Digital Commons Network^™

Biological Aspects Of Mountain Pine Beetle In Lodgepole Pine Stands Of Different Densities In Colorado, Usa, Jose Negron

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Research Highlights: The biology of mountain pine beetle (MPB), Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins, in Colorado’s lodgepole pine forests exhibits similarities and differences to other parts of its range. Brood emergence was not influenced by stand density nor related to tree diameter. The probability of individual tree attack is influenced by stocking and tree size. Findings have implications for understanding MPB as a disturbance agent and for developing management strategies. Background and Objectives: MPB causes extensive tree mortality of lodgepole pine, Pinus contorta Douglas ex Loudon, across the western US and Canada and is probably the most studied bark beetle in North …

Recoupling Fire And Grazing Reduces Wildland Fuel Loads On Rangelands, Heath D. Starns, Samuel D. Fuhlendore, R. Dwayne Elmore, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr, Eric T. Thacker, Torre J. Hovick, Barney Luttbeg

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Fire suppression and exclusion, the historically dominant paradigm of fire management, has resulted in major modifications of fire-dependent ecosystems worldwide. These changes are partially credited with a recent increase in wildfire number and extent, as well as more extreme fire behavior. Fire and herbivory historically interacted, and research has shown that the interaction creates a unique mosaic of vegetation heterogeneity that each disturbance alone does not create. Because fire and grazing have largely been decoupled in modern times, the degree to which the interaction affects fuels and fire regimes has not yet been quantified. We evaluated effects of fire-only and …

Preparing An Effective Poster Presentation, Christopher N. Jacques

The Prairie Naturalist

Greetings GPNSS members! By the time you read this editorial, many of have been experiencing the fury unleashed by ‘Old Man Winter’ and may find yourself counting the days until warmer spring temperatures return once again to the Great Plains. Until then, just a couple more months of bitter cold temperatures, strong winds, and blowing and drifting snow. But not to worry, winter also provides the cold weather enthusiasts among us a chance to enjoy a range of outdoor recreational opportunities, a chance to reflect on the previous year in review, exciting professional and personal opportunities ushered in by the …

Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria Occipitomaculata) Copulation In South Dakota, Drew R. Davis

The Prairie Naturalist

Storeria occipitomaculata is a small, terrestrial species of snake that occurs across much of eastern North America (Ernst and Barbour 1989, Ernst 2002, Ernst and Ernst 2003). Due to this widespread distribution, S. occipitomaculata faces varied climates that likely result in regional differences in reproductive phenology. Much of what is known about the reproductive ecology of S. occipitomaculata has been documented from the southeastern portion of its range in North America (South Carolina: Semlitsch and Moran 1984, North Carolina: Willson and Dorcas 2004), though Blanchard (1937) studied a population from northern Michigan. The exact reproductive timing in this species has …

New Breeding Record And Location For Wilson’S Phalarope (Phalaropus Tricolor) In The Nebraska Great Plains, Usa, Madison O. Sutton, Nico Arcilla

The Prairie Naturalist

Wilson’s phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor; Scolopacidae) is a migratory shorebird that relies on interior wetlands for foraging and breeding (Colwell and Jehl 1994, van Gils et al. 2018). Its global population status is unclear (Colwell and Jehl 1994, Lesterhuis and Clay 2010), and is variously listed as declining (Morrison et al. 2006, van Gils et al. 2018), increasing (Andres 2009, BirdLife International 2018), and exhibiting a long-term decline but recent stability (Sauer et al. 2011, Andres et al. 2012). Its global population estimate of 1.5 million birds has not been updated for 30 years, since 1988 (Colwell and Jehl 1994, Lesterhuis …

Edges And Rushes Of Minnesota: The Completeguidetospeciesidentification. Welby R. Smith; Photography By Richard Haug., Edward S. Dekeyser

The Prairie Naturalist

Even the most seasoned individual with a plant identification background can relate to the difficulty of identifying sedges and rushes to the species level. Historically, one has had to rely on dichotomous keys to identify a sedge or rush species in the field. After hours of frustration, a person ends up collecting the plant and, if lucky, bringing the collection back to a herbarium where it can be compared to known specimens. I have been collecting and identifying sedge and rush species for over 25 years, and author Welby Smith along with photographer Richard Haug have published what I believe …

Metabolic Gas Emissions From Prairie Soil Containing Foraging Termites, Charles E. Konemann, B.M. Kard, Tom A. Royer, Mark E. Payton

