Inaug.-Diss.--Göttingen. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. 48-49.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1917. / "Reprinted from the American journal of botany, 5: 1-31, January, 1918." "Publication no. 167 from the Botanical department of the University of Michigan." "Literature cited": p. 30-31.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Michigan, 1917. / "Reprinted from the American journal of botany, 5: 1-31, January, 1918." "Publication no. 167 from the Botanical department of the University of Michigan." "Literature cited": p. 30-31.

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Determining the postmortem interval (PMI) remains one of the most important but challenging factors to establish in a suspicious death investigation. Unfortunately, as time passes current methods lose accuracy and only allow investigators to approximate how long ago death occurred. Bodies interred in clandestine graves prove particularly challenging due to an abundance of variables that need to be taken into consideration. Due to the problems associated with determining the PMI of buried remains this study will utilise macroscopic, microscopic, molecular, chemical and microbiological analyses to systematically document the decompositional changes to human hair and porcine cartilage and bone in a burial environment. The aim was to correlate decompositional changes with time and develop new methods for estimating the PMI of remains found in this context. Whole trotters (from which the cartilage was harvested) exhibited decompositional changes including darkening of the dermis, skin slippage, liquefaction of soft tissues and complete skeletonisation. The decompositional changes to cartilage included a loss of cartilage covering articular facets, changes in colour and texture, formation of orthorhombic crystals, a change in surface pH and colonisation by bacteria. The bacteria found on the cartilage surface were in close proximity to the crystals and when cultured on a B-41 medium were found to precipitate crystals of the same morphology and chemical composition to those found on the cartilage surface. Three species of bacteria (Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Acinetobacter iwoffii and Grimontia hollisae) were identified based on gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) of their fatty acids and one species (Comamonas sp.) was identified by DNA analysis. Formation of crystals on goat and cow cartilage proved that this was not a porcine specific phenomenon. Human hair exhibited a gradual degradation over time but this was dependent on the characteristics of the burial environment. Decompositional changes included colonisation by fungi, erosions to the cortical surface and formation of tunnels and breaks to the hair shaft. Two fungal species (Aspergillus fumigatus and Penicillium sp.) were identified based on DNA analysis of fungal ribosomal (rDNA) internally transcribed spacer (ITS) regions. The Penicillium sp. was linked with fungal tunnelling of hair. Bone exhibited little modification over time but changes were observed. These included a change in colour of the cortical surface, a change in colour and gradual loss of bone marrow and erosions, cracking and flaking of the cortical bone. Fungi were found to colonise both the bone marrow and bone surface. Whole piglets were buried to document the time period taken to reach skeletonisation. This data was used as a correction factor and combined with the bone results to give an overall time period for the decomposition changes observed. The results of this study suggest that the decompositional changes to cartilage could be used to determine the postmortem interval of buried remains. However, the degradation of hair and bone was too variable to be of use in this context.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniv., 2001. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Terrestrial inputs of organic matter contribute greatly to the functioning of aquatic ecosystems, subsidizing between 30-70% of secondary production. This contribution of terrestrial resources is especially important in boreal lakes that are largely nutrient-poor and thus more responsive to these additions. Yet the mechanisms underlying initial processing of terrestrial resources by microbial communities at the base of lake food webs remain poorly understood. With this in mind, this thesis aims to advance our understanding of lake sediment microbial community assembly and functioning along abiotic gradients, primarily reflecting variation in terrestrial organic matter inputs that are predicted to increase with future environmental change. Chapter 1 reviews current knowledge on the terrestrial support of lake food webs and highlights gaps in understanding the factors influencing the microbial processing of terrestrial resources. It also provides an overview of metagenomics methods for microbial community analysis and their development over the course of the thesis. Chapter 2 tests how much of ecosystem functioning is explained by microbial community structure relative to other ecosystem properties such as the present-day and past environment. Theory predicts that ecosystem functioning, here measured as CO2 production, should increase with diversity, but the individual and interactive effects of other ecosystem properties on ecosystem functioning remain unresolved. Chapter 3 further questions the importance of microbial diversity for ecosystem functioning by asking whether more diverse microbial communities stabilize ubiquitous functions like CO2 production and microbial abundances through time. It also aims to identify the biotic and abiotic mechanisms underlying positive diversity-stability relationships. Chapter 4 then explores how microbial communities assemble and colonize sediments with varying types and amounts of terrestrial organic matter in three different lakes over a two-month period. Understanding how microbial communities change in relation to sediment and lake conditions can help predict downstream ecosystem functions. Finally, Chapter 5 discusses the main findings of the thesis and ends with proposed avenues for future research.