Microbial Biodiversity in Relation to Plant Diversity and South-facing Slope Topography in Restored Palouse Prairies
Faculty Mentor
Rebecca Brown
Presentation Type
Poster
Start Date
May 2025
End Date
May 2025
Location
PUB NCR
Primary Discipline of Presentation
Biology
Abstract
The Palouse Prairie located in the Inland Northwest is a severely endangered ecosystem that has been greatly impacted due to decades of agricultural development and tilling. Eastern Washington University has dedicated about 120 acres of land from the Palouse Prairie that was once used for agriculture to be restored in an effort to preserve and learn more about the ecosystem. EWU has a 14-acre test plot within their restoration site focused on testing four different diversity seed mix treatments to determine which mix provides the healthiest plants with the most resistance to invasive species. Microorganisms play a significant role in the food web and ecosystem of all soils and other environments that plants and other organisms live. Because of this, it is important to understand what influences microbial biodiversity and growth, especially since it can be an indicator of soil health.
Our experiment looks at the microbiome of soils with different topography, at the top and bottom of the hill, and two different seeding mixtures, a grass only mix, and a high diversity mix to determine if these factors have an influence on microbial biodiversity in the Palouse Prairie.This was done by swabbing bacterial TSA Agar petri dishes and fungal Rose Agar Petri dishes to observe biodiversity and using dry combustion to calculate organic matter content in the soil. The results for microbial biodiversity of the soil. The bacteria TSA Petri dishes had more biodiversity in high plant diversity areas, while the fungi Rose Agar Petri dish results were not statistically significant. The results from the dry combustion calculations indicated that there was more organic matter at the bottom of the hill.
These results indicate that swales have more microorganisms in the soil than ridges, and a there is a higher biodiversity of bacteria in areas with more plant diversity. This could be because the shade and moisture that is provided by the tops of the hills is more suitable for bacteria that live in the soil of the swale, and a wider variety of plant life can influence the microbiome of the soil. Understanding how topography and plant diversity influence the soil is important for understanding the ecosystem and could potentially provide data to build restoration strategies for the Palouse Prairie.
Recommended Citation
Byers, Britani N.; Kimmel, McKenzie; Brecto, Erin; and O’Brien, Max, "Microbial Biodiversity in Relation to Plant Diversity and South-facing Slope Topography in Restored Palouse Prairies" (2025). 2025 Symposium. 2.
https://dc.ewu.edu/srcw_2025/ps_2025/p2_2025/2
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Microbial Biodiversity in Relation to Plant Diversity and South-facing Slope Topography in Restored Palouse Prairies
PUB NCR
The Palouse Prairie located in the Inland Northwest is a severely endangered ecosystem that has been greatly impacted due to decades of agricultural development and tilling. Eastern Washington University has dedicated about 120 acres of land from the Palouse Prairie that was once used for agriculture to be restored in an effort to preserve and learn more about the ecosystem. EWU has a 14-acre test plot within their restoration site focused on testing four different diversity seed mix treatments to determine which mix provides the healthiest plants with the most resistance to invasive species. Microorganisms play a significant role in the food web and ecosystem of all soils and other environments that plants and other organisms live. Because of this, it is important to understand what influences microbial biodiversity and growth, especially since it can be an indicator of soil health.
Our experiment looks at the microbiome of soils with different topography, at the top and bottom of the hill, and two different seeding mixtures, a grass only mix, and a high diversity mix to determine if these factors have an influence on microbial biodiversity in the Palouse Prairie.This was done by swabbing bacterial TSA Agar petri dishes and fungal Rose Agar Petri dishes to observe biodiversity and using dry combustion to calculate organic matter content in the soil. The results for microbial biodiversity of the soil. The bacteria TSA Petri dishes had more biodiversity in high plant diversity areas, while the fungi Rose Agar Petri dish results were not statistically significant. The results from the dry combustion calculations indicated that there was more organic matter at the bottom of the hill.
These results indicate that swales have more microorganisms in the soil than ridges, and a there is a higher biodiversity of bacteria in areas with more plant diversity. This could be because the shade and moisture that is provided by the tops of the hills is more suitable for bacteria that live in the soil of the swale, and a wider variety of plant life can influence the microbiome of the soil. Understanding how topography and plant diversity influence the soil is important for understanding the ecosystem and could potentially provide data to build restoration strategies for the Palouse Prairie.
