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                            Funding & Awards
 Soil fungal and nematode community changes as a methodology for determining long-term postmortem interval after cadaver mass loss
Note:
              This awardee has received supplemental funding. This award detail page includes information about both the original award and supplemental awards.
Award Information
Awardee
              UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
Award #
              2017-R2-CX-0008
Funding Category
              Competitive Discretionary
Location
                    KNOXVILLE, TN
Congressional District
              2
Status
              Closed
Funding First Awarded
              2017
Total funding (to date)
              $150,000
Original Solicitation
              NIJ FY17 Graduate Research Fellowship Program in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Description of original award (Fiscal Year 2017, $50,000)
The determination of the postmortem interval (PMI) is a fundamental necessity in forensic investigation and the accuracy of its assessment is critical. Decomposition is a dynamic process, reliant upon a suite of largely environmental parameters, which serves to create a need for multiple PMI methodologies with some degree of redundancy to successfully address this considerable variability.
Recent work exploring microbial bacterial succession of decomposition products in the soil has shown great promise as another methodology for the determination of short-term PMI. However, numerous microbial changes occur in the soil environment extending for months after active decomposition has finished, and study dedicated to this timeframe is virtually nonexistent.
This research proposal is based upon the following: that fungal colonies have been anecdotally observed to appear very late in the decomposition process, and that soil nematode communities undergo population shifts due to soil nutrient availabilities and can serve as indicator organisms for soil quality. Both nematodes and fungi are part of the soil eukaryotic decomposing community, and while studied in conjunction with leaf litter, have received little association with vertebrate decomposition. Given that decomposition environments have strong modulating effects on the bacterial communities present with the cadaver and the soil, it is therefore our hypothesis that these factors will also have a strong effect on the soil fungal and nematode populations inhabiting this area, and that these population changes are shifted toward primarily later time periods.
Further, as the soil environment gradually recovers from a decomposition event, these respective population shifts can serve as unique time markers for the determination of the PMI. Our study is designed to integrate cutting-edge molecular techniques with classical microscopic techniques to create quantitative means whereby PMI can be determined for extended periods after a decomposition event. This has the capability for immediate application to the criminal investigators' repertoire, as well as the virtue of employing techniques that are less likely the strain the already tight budgets of local forensic laboratories.
Most importantly, this research stands to expand the investigators' ability to formulate concrete lines of evidence in situations where victims of foul play are recovered at later intervals or in situations where it may not be possible to reach victims in a timely manner.
ca/ncf
Supplemental Award 1 (Fiscal Year 2018, $50,000)
The determination of the postmortem interval (PMI) is a fundamental necessity in forensic investigation and the accuracy of its assessment is critical. Decomposition is a dynamic process, reliant upon a suite of largely environmental parameters, which serves to create a need for multiple PMI methodologies with some degree of redundancy to successfully address this considerable variability.
Recent work exploring microbial bacterial succession of decomposition products in the soil has shown great promise as another methodology for the determination of short-term PMI. However, numerous microbial changes occur in the soil environment extending for months after active decomposition has finished, and study dedicated to this timeframe is virtually nonexistent.
This research proposal is based upon the following: that fungal colonies have been anecdotally observed to appear very late in the decomposition process, and that soil nematode communities undergo population shifts due to soil nutrient availabilities and can serve as indicator organisms for soil quality. Both nematodes and fungi are part of the soil eukaryotic decomposing community, and while studied in conjunction with leaf litter, have received little association with vertebrate decomposition. Given that decomposition environments have strong modulating effects on the bacterial communities present with the cadaver and the soil, it is therefore our hypothesis that these factors will also have a strong effect on the soil fungal and nematode populations inhabiting this area, and that these population changes are shifted toward primarily later time periods.
Further, as the soil environment gradually recovers from a decomposition event, these respective population shifts can serve as unique time markers for the determination of the PMI. Our study is designed to integrate cutting-edge molecular techniques with classical microscopic techniques to create quantitative means whereby PMI can be determined for extended periods after a decomposition event. This has the capability for immediate application to the criminal investigators' repertoire, as well as the virtue of employing techniques that are less likely the strain the already tight budgets of local forensic laboratories.
Most importantly, this research stands to expand the investigators' ability to formulate concrete lines of evidence in situations where victims of foul play are recovered at later intervals or in situations where it may not be possible to reach victims in a timely manner.
ca/ncf
    Supplemental Award 2 (Fiscal Year 2019, $50,000)
The determination of the postmortem interval (PMI) is a fundamental necessity in forensic investigation and the accuracy of its assessment is critical. Decomposition is a dynamic process, reliant upon a suite of largely environmental parameters, which serves to create a need for multiple PMI methodologies with some degree of redundancy to successfully address this considerable variability.
Recent work exploring microbial bacterial succession of decomposition products in the soil has shown great promise as another methodology for the determination of short-term PMI. However, numerous microbial changes occur in the soil environment extending for months after active decomposition has finished, and study dedicated to this timeframe is virtually nonexistent.
This research proposal is based upon the following: that fungal colonies have been anecdotally observed to appear very late in the decomposition process, and that soil nematode communities undergo population shifts due to soil nutrient availabilities and can serve as indicator organisms for soil quality. Both nematodes and fungi are part of the soil eukaryotic decomposing community, and while studied in conjunction with leaf litter, have received little association with vertebrate decomposition. Given that decomposition environments have strong modulating effects on the bacterial communities present with the cadaver and the soil, it is therefore our hypothesis that these factors will also have a strong effect on the soil fungal and nematode populations inhabiting this area, and that these population changes are shifted toward primarily later time periods.
Further, as the soil environment gradually recovers from a decomposition event, these respective population shifts can serve as unique time markers for the determination of the PMI. Our study is designed to integrate cutting-edge molecular techniques with classical microscopic techniques to create quantitative means whereby PMI can be determined for extended periods after a decomposition event. This has the capability for immediate application to the criminal investigators' repertoire, as well as the virtue of employing techniques that are less likely the strain the already tight budgets of local forensic laboratories.
Most importantly, this research stands to expand the investigators' ability to formulate concrete lines of evidence in situations where victims of foul play are recovered at later intervals or in situations where it may not be possible to reach victims in a timely manner.
ca/ncf


  
Grant-Funded Publications
        
                      A high resolution study of long-term vertebrate decomposition in human and animal model systems
                  Soil nematode functional diversity, successional patterns, and indicator taxa associated with vertebrate decomposition hotspots
                  Spatial Impacts of a Multi-Individual Grave on Microbial and Microfaunal Communities and Soil Biogeochemistry

  
Date Created: September 21, 2017
    
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