Digital Commons Network^™

A Tree-Ring Based Reconstruction Of Logan River Streamflow In Northern Utah, Eric B. Allen, Tammy M. Rittenour, Justin Derose, Matthew F. Bekker, Roger Kjelgren, Brendan M. Buckley

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

We created six new tree-ring chronologies in northern Utah, which were used with preexisting chronologies from Utah and western Wyoming to reconstruct mean annual flow for the Logan River, the largest tributary of the regionally important Bear River. Two reconstruction models were developed, a “Local” model that incorporated two Rocky Mountain juniper chronologies located within the basin, and a “Regional” model that also included limber pine and pinyon pine chronologies from a larger area. The Local model explained 48.2% of the variability in the instrumental record and the juniper chronologies better captured streamflow variability than Douglas-fir collected within the Logan …

Faith And Doubt As Partners In Mormon History, Gregory A. Prince

Arrington Annual Lecture

No abstract provided.

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, December 5, 2013, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, December 5, 2013, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Applied Economics

• Prerequisite Change

School of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education

• New Course

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

• Course Description Change

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Prerequisite Change

Department of Art and Design

• Title Change, Course Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Prerequisite Change, Remove Repeatable for Credit, Course Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Course Description Change
• Prerequisite Change

Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

• Title Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change

Department of Management

• New Course
• Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change

Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation

• New Course
• Course …

Curriculum Subcommittee Agenda, December 5, 2013, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Department of Applied Economics

• Prerequisite Change

School of Applied Sciences, Technology and Education

• New Course

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences

• Course Description Change

Department of Plants, Soils and Climate

• Prerequisite Change

Department of Art and Design

• Title Change, Course Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Prerequisite Change, Remove Repeatable for Credit, Course Description Change
• Title Change, Credit Hour Change, Course Description Change
• Prerequisite Change

Jon M. Huntsman School of Business

• Title Change, Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change

Department of Management

• New Course
• Prerequisite Change, Course Description Change

Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation

• New Course
• Course …

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, December 5, 2013, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Leveraging Doubt: The Impact Of Lester E. Bush, Jr.‟S “Mormonism‟S Negro Doctrine: A Historical Overview” On Mormon Thought, Chad L. Nielsen

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Appropriating The Mormon Past: Faith, Intellect, And The Reformation Of Mormon Identity, Scott Marianno

Arrington Student Writing Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Marginalia No. 34, Merrill-Cazier Library

Marginalia

From Conception to Reality: Building a Successful Institutional Repository at Utah State University

Welcome New Librarians: Liz Wolcott; Dory Cochran; Connie Woxland

Nota Bene: Presentations and Publications by Library Faculty

Digital Commons: Showcasing Student Research

The James V. Hansen Papers Officially Open

The Way of Sculpture: Exhibition featuring the works of Ryoichi Suzuki and Larry E. Elsner

Better Homes & Gardens, 1810

Utah State University Historical Photo Collection

Nobody Goes Home Sad: The Six Gallery Poets, an Exhibition of Photographs by Walter Lehrman and John Suiter

Santa in 2007: A look at the future from St. Nicholas Magazine, 1907

Funds Of Knowledge And Literacies In Latino/A Youths' Community-Based Engineering Design Work, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Joel Alejandro Mejia, Indhira María Hasbún, Daniel L. Householder, Chris Hailey

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

STEM fields in the US continue to be dominated by people whose cultural backgrounds are White, English-speaking, and middle class (National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council, 2009). Many reasons have been offered to explain this phenomenon: Students’ backgrounds may include worldviews, beliefs, and communicative practices that do not cohere with those practiced in STEM classrooms (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999; Lee, 1999); instructional materials may present STEM fields as a-cultural, decontextualized practices with no evident connection to students’ lives and communities, such as the routine completion of numerical exercises (O’Halloran, 2005); students’ identities—shaped in part by their desired life …

Permaculture, Roslynn Brain, Blake Thomas

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Helping Children Understand And Manage Anger, Shannon Cromwell, Naomi Brower

All Current Publications

Anger is a strong emotion that often leads to negative coping strategies. Children's anger poses challenges for parents and other caregivers and accounts for stress and frustration. Engaging children in a variety of effective coping strategies can assist with their feelings of anger.

