Digital Commons Network^™

Spt5 Affects The Rate Of Mrna Degradation And Physically Interacts With Ccr4 But Does Not Control Mrna Deadenylation, Yajun Cui, Yueh-Chin Chiang, Palaniswamy Viswanathan, Darren J. Lee, Clyde L. Denis

New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station Publications

The CCR4-NOT complex has been shown to have multiple roles in mRNA metabolism, including that of transcriptional elongation, mRNA transport, and nuclear exosome function, but the primary function of CCR4 and CAF1 is in the deadenylation and degradation of cytoplasmic mRNA. As previous genetic analysis supported an interaction between SPT5, known to be involved in transcriptional elongation, and that of CCR4, the physical association of SPT5 with CCR4 was examined. A two-hybrid screen utilizing the deadenylase domain of CCR4 as a bait identified SPT5 as a potential interacting protein. SPT5 at its physiological concentration was shown to immunoprecipitate CCR4 and …

A Comparison Of Presettlement And Modern Forest Composition Along An Elevation Gradient In Central New Hampshire, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur, Steven P. Hamburg, Charles V. Cogbill, Wendy Y. Sugimura

Earth Systems Research Center

Tree species composition is influenced not only by edaphic and climatic factors but also by natural and human-caused disturbances. To understand interactions among these influences, we compared forest species composition data from the time of European settlement with modern data. We derived elevation data for 2529 trees mapped by early land surveys (1770–1850) across a 1000 m elevation gradient in central New Hampshire and compared these with modern data (2004–2009) from the Forest Inventory and Analysis program (123 plots containing 2126 trees) and from permanent plots representing case studies of different land-use histories. Spruce and beech are much less abundant …

Restoring Salt Marsh And Functions To Newly Acquired Shoreline In North Mill Pond, Portsmouth, David M. Burdick

PREP Reports & Publications

A berm of construction debris used to fill salt marsh and steepen the shoreline along North Mill Pond many decades ago was removed in 2010 after the land was deeded to the City. Removal of the berm reestablished regular tidal flooding to over 2,400 ft2 of tidal marsh. From 2009 to 2011, the fifth grade classes at New Franklin School learned about the project and planted mussels, shrubs and marsh plants at the site. Plant survival was excellent in the low marsh (94%) and good in the high marsh (77%). By September 2011 (Year Two) plant cover increased to 42% …

Invasive Species Management And Buffer Outreach On Goss Farm, Rye, Nh, Rockingham County Conservation District

PREP Reports & Publications

The Goss Farm was permanently protected in November of 2010 with assistance from the USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) and is located directly adjacent to the Awcomin Salt Marsh, in Rye, New Hampshire. The Town of Rye Conservation Commission owns the land, and the RCCD holds the conservation easement on the property. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) provided $9,930 in funding assistance to support the Rockingham County Conservation District in its partnership capacity with the Rye Conservation Commission and other natural resource agencies to complete outreach, to plan and complete integrated pest …

Conservation And Loss Of Ribosomal Rna Gene Sites In Diploid And Polyploid Fragaria (Rosaceae), Bo Liu, Thomas M. Davis

Biological Sciences

The genus Fragaria comprises species at ploidy levels ranging from diploid (2n = 2x = 14) to decaploid (2n = 10x = 70). Fluorescence in situ hybridization with 5S and 25S rDNA probes was performed to gather cytogenetic information that illuminates genomic divergence among different taxa at multiple ploidy levels, as well as to explore the evolution of ribosomal RNA genes during polyploidization in Fragaria.

Protecting A Portion Of The Beaver Dam Heath Conservation Focus Area And Initiating Innovative Conservation Financing In Berwick, Maine, Great Works Regional Land Trust

PREP Reports & Publications

This project permanently protected 28 acres in the Beaver Dam Heath Conservation Focus Area through a bargain sale of the fee simple interest. The Grants Meadow III parcel is 85% wetland. The remainder of the upland lies along Diamond Hill Road with adequate frontage for 2-3 house lots. This project involved outreach to the Town of Berwick for project funding to match the PREP funding awarded. GWRLT also received NAWCA funds to complete the project.

