Date of Submission

Fall 2010

Academic Program

Biology

Advisor

Catherine O'Reilly

Abstract/Artist's Statement

Didymosphenia geminata , commonly called "didymo" or "rock snot," is a nuisance algae species that has recently been appearing in streams all around the world. This freshwater diatom is inconspicuous until it presents as an unsightly mat that covers the stream bed. There is currently no way of removing D. geminata from a body of water, so management procedures might look to focus on controlling the diatom's spread. This project is presented in three chapters: 1) a literature review of D. geminata’ s background and significance, 2) a description of my laboratory experiment that assessed three commonly used decontamination products aimed to slow the spread of D. geminata , and 3) an overview of my field experiment that looked at the controlling factors of D. geminata in a local stream.

Distribution Options

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Creative Commons License

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

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