The Prairie Naturalist

Differences in subterranean termite metabolic gas emissions are readily observed in laboratory experiments. However, in natural field ecosystems a primary difficulty in measuring subterranean termite gases is non-homogeneous distribution of foraging termites in soil. Our field experiment was designed to aggregate foragers of the 'eastern subterranean termite', Reticulitermes flavipes Kollar (EST), in one of four flux chamber configurations placed on a tallgrass prairie throughout 2014 and 2015. We used differently configured flux chambers to measure metabolic gas emissions from soil with or without foraging termites on The Joseph H. Williams Tallgrass Prairie Preserve (TGPP) in north-central Oklahoma. Foraging termitesaggregated in …

Notes: Two-Headed White-Tailed Deer Fetus, William F. Jensen, Daniel M. Grove, Ryan J. Herigstad, William J. Haase

The Prairie Naturalist

On 6 April 2018 a female white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus dakotensis) was hit and killed by a vehicle along HWY 1806 in rural Morton County, North Dakota, USA (N46o 38.617; W100o 42.901). Based upon dental eruption and wear (Severinghaus 1949), the female was estimated to be a >4.5 years-of-age. A male fetus with parapagus diprosopus (i.e., shared face) apparently was expelled from the adult female, and a domestic canine (Canis lupus familiaris) carried the fetus to a private residence. The resident contacted the North Dakota Game and Fish Department (NDGFD) to turn in the fetus. On 10 April 2018, NDGFD …

Comparison Of Northern Flying And Red Squirrel Phylogenies With Focus On The Insular United States, Alyssa M. Kiesow, Hugh B. Britten

The Prairie Naturalist

Northern flying squirrel (Glaucomys sabrinus) and red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) populations are endemic to northern North America, including the Black Hills. The Black Hills populations are considered disjunct from other populations within their range. We examined insular populations to determine whether arboreal squirrels in the Black Hills each represent a unique population. We trapped and collected ear samples from northern flying and red squirrels in the Black Hills and in areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to infer population phylogenies with special consideration of the Black Hills population. Microsatellite loci and two mtDNA sequences were used for …

Review: Canids Of The World: Wolves, Wild Dogs, Foxes, Jackals, Coyotes, And Their Relatives. José R. Castelló., Jonathan (Jon) Way

The Prairie Naturalist

Canids of the World is one of those reads where just when you think that something cannot be beat, this book comes out. What I mean by that is that I have read many works on wolves and other canids, most recently Nate Blakeslee’s American Wolf (Way 2017), and I have enjoyed and been enthralled with many of them. But Canids of the World may take the cake for being the most impressive book available on canids. For a modest price of just under $30.00, you can own a book that has over 600 amazing high-resolution glossy photographs of every …

Review: North American Ducks, Geese & Swans: Identification Guide. Frank S. Todd., Kevin M. Ringelman

The Prairie Naturalist

The North American Duck, Geese & Swans: Identification Guide, released in 2018, is the culmination of a lifetime of waterfowl photography by the late Frank Todd. Indeed, this book stands apart from other identification guides as being entirely photo-driven, with minimal introductory material, notations of field marks, or descriptions of the various waterfowl species. It is small enough to be carried in the field (6.5” × 9” × 0.5”), but most readers will find it less useful than a standard bird identification book (Sibley 2014), even for waterfowl. As the title suggests, the Todd guide focuses on North American species, …

Review: Behavior Of The Golden Eagle: An Illustrated Ethogram. David H. Ellis (Illustrated By N. John Schmitt)., Jeremy E. Guinn

The Prairie Naturalist

Author David H. Ellis and illustrator N. John Schmitt deliver precisely what is promised in Behavior of the Golden Eagle: An Illustrated Ethogram. This “little volume,” as the author coins it, represents a single source for defining, identifying, and describing behaviors of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos). With the inclusion of Schmitt’s exceptional drawings, the book is a piece of art, as well as the most useful manual describing Golden Eagle behaviors. Nearly four decades earlier, Ellis (1979) authored the very first Golden Eagle ethogram—the set of repeated standard behaviors for a species called action patterns—and in his new book, …

The Prairie Naturalist: The Journal Of The Great Plains Natural Science Society Volume 50 No. 2

