In this work, the effects of environmental factors such as temperature and ultraviolet radiation and also of the antibiotic tetracycline on the microbial decomposition of Scirpus lacustris, an emergent macrophyte, were measured.Six journal articles emerged from the present work. First, the 1st record of rates of removal of carbon by fungi from decaying plant material as measured over a season in plants that were standing dead and in Scirpus that was submerged in water and in various temperature models. Second, the optimal conditions required to extract ergosterol, a compound largely...