers and gifted high school students.

This action funds a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biosciences Related to the Environment for 1995.

Chemistry (12)Loyola University of Chicago is integrating three laboratory experiments that are utilizing GC/MS as the principal component into the undergraduate analytical laboratory curriculum. Chemistry majors in the Quantitative Analysis course are using electron capture ionization (ECI) in conjunction with GC/MS to quantify a model aromatic amine, aniline, at the femtogram/picogram level. Undergraduates in the newly-established Environmental Chemistry course are analyzing low levels of chlorinated phenols in watersamples.

ABSTRACTOCE-0351824In marine environments, particle-reactive scavenging rates, sediment trap efficiencies (e.g., Buesseler et al., 1994), surface sediment mixing, and vertical and horizontal particle transport rates have all been calculated in part by measuring the disequilibrium between naturally occurring, particle-reactive 234Th and its generally soluble parent, 238U.