The Prairie Naturalist

TABLE OF CONTENTS

43 EDITOR’S NOTE

RESEARCH ARTICLES

46 Metabolic Gas Emissions from Prairie Soil Containing Foraging Termites Charles E. Konemann, B. M. Kard, Tom A. Royer, and Mark. E. Payton

59 Comparison of northern flying and red squirrel phylogenies with focus on the insular United States Alyssa M. Kiesow, and Hugh B. Britten

NOTES

70 Two-Headed White-Tailed Deer Fetus

72 Red-Bellied Snake (Storeria occipitomacilata) Copulation in South Dakota

74 New Breeding Record and Location for Wilson's Phalarope (Phalaropus tricolor) in the Nebraska Great Plains, USA

BOOK REVIEWS

76 Sedges and Rushes of Minnesota: The Complete Guide to Species Identification. …

Understanding Spatial Dynamics Of Tallgrass Prairie Dominated By Tall Fescue, Callie Griffith

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study was conducted on restored tallgrass prairie and invaded tallgrass prairie located in the Grand River Grasslands of southern Iowa to determine differences in heterogeneity of plant structure and functional group composition at different scales. Restored tallgrass prairies were seeded with a species-rich seeding mixture and managed by burning the entire prairie, every three years. Data were collected in August 2014 and 2015 to compare heterogeneity of restoration of native plant structure and functional group composition to the heterogeneity of invaded tallgrass prairies that were managed with patch burning and conventionally grazed. Invaded tallgrass prairies were managed with patch-burning …

Grazing Strategy Effects On Utilization, Animal Performance, Aboveground Production, Species Composition, And Soil Properties On Nebraska Sandhills Meadow, Aaron Shropshire

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ultrahigh stocking density (a.k.a., mob grazing) is proposed as a management tool that results in greater harvest efficiency, animal performance, aboveground plant production, species richness, and soil carbon content. The study objective was to determine grazing treatment, haying, or non-defoliated control effects on forage utilization, aboveground production, animal performance, and soil properties. In 2010, 25 ha of Sandhills meadow were divided into 2 replications of 3 grazing, a hay, and control treatment. Grazing treatments were a 120-pasture rotation with one grazing cycle (mob), a 4-pasture rotation with one cycle (4PR1), and a 4-pasture rotation with two cycles (4PR2) at stocking …

Generation And Evaluation Of Modified Opaque-2 (O2) Popcorn Suggests A Route To Quality Protein Popcorn (Qpp), Ying Ren

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

I have been working on a Quality Protein Popcorn breeding project where QPM conversion is carried out simultaneously for several elite popcorn germplasms. During my study in the graduate program, I led the following aspects of the Quality Protein Popcorn Breeding Project:

1. Identified suitable QPMs as opaque-2 allele donors.

2.Examined the feasibility of quick introgression of the opaque-2 allele into popcorn lines via marker-assisted selection.

3. Monitored modification by SDS-PAGE zein profiling and light box phenotypic selection to make sure multiple modifier loci for opaque-2 were incorporated each time generation advancement was carried out.

4. Carried out high throughput …

Improving Ecological Restoration To Curb Biotic Invasion—A Practical Guide, Qinfeng Guo, Dale G. Brockway, Diane L. Larson, Deli Wang, Hai Ren

USDA Forest Service / UNL Faculty Publications

Common practices for invasive species control and management include physical, chemical, and biological approaches. The first two approaches have clear limitations and may lead to unintended (negative) consequences, unless carefully planned and implemented. For example, physical removal rarely completely eradicates the targeted invasive species and can cause disturbances that facilitate new invasions by nonnative species from nearby habitats. Chemical treatments can harm native, and especially rare, species through unanticipated side effects. Biological methods may be classified as biocontrol and the ecological approach. Similar to physical and chemical methods, biocontrol also has limitations and sometimes leads to unintended consequences. Therefore, a …

Nebline, Nov./Dec. 2018

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Feature: Youth Voice benefits youth, communities

Food & Health

Farm & Acreage

Pests & Wildlife

Horticulture

Early Childhood

4-H & Youth

and other extension news and events

Identification Of Genes/Genomic Regions Controlling Resistance To Biotic And Abiotic Stresses In Synthetic Hexaploid Wheat, Madhav Bhatta

