Honors thesis student Elizabeth Farquhar’s mission to SAVe Lake Mattamuskeet’s SAVs

Elizabeth Farquhar spent the fall semester of 2019 and spring semester of 2020 working on her honors thesis entitled, “SAVing submerged aquatic vegetation: understanding preferential utilization of N forms to reduce cyanobacteria blooms in Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina”. Her research showed that ammonium or nitrate were equally stimulatory to growth of cyanobacteria in Lake Mattamuskeet. This work has direct implications for management of nitrogen loads from the lake’s watershed where nitrate loading is primarily from agriculture and much of the ammonium comes from waterfowl impoundments adjacent to the lake. By May 2020, she has already successfully defended her thesis and published her work in UNC’s student-led research journal, Journey. Farquhar_2020journey  Currently, we are working to refine the manuscript for a peer reviewed journal.