Over the course of this past year I have been working with Dr. Brokaw on the effects of remaining hydrocarbons on vegetation following bioremediation of a crude oil spill. This project was renewed back in 2010 after nearly a decade of allowing revegetation to the testing sites. I was privileged enough to be allowed to come into this research at the beginning of the Fall 2013 semester to continue what the previous researchers had been working on. Dr. Brokaw and I began by testing control groups of a C25 hydrocarbon and a C36 hydrocarbon on the GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer) to get a better understanding of the unknown hydrocarbons that would be tested from the soil. We did this by taking known solutions of either C25 or C36 mixed with cyclohexane, and then we used the GCMS to measure them. After coming to the conclusion that the concentrations of C25 and C36 can be reliably measured and that they produced very similar results, we have moved on to begin re-measuring the soil samples that were collected a few years back that might have similar hydrocarbons in them. We ran into a problem just recently with the GCMS breaking down on us, but that will not be a problem for us to continue later in the summer. The amounts of hydrocarbons in the soil are measured by washing the soil with cyclohexane by use of Soxhlet extraction. I plan to begin this part of the research this summer in June after Dr. Brokaw and I travel back to the spill site to collect more samples. I am very excited and interested in the continuation and results that this research will bring.
Being involved in this research has been such a blessing by the Biology Department, but mainly Dr. Brokaw. Having a mentor as patient and understanding as him has definitely made this experience all the more amazing. I think that the opportunity to participate in graduate research and build relationships with the professors here at ACU is unparalleled and is really the ACU difference.