Promoting Land Conservation In The Coastal Watershed Through Local Faces, Special Places, Brian Hart

PREP Reports & Publications

The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership provided nearly $3,300.00 to support the Southeast Land Trust of New Hampshire’s (SELTNH) promotion of donated conservation easements in the coastal watershed of Rockingham County. The Southeast Land Trust produced three short web-friendly videos, explaining land conservation from the perspective of a tree farmer, vineyard owner, and a community leader. In addition, the Land Trust hosted two workshops in Kingston and Epping for landowners interested in learning more about the tax and financial benefits of land conservation. Workshop invitations were mailed to more than 1,200 current use landowners within the region. Twenty-two landowners attended the …

Molecular Diversity Of Fungal Phylotypes Co-Amplified Alongside Nematodes From Coastal And Deep-Sea Marine Environments, Punyasloke Bhadury, Holly Bik, John D. Lambshead, Melanie C. Austen, Gary R. Smerdon, Alex D. Rogers

Hubbard Center for Genome Studies (HCGS)

Nematodes and fungi are both ubiquitous in marine environments, yet few studies have investigated relationships between these two groups. Microbial species share many well-documented interactions with both free-living and parasitic nematode species, and limited data from previous studies have suggested ecological associations between fungi and nematodes in benthic marine habitats. This study aimed to further document the taxonomy and distribution of fungal taxa often co-amplified from nematode specimens. A total of 15 fungal 18S rRNA phylotypes were isolated from nematode specimens representing both deep-sea and shallow water habitats; all fungal isolates displayed high pairwise sequence identities with published data in …

Developing 2010 Impervious Surface Estimates For The Piscataque Region Estuaries Partnership Towns, David G. Justice, Fay A. Rubin

PREP Reports & Publications

Estimates of impervious surface acreage for 2010 were generated for the 59-town region covered by the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP). The project extended previous work done in the region for the years 1990, 2000, and 2005 and relied on the same satellite-based data sources and image processing methodologies. As a result, standardized impervious surface estimates are now available for a 20-year time period in the PREP region. The current project mapped impervious surfaces (buildings, pavement, etc.) based on a Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) image acquired on April 24, 2010. Processing used both traditional and sub-pixel image classification techniques, …

A Strawberry Knox Gene Regulates Leaf, Flower And Meristem Architecture, Mithu Chatterjee, Claudia L. Bermudez-Lozano, Maureen A. Clancy, Thomas M. Davis, Kevin M. Folta

Biological Sciences

The KNOTTED-LIKE HOMEODOMAIN (KNOX) genes play a central role in maintenance of the shoot apical meristem. They also contribute to the morphology of simple and compound leaves. In this report we characterize the FaKNOX1 gene from strawberry (Fragaria spp.) and demonstrate its function in trasgenic plants. The FaKNOX1 cDNA was isolated from a cultivated strawberry (F.×ananassa) flower EST library. The sequence is most similar to Class I KNOX genes, and was mapped to linkage group VI of the diploid strawberry genome. Unlike most KNOX genes studied, steady-state transcript levels were highest in flowers and fruits. Transcripts were also detected in …

Shellfish Tissue Monitoring In Piscataqua Region Estuaries 2010: Final Report, Matthew A. Wood, Philip R. Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Gulfwatch examines the effects of decades of development and industrialization on the water quality of the Gulf as it relates to human health primarily through assessing contaminant exposure of marine organisms. Gulfwatch scientists collect blue mussels at over 60 US and Canadian sites Gulfwide, and analyze the organisms’ tissue for potentially harmful levels and concentrations of toxins including heavy metals, chlorinated pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). New Hampshire increased the number of Gulfwatch sampling locations from two sites per year in 1997 to an average of five sites per year from 1998-2010. The increased spatial coverage …

