This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
0853820 Zilles
The objectives of this research are to gain both a fundamental understanding of the microbial ecology of denitrifying biofilters and to create improved techniques to characterize the reliability of, and also the design of, this and other engineered ecosystems. The dynamics of the physical, chemical, and biological parameters of the biofilter system will be determined, and approaches derived from reliability engineering and ecology will be used to identify key interactions and develop ways to predict and manipulate outcomes. Three hypotheses will be tested in this research: (1) A small number of state variables will exhibit the most influence on biofilter performance, (2) diversity will lead to functional redundancy, and conditions resulting in the most functional redundancy will be most stable in performance, and (3) Rate, range, regularity, and rapidity of change will provide measures of sustainability of biofilter performance. These denitrifying biofilters have the potential to bring about substantial reductions in nitrate pollution and thereby improve water quality throughout the Midwestern US and the Gulf of Mexico. The education component of this project include the development of an inquiry-based course for undergraduates and interdisciplinary training for engineering graduate students.
