Soil microbial communities can be characterized by community structure and function (community composition) across a spectrum of spatial scales, and variation in soil microbial composition has been associated with a number of environmental gradients. This study investigates the structure and function of soil microbial communities under mature, undisturbed forested sites across a range of regional climates in British Columbia and Alberta, and also examines the variation in community composition within sites. Phospholipid fatty acid analysis was used to investigate the structure of soil microbial communities and total soil microbial biomass at each site. Extra-cellular enzyme assays established the functional potential of the soil microbial community at each site. Multivariate analysis of the data showed that the soil microbial communities under different forest types did significantly separate along the regional climate gradient by both community structure and function, despite high local variation in the communities. Soil moisture content and soil organic matter concentration consistently exhibited the strongest relationship with microbial community characteristics, although the functional and structural responses to the external drivers were different. Microbial community function and structure also changed with soil depth but not with time of sampling. Microbial community function was related to the regional annual average precipitation gradient. Most of the locations exhibited unique microbial community functional profiles in their soil layers; however the enzyme activities in the samples from the driest (Ponderosa Pine) and wettest (Mountain Hemlock) locations were notably different from each other and from those of the other locations, especially in the organic layers. The moist maritime-influenced Coastal Western Hemlock (CWH) forest exhibited microbial community structural characteristics which were unique from those of the other forest locations. The higher abundance of bacteria relative to fungi in the CWH forest soils may be related to the significantly higher available nitrogen concentrations at this site.

Agriculture currently faces a number of environmental sustainability issues. Three key issues that are the focus of this study are greenhouse gas emissions, depletion of mineral phosphorus resources and cadmium contamination in agricultural soil. Biomass can potentially be used as a renewable energy source and can also be returned to improve the nutrient and drainage structure of agricultural soils. Sustainable management of biomass and agriculture can have significant impacts on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from a region. Moreover, it reduces the demand for external energy supply, phosphorous (P) based fertilizer, and it??s associated Cadmium (Cd) impurity which can contaminate the soil, plant and food chains. These three issues have typically been considered separately, and managed by different agencies or organisations. The aim of this thesis is to develop an integrated decision support tool that can be used for evaluating alternative options for management and resource recovery from biomass for enhancing recovery of energy, returning carbon (C) and phosphorus (P) from biomass back to soil, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also cadmium (Cd) contamination in an agricultural region. This research employed a combination of the tools of Material Flow Analysis (MFA), Geographic Information System (GIS) and Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA). MFA is used as the primary tool for this research. GIS and CBA are combined with MFA in later stages of the overall procedure to develop an integrated decision support tool. This integrated tool has been applied to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area (MIA) in Australia. Tracking the flow of essential substances using MFA has identified current resource management efficiency and substances accumulation across the region. Integrating a spatial analysis tool (GIS) with MFA has provided a feedback driven monitoring tool for evaluating trends of spatial accumulation of substances on agricultural land. This enables the time remaining before acceptable limits are exceeded to be estimated on a spatial basis. Integrated MFA and CBA has been applied to evaluate the tradeoffs and potential synergies of alternative biomass management options. Overall the tool can assist in evaluating the effectiveness of alternative scenarios and visualise the results to stakeholders in a systematic way.

Thesis (M.S.)--Western Washington University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-47). Also issued online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2001. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 62-66). Also available online.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 38-41). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2002. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 59 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 43-45).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2008. / "Graduate Program in Oceanography." Includes bibliographical references (p. 108-121).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Southern California, 1983. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 164-182).

Thesis (doctoral)--Wageningen Universiteit, 2004. / Title from e-book title screen (viewed Dec. 13, 2005). This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 270-286).