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Synthetic hexaploid wheat (SHW; 2n=6x=42, AABBDD, Triticum aestivumL.) is produced from an interspecific cross between durum wheat (2n=4x=28, AABB, T. turgidumL.) and goat grass (2n=2x=14, DD, AegilopstauschiiCoss.). It is reported to have a considerable amount of genetic diversity and is a potential source of novel alleles controlling abiotic and biotic stresses resistance and improving wheat quality. Therefore, the first study was to understand the genetic diversity and population structure of SHWs and compare the genetic diversity of SHWs with elite bread wheat (BW) cultivars. The result of this study identified a wide range of genetic diversity within …

Epidemiology And Management Of Fusarium Head Blight And Foliar Fungal Diseases Of Wheat, Carlos Bolanos-Carriel

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Fusarium head blight (FHB) caused by Fusarium graminearum, the FHB-associated mycotoxin deoxynivalenol (DON), and foliar fungal diseases are significant threats to wheat production. This research 1) evaluated the effects of fungicide chemical class, application timing, and cultivar resistance on FHB and DON under field conditions; 2) evaluated the effects of field-applied fungicide chemical class, grain moisture, and time on DON under grain storage conditions; 3) evaluated the effects of field-applied fungicide chemical class and time on trichothecene-related gene (Tri5) expression under grain storage conditions; 4) determined the optimum F. graminearum spore concentration and spike bagging period following …

Investigation Of Alternative Hosts And Agronomic Factors Affecting Xanthomonas Vasicola Pv. Vasculorum, Causal Agent Of Bacterial Leaf Streak Of Corn, Terra Marie Hartman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Xanthomonas vasicola pv. vasculorum, causal agent of bacterial leaf streak of corn, was first reported in the U.S. in 2016 on Nebraska corn leaf samples. Prior to this report, the pathogen had only been reported on corn in South Africa. After the Nebraska report, the pathogen was reported on corn in Argentina, Brazil, and several U.S. states. This pathogen has an extensive host range, which includes sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), palm species (Dictyosperma album, Roystonea regia, and Areca catechu) and broom bamboo (Thysanolaena maxima). Plants commonly found in …

Biological Activity Of A Tertiary Amine Plant Growth Regulator, Bmve, In Arabidopsis Thaliana And Wheat (Triticum Aestivum), Jaspinder Singh

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plant growth regulators are synthetic compounds that influence plant growth and development and can increase growth, yield, and nutritive value of food crops. Research in the past has shown that a class of plant growth regulators known collectively as substituted tertiary amines have the potential to increase crop productivity, photosynthetic efficiency, and overall plant vigor. However, earlier efficacy studies that involved spraying plants were sometimes inconsistent or showed only minimal benefits. A new delivery method involving seed application of tertiary amines before sowing has shown promise in field trials for multiple crop species (US patent 9464283) (Yokoyama, Chan, Oyama, & …

Modeling Effects Of Ecological Factors On Evolution Of Polygenic Pesticide Resistance, C. V. Haridas, Brigitte Tenhumberg

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Widespread use of pesticides has resulted in the evolution of resistance in many insect pests worldwide, limiting their use in pest control. Effective pest and resistance management practices require understanding of the genetics of resistance and the life history of the pest. Most models for pesticide resistance assume that resistance is monogenic, conferred by a single gene. However, resistance could evolve as a polygenic quantitative trait resulting from the action of several genes, especially when pesticide dose is low. Further, fitness of the pest could be density dependent and might depend upon abiotic factors such as temperature. It is not …

Canavalia Gladiata And Dolichos Lablab Extracts For Sustainable Pest Biocontrol And Plant Nutrition Improvement In El Salvador, Carlos Martinez

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Botanical repellents and pesticides are now being rediscovered as new tools for integrated pest management in order to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in crop production. Canavalia gladiata and Dolichos lablab are two Fabaceae very well adapted to farmlands of El Salvador, effective as living barriers and mostly as cover crops, however, they are not yet very well disseminated. This document describes the potential for using the liquid extracts and the dry flour of raw seeds of those plants for economic benefit and practical convenience for pest management in Salvadorian agriculture under field conditions. Seed extracts were useful when …

Assessment Of Soil Fertility Under Different Land-Use Systems In Dhading District Of Nepal, Sudarshan Kharal, Babu Ram Khanal, Dinesh Panday

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Unscientific land use and cropping techniques have led high soil erosion and degradation of soil quality in the mid-hills of Nepal. To understand the effects of land use systems for selected soil chemical properties in mid-hills, composite soil samples at 0 cm to 20 cm depth were collected from five different land-use systems: Grassland, forest land, upland, lowland, and vegetable farms from Dhading district of Nepal in 2017. Soil samples were analyzed for soil fertility parameters: Soil pH, organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (N), available phosphorus (P), available potassium (K) and its effect due to different land use systems were …

