Drs. Mark Schorr, Henry Spratt, Gary Litchford, David Aborn, and Thomas Wilson have received a $132,545 award from the US Geological Survey.
These faculty members from Biological and Environmental Sciences will use the award to conduct four research projects for the Southern Appalachian Information Node of the National Biological Information Infrastructure program (NBII). Each researcher will employ the help of UTC'S Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to capture, store, check, integrate, analyze and display spatially-referenced data.
Drs. Aborn and Spratt will compile datasets of urban ecosystem features, model the results to develop an index of urban environmental quality, and engage in outreach activities to disseminate the results and increase awareness of urban ecosystem benefits.
Drs. Schorr and Wilson will utilize studies conducted by Dr. Schorr and his students to assess the water quality, habitat, and aquatic macrofauna in the North Chickamauga Creek (NCC). This data will help create a geographic information system database for the NCC system.
Dr. Spratt will look at bacterial activities related to stream water quality in the Chattanooga area. Specifically, with support from the U.S. Geological Survey, Dr. Spratt will engage UTC graduate students through the adaptation of research results to GIS format. Projects conducted by Dr. Spratt and his students to be part of the NBII project include: acid mine drainage bioremediation studies, studies of fecal coliforms in Chattanooga streams, and bioremediation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in soils and sediments of the Chattanooga Creek floodplain.
UTC, together with the Tennessee Aquarium, Inc. and Tennessee Aquarium Research Institute, has amassed a large amount of historical data on imperiled freshwater fauna from the region. Dr. Thomas Wilson and Dr. Gary Litchford will work to develop a relational database to overcome information gaps concerning the historic distribution of freshwater mussels.