Are We Running Out Of Phosphorus?, Nayda Gonzalez, Rhonda Miller

All Current Publications

Phosphorus is an essential nutrient. The world’s phosphorus supplies are limited. Do we have enough phosphorus to support our needs? This fact sheet addresses this question.

Permaculture, Roslynn Brain, Blake Thomas

All Current Publications

No abstract provided.

A Regime Shift From Macrophyte To Phytoplankton Dominance Enhances Carbon Burial In A Shallow, Eutrophic Lake, Soren Brothers, Sabine Hilt, Katrin Attermeyer, Hans Peter Grossart, Sarian Kosten, Betty Lischke, Thomas Mehner, Nils Meyer, Kristin Scharnweber, Jan Kohler

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Ecological regime shifts and carbon cycling in aquatic systems have both been subject to increasing attention in recent years, yet the direct connection between these topics has remained poorly understood. A four-fold increase in sedimentation rates was observed within the past 50 years in a shallow eutrophic lake with no surface in- or outflows. This change coincided with an ecological regime shift involving the complete loss of submerged macrophytes, leading to a more turbid, phytoplankton- dominated state. To determine whether the increase in carbon (C) burial resulted from a comprehensive transformation of C cycling pathways in parallel to this regime …

An Assessment Of Permanent And Nonpermanent Plots In Riparian Vegetation Monitoring, Karin M. Kettenring, Caroline M. Laine, Brett B. Roper

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

The aim of this research was to determine whether permanent and nonpermanent plots for describing riparian plant communities would yield the same results. This research was conducted at 4 streams in central eastern Idaho. Permanent and nonpermanent greenline plots (first perennial vegetation adjacent to stream) were sampled repeatedly from June to October 2010, and we assessed differences between plot types by comparing species richness, wetland indicator rating, and percent cover of live vegetation, forbs, graminoids, litter/moss, and bare ground. We found few statistically significant differences between permanent and nonpermanent greenline plots. Because both types of plots yielded similar results, we …

Cognitive Apprenticeship And The Supervision Of Science And Engineering Research Assistants, Michelle A. Maher, Joanna A. Gilmore, David F. Feldon, Telesia E. Davis

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

We explore and critically reflect on the process of science and engineering research assistant skill development both within laboratory-based research teams and, when no team is present, whithin the faculty supervisor-research assistant interactions. Using a performance-based measure of research skill development, we identify research assistants who, over the course of an academic year of service as a researcher, markedly developed, modestly developed, or failed to develop their research skills. Interviews with these research assistants and their faculty supervisors, seen through the lens of cognitive apprenticeship, provide insight into this variation. We found that within the contours of supervisory relationships and …

Community-Level Response To Habitat Structure Manipulations: An Experimental Case Study In A Tropical Ecosystem, Emily A. Kalnicky, Karen H. Beard, Mark W. Brunson

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Across the globe, environmental change is resulting in novel ecosystems that have altered habitat structure and functioning. Research is needed to understand how changes in habitat structure in these new ecosystems impact community interactions, especially when these manipulations are being proposed to reduce invasive species. We conducted an experiment in Hawaii to determine how changes in habitat structure, represented by leaf litter and understory vegetation, affect the abundance of an invasive generalist predator, the coqui frog (Eleutherodactylus coqui) and its potential prey (invertebrates). This study consisted of four treatments: two vegetation treatments (50% and 100% removal of vegetation with diameter …

Training Livestock To Avoid Specific Forage, Beth Burritt, Morgan Doran, Matt Stevenson

All Current Publications

This fact sheet provides the basics of aversion training for livestock.

Tremblings, November 2013, Western Aspen Alliance

Tremblings

Does Aspen Need Fire?