Development Of Guidelines For Using Bioextraction Technologies To Manage Nutrients In New Hampshire's Estuarine Waters, Raymond E. Grizzle

PREP Reports & Publications

There is growing literature on bioextraction approaches to managing nutrients in coastal waters, and it includes studies using a variety of species. Bivalve mollusks and macroalgae have received the most attention for several reasons, but perhaps foremost because of their aquaculture potential. A December 2009 workshop at the University of Connecticut, which included speakers from several countries, indicated overall that although bioextraction approaches hold substantial potential there are still many unanswered questions. The present review takes a “what we know/what we need to know” perspective, and focuses on aquaculture. For some taxa (e.g., eastern oyster), wild populations occur in New …

Functional Divergence Of Glycoprotein Hormone Receptors, Mihael Freamat, Stacia A. Sower

New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station Publications

Two lamprey glycroprotein hormone receptors (lGpH-R I and II) highly similar with gnathostome GpH-Rs were cloned from sea lamprey testes and thyroid, respectively. Vertebrate glycoprotein protein receptors have a large extracellular domain (ED) containing a leu rich domain (LRD) linked to a rhodopsin-like transmembrane domain (TMD) through a highly divergent linker region (signal specificity domain, SSD or 'hinge' region) and a third major segment, the intracellular domain. To determine the potential roles of the different domains in the activation of the receptor following ligand-receptor binding, functional assays were performed on lGpH-R I/rat luteinizing hormone (LH)-R domain swapped chimeric receptors. These …

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, And Suspended Solids Concentrations In Tributaries To The Great Bay Estuary Watershed In 2010, New Hampshire Department Of Environmental Services, Matthew A. Wood, Philip Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership (PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of the Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2010. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire in 2008 and 2009, so …

Nitrogen, Phosphorus, And Suspended Solids Concentrations In Tributaries To The Great Bay Estuary Watershed In 2010, New Hampshire Department Of Environmental Services, Matthew A. Wood, Philip Trowbridge

PREP Reports & Publications

Nitrogen, phosphorus, and sediment loads to the Great Bay Estuary are a growing concern. The Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership ( PREP) calculates the nitrogen load from tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary for its State of the Estuaries reports. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to collect representative data on nitrogen, phosphorus, and suspended sediment concentrations in tributaries to the Great Bay Estuary in 2010. The study design followed the tributary sampling design which was implemented by the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services between 2001 and 2007 and by the University of New Hampshire in 2008 and 2009, …

The Quest For Fisheries Sustainability: Age, Growth And Maturity Of Golden Trevally (Gnathanodon Speciosus) In Australia, Elise Koob

Inquiry Journal 2011

No abstract provided.

Experimental Quantification Of Nutrient Bioextracti On Potential Of Oysters In Estuarine Waters Of New Hampshire, Raymond E. Grizzle, Krystin M. Ward

PREP Reports & Publications

This project was a short-term field experiment conducted in summer 2010 and designed to provide preliminary data on the bioextraction (removal) of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) for two different size classes (both <76mm shell height) of eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) at six sites in the Great Bay estuarine system in New Hampshire. Sites were chosen to represent a range of ambient nutrient concentrations, water flow conditions, and location within the estuary. Two of the sites were at oyster aquaculture farms: Granite State Shellfish at the mouth of the Oyster River, and Little Bay Oyster Company near Fox Point in Little Bay. At each site, …

Restoring Native Oysters In Great Bay Estuary, Nh (2011), Ray Konisky, Raymond E. Grizzle, Krystin M. Ward

PREP Reports & Publications

The eastern oyster (Crassostrea virginica) in New Hampshire’s Great Bay Estuary has declined in the past decades, with local populations at very low densities due primarily to disease, excessive siltation, and past over-harvest. The loss of filtering oysters results in diminished ecological benefits for water quality, nitrogen control, and other services that healthy oyster populations provide. In support of regional management objectives to restore millions of oysters to the estuary, the Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the University of New Hampshire (UNH) piloted and scaled-up methods to successfully rebuild oyster reefs. Based on pilot results in 2009, we developed a technique …

Conservation Lands Audit And Online Inventory For Dover, Nh, Christopher Kane

PREP Reports & Publications

This project developed a functional inventory of the numerous conservation lands located throughout the City of Dover. The City’s inventory of conservation lands was disjointed and clearly in need of organization. A consultant was hired to conduct the research necessary to produce a complete, up to date and easily accessible “functional Inventory” that is readily accessible to municipal volunteers and the public through the City website.