Digital Soil Mapping In The Bara District Of Nepal Using Kriging Tool In Arcgis, Dinesh Panday, Bijesh Maharjan, Devraj Chalise, Ram Kumar Shrestha, Bikesh Twanabasu

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Digital soil mapping has been widely used to develop statistical models of the relationships between environmental variables and soil attributes. This study aimed at determining and mapping the spatial distribution of the variability in soil chemical properties of the agricultural floodplain lands of the Bara district in Nepal. The study was carried out in 23 Village Development Committees with 12,516 ha total area, in the southern part of the Bara district. A total of 109 surface soil samples (0 to 15 cm depth) were collected and analyzed for pH, organic matter (OM), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P, expressed as P_{2 …}

Research Report: Prevalence And Mechanism Of Atrazine Resistance In Waterhemp From Nebraska, Rodrigo Werle, Mithila Jugulam, Greg Kruger, Amaranatha Vennapusa, Felipe Faleco, Bruno Viera, Spencer Samuelson

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Waterhemp is a troublesome summer annual broadleaf weed species that has evolved resistance to glyphosate and other herbicide sites of action (SOA) in Nebraska, including to groups 2 (i.e., Classic, Pursuit, FirstRate), 4 (i.e., 2, 4-D), 5(i.e., atrazine) and 27 (e.g., Callisto, Laudis). The overall objectives of this study were to

1. Evaluate the eficay of PRE applied atrazine, metribuzin and sulfentrazone to control Nebraska waterhemp populations;
2. Evaluate the efficacy of POST applied atrazine to control Nebraska waterhemp populations; and
3. Determine the mechanism of atrazine resistance in Nebraska waterhemp populations.

Quantitative Appraisal Of Non-Irrigated Cropland In South Dakota, Shelby Riggs

Honors Theses

This appraisal attempts to remove subjectivity from the appraisal process and replace it with quantitative analysis of known data to generate a fair market value of the subject property. Two methods of appraisal were used, the income approach and the comparable sales approach. For the income approach, I used the average cash rent for the region, the current property taxes for the subject property, and a capitalization rate based on Stokes' (2018) capitalization rate formula to arrive at my income-based valuation. For the comparable sales approach, I utilized Stokes' (2018) research in optimization modeling to estimate a market value for …

Overexpression Of The Sorghum Bicolor Sbccoaomt Alters Cell Wall Associated Hydroxycinnamoyl Groups, Hannah M. Tetreault, Erin D. Scully, Tammy Gries, Nathan A. Palmer, Deanna L. Funnell-Harris, Bruce S. Dien, Gautam Sarath, Thomas E. Clemente, Scott E. Sattler

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) is a drought tolerant crop, which is being developed as a bioenergy feedstock. The monolignol biosynthesis pathway is a major focus for altering the abundance and composition of lignin. Caffeoyl coenzyme-A O-methyltransferase (CCoAOMT) is an S-adenosyl methionine (SAM)-dependent O-methyltransferase that methylates caffeoyl-CoA to generate feruloyl-CoA, an intermediate required for the biosynthesis of both G- and S-lignin. SbCCoAOMT was overexpressed to assess the impact of increasing the amount of this enzyme on biomass composition. SbCCoAOMT overexpression increased both soluble and cell wall-bound (esterified) ferulic and sinapic acids, however lignin concentration and its composition …

Elucidating Sorghum Biomass, Nitrogen And Chlorophyll Contents With Spectral And Morphological Traits Derived From Unmanned Aircraft System, Jiating Li, Yeyin Shi, Arun-Narenthiran Veeranampalayam-Sivakumar, Daniel P. Schachtman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) provide an efficient way to phenotype cropmorphology with spectral traits such as plant height, canopy cover and various vegetation indices (VIs) providing information to elucidate genotypic responses to the environment. In this study, we investigated the potential use of UAS-derived traits to elucidate biomass, nitrogen and chlorophyll content in sorghum under nitrogen stress treatments. A nitrogen stress trial located in Nebraska, USA, contained 24 different sorghum lines, 2 nitrogen treatments and 8 replications, for a total of 384 plots. Morphological and spectral traits including plant height, canopy cover and various VIs were derived from UAS flights …