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IMPACTS OF RDX SOIL CONTAMINATION ACROSS AN AGE GRADIENT FOR THE NATIVE SHRUB MORELLA CERIFERA.

Understanding the impacts of explosive contamination on vegetation is key to understanding explosives behavior in the environment. I quantified shrub growth responses to 1,3,5-trinitroperhydro-1,35-triazine (RDX) soil contamination across three life stages and I hypothesized that RDX would have the greatest impact on seed germination. Morella cerifera seeds were germinated on soils amended with RDX up to 1500 mg RDX kg-1 dry soil. Juvenile and adult individuals were exposed for 6 weeks to soil amended with RDX up to 750 and 1500 mg RDX kg-1 dry soil, respectively. Morphological responses were quantified for juveniles while physiological measurements were quantified for adults. RDX induced a significant response in all age groups and, in accordance with the hypothesis, germination was the most impacted of the three stages. Impacts varied by concentration in addition to life stage, showing that many variables influence plant response to RDX.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1347
Date04 May 2012
CreatorsVia, Stephen
PublisherVCU Scholars Compass
Source SetsVirginia Commonwealth University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations
Rights© The Author

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