Carbon Changes In Conterminous Us Forests Associated With Growth And Major Disturbances., Daolan Zheng, Linda S. Heath, Mark J. Ducey, James E. Smith

Natural Resources & the Environment

Abstract

We estimated forest area and carbon changes in the conterminous United States using a remote sensing based land cover change map, forest fire data from the Monitoring Trends in Burn Severity program, and forest growth and harvest data from the USDA Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis Program. Natural and human-associated disturbances reduced the forest ecosystems' carbon sink by 36% from 1992 to 2001, compared to that without disturbances in the 48 states. Among the three identified disturbances, forest-related land cover change contributed 33% of the total effect in reducing the forest carbon potential sink, while harvests and fires …

Use Of Waveform Lidar And Hyperspectral Sensors To Assess Selected Spatial And Structural Patterns Associated With Recent And Repeat Disturbance And The Abundance Of Sugar Maple (Acer Saccharum Marsh.) In A Temperate Mixed Hardwood And Conifer Forest., Jeanne E. Anderson, Mark J. Ducey, Andrew J. Fast, Mary E. Martin, Lucie C. Lepine, Marie-Louise Smith, Thomas D. Lee, Ralph O. Dubayah, Michelle A. Hofton, Peter Hyde, Birgit E. Peterson, J. Bryan Blair

Natural Resources & the Environment

Abstract

Waveform lidar imagery was acquired on September 26, 1999 over the Bartlett Experimental Forest (BEF) in New Hampshire (USA) using NASA's Laser Vegetation Imaging Sensor (LVIS). This flight occurred 20 months after an ice storm damaged millions of hectares of forestland in northeastern North America. Lidar measurements of the amplitude and intensity of ground energy returns appeared to readily detect areas of moderate to severe ice storm damage associated with the worst damage. Southern through eastern aspects on side slopes were particularly susceptible to higher levels of damage, in large part overlapping tracts of forest that had suffered the …

Shifting Patterns Of Natural Variation In The Nuclear Genome Of Caenorhabditis Elegans, Eleanne Solorzano, Kazufusa Okamoto, Pushpa Datla, Way Sung, R. D. Bergeron, W. Kelley Thomas

Hubbard Center for Genome Studies (HCGS)

Background: Genome wide analysis of variation within a species can reveal the evolution of fundamental biological processes such as mutation, recombination, and natural selection. We compare genome wide sequence differences between two independent isolates of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans (CB4856 and CB4858) and the reference genome (N2). Results: The base substitution pattern when comparing N2 against CB4858 reveals a transition over transversion bias (1.32:1) that is not present in CB4856. In CB4856, there is a significant bias in the direction of base substitution. The frequency of A or T bases in N2 that are G or C bases in CB4856 …

Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership Working To Keep Our Water Clean, Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership

PREP Reports & Publications

Project Highlights and Future Plans

Testing Of Great Bay Oysters For Two Protozoan Pathogens, New Hampshire Fish And Game Department, Douglas E. Grout

PREP Reports & Publications

Two protozoan pathogens, Haplosporidium nelsoni (MSX) and Perkinsus marinus (Dermo), are known to be present in Great Bay oysters. With funds provided by the Piscataqua Region Estuaries Partnership ( PREP ), the Marine Fisheries Division of the New Ham pshire Fish and Game Department (NHF&G) continues to assess the presence and intensity of both of these disease conditions in oysters from the major beds within the Great Bay estuarine system. Histological examination s of Great Bay oysters have also revea led other endoparasites.