Urban Gardeners are in need of an adequate way to suppress weeds and maintain soil moisture. In particular, Shredded Cardboard Mulch is a good option for those trying to lower time spent weeding and lower their water usage. The Shredded Cardboard Mulch Project is testing the Carbon and Nitrogen cycles within the different Mulch treatments of 3 common species found in Urban Gardens. We are working to identify and quantify the weeds that do grow up through the different mulch treatments through random biomass sampling. This process entails random placement of a 0.25 m^2 quadrat. Finding the stories of these weeds could let us know how, why and what other weeds may be able to break through the different mulch treatments.

Stretchberry (Forestiera pubescens), a deciduous shrub native to the southwestern region of the US, demonstrates ornamental value, cold hardiness in Minnesota, and tolerance of droughts and periodic flooding. We aim to introduce this plant to Minnesota to increase plant biodiversity and landscape resiliency. It could be a candidate if this species tolerates extreme soil moisture conditions. To test F. pubescens capabilities, we evaluated its soil moisture tolerances. The greenhouse experiment of 44 container-grown F. pubescens subjected plants to either complete inundation (flood), drought (5% moisture), extreme drought (undetectable soil moisture), or consistent watering (control). Soil moisture was recorded every other day using an HH2 Moisture Meter. Non-treated controls were watered every other day. Drought and extreme drought treatments were watered when soil moisture by volume reached 5% or was undetectable (0%). Flood-treated plants were inundated up to the surface of the potting substrate. After 14 days, growth was recorded by measuring leaf surface area with a surface area meter, leaf greenness with a SPAD Meter, shoot extension in cm, and leaf osmotic potential with vapor pressure osmometry. Results indicate that F. pubescens preferred the controlled watering but tolerated each soil-moisture treatment suggesting its suitability to grow in water-stressed Minnesota landscapes.

Heavy fertilizer usage in the Midwestern United States has led to groundwater contamination through nitrate leaching, which is especially problematic for individuals who source their water from private wells.  Consumption of nitrate contaminated water can lead to infant mortality and cancer in adults. The objective of this study is to create a predictive model for soil water nitrate  concentrations based on the clay and organic matter content of a given soil. Samples from two research sites in Minnesota will be taken, as well as soil water samples from lysimeters. These soil water samples will be analyzed for their nitrate concentrations. Soil texture is known to influence the percolation rate of water through the soil, which impacts the movement of nitrate in the soil. Organic matter is located at the surface of the soil, while clay content increases with soil depth. Since the lysimeters will only capture water of the first 24 inches of soil, we hypothesize that organic matter will be a better predictor for soil water nitrate concentrations than clay content. The results of this study may help farmers determine if their lands are at risk of nitrate leaching and groundwater contamination based on the composition of their soil.

Understanding how plants react to their environments is essential for breeding and conservation strategies in a changing climate. Many crop plants are polyploid, possessing more than two copies of each chromosome, and it has been found that polyploid crops tend to express higher levels of phenotypic plasticity than their diploid relatives. However, no such pattern has been found in natural populations. This project attempts to elucidate the interaction of domestication and ploidy and its effect on the maintenance of phenotypic plasticity. We suggest that plasticity is lost through drift during domestication as breeders act to artificially stabilize the environment. Polyploidy should work to slow the loss of plasticity by genetic buffering. Using a factorial design approach (tetraploid vs diploid, domesticated vs wild), we compare plasticity between two experimentally controlled environments (fertilized vs unfertilized). We measure phenotypes related to fitness and plant vigor. We hypothesize wild diploid and tetraploid populations will show greater plasticity for indirect contributors to fitness (e.g., plant height) while displaying greater homeostasis for direct fitness components (e.g., tuber number). This study will provide a basis for establishing strategies to maintain plasticity during breeding and conservation to create stable populations in the face of climate change.

Medicinal plants play an important role within the Hmong community, particularly for postpartum care. Though some individuals in Hmong communities can identify medicinal herbs and know them by their Hmong names, there is no accessible database of these plants and their uses. The lack of a Latin name and connection to formal scientific literature prohibits hospitals from administering them to patients, which is especially an issue in the Twin Cities, as they are home to the third largest Hmong population in the country. This project aims to identify herbs used in the Hmong postpartum chicken soup diet and review scientific literature about each plant in order to move towards more culturally-relevant medical care in Twin Cities hospitals. In this project, we used DNA barcoding to identify medicinal herbs sourced from Hmong farmers and markets located in the Twin Cities. DNA sequences were amplified, assembled using Geneious, and run through the BLAST database to identify similar sequences. Phylogenetic trees were then constructed from these matches to find the most likely candidate species. Possible species matches were then researched to find existing uses in literature and potential pharmacological properties. Through this process, we identified potential matches for 17 herbs.