Douglas Shinneman

It is commonly accepted that aspen needs fire or other stand- replacing disturbance to persist on many landscapes. The prevailing aspen-fire model, in a nutshell, could be stated as follows: After fire, aspen resprouts vigorously, often forming even-aged stands that dominate for decades, as long as browsing animals or other factors don’t impede regeneration. Historically, periodic fire created cycles of aspen and conifer dominance, and produced shifting mosaics of different forest types across landscapes. Too long without fire (e.g., due to fire suppression and moist climate), and conifers extend their dominance, as aging and …

Apple Maggot, Diane Alston, Marion Murray

All Current Publications

Apple maggot is not currently a pest of commercial orchards in Utah, but it is regulated as a quarantine insect in the state. If it becomes established in commercial fruit production areas, its presence can inflict substantial economic harm through loss of export markets. Infestations cause fruit damage, may increase insecticide use, and can result in subsequent disruption of integrated pest management programs.

Population Fluctuations And Distribution Of Staging Eared Grebes (Podiceps Nigricollis) In North America, Anthony J. Roberts, Michael R. Conover, John Luft, John Neil

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Eared Grebes (Podiceps nigricollis Brehm, 1831) use saline ecosystems throughout much of their life cycle, and greater than 90% of the North American population stage during fall at two hypersaline lakes. At one of these lakes, Great Salt Lake (GSL), Utah, a commercial harvest of brine shrimp (Artemia franciscana Kellogg, 1906) cysts occurs during fall and may impact Eared Grebe populations. We used photo surveys on the other hypersaline lake, Mono Lake, California, and on the GSL, as well as aerial counts on the GSL, to describe population fluctuations of Eared Grebes staging on these lakes. The long-term (1997–2012) Eared …

Physiological Ecology And Functional Traits Of North American Native And Eurasian Introduced Phragmites Australis Lineages, Thomas J. Mozdzer, Jacques Brisson, Eric L. G. Hazelton

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Physiological ecology and plant functional traits are often used to explain plant invasion. To gain a better understanding of how traits influence invasion, studies usually compare the invasive plant to a native congener, but there are few conspecific examples in the literature. In North America, the presence of native and introduced genetic lineages of the common reed, Phragmites australis, presents a unique example to evaluate how traits influence plant invasion.We reviewed the literature on functional traits of P. australis lineages in North America, specifically contrasting lineages present on the Atlantic Coast.We focused on differences in physiology between the lineage introduced …

Identification Of Extreme Precipitation Threat Across Midlatitude Regions Based On Short-Wave Circulations, Shih-Yu (Simon) Wang, Robert E. Davies, Robert R. Gillies

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

The most severe thunderstorms, producing extreme precipitation, occur over subtropical and midlatitude regions. Atmospheric conditions conducive to organized, intense thunderstorms commonly involve the coupling of a low-level jet (LLJ) with a synoptic short wave. The midlatitude synoptic activity is frequently modulated by the circumglobal teleconnection (CGT), in which meridional gradients of the jet stream act as a guide for short Rossby waves. Previous research has linked extreme precipitation events with either the CGT or the LLJ but has not linked the two circulation features together. In this study, a circulation-based index was developed by combining (a) the degree of the …

Faculty Senate Agenda, October 7, 2013, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Education Policies Committee Annual Report – Larry Smith
• Libraries Advisory Council Report – Jennifer Duncan
• Parking Committee Report – James Nye
• Honors Program Report – Nick Morrison
• EPC Items for September 2013 – Larry Smith
• Recent proposed changes to the Honors Program - Noelle Cockett
• Code Section 406 - Task Force update on proposed revisions - Vince Wickwar
• Disposition of Unfinished Business Items - Yanghee Kim
• PRPC Section 402, Language changes for RCDE, USU Eastern and Elimination of GSS (Second Reading) - Stephen Bialkowski
• PRPC Section 402.12.7 FEC wording on what follows “decide university awards” (First Reading) - Stephen Bialkowski

Water Resources Management - University Of California, Davis, Jay R. Lund

All ECSTATIC Materials

Graduate course in water resources management offered at University California, Davis in Fall 2013.

Environmental Systems Modeling And Management - University Of Virginia, Charlottesville, Teresa Culver

All ECSTATIC Materials

Grad/Undergrad course in environmental systems modeling and management offered at University of Virginia, Charlottesville in Fall 2013.

Rapid River Incision Across An Inactive Fault - Implications For Patterns Of Erosion And Deformation In The Central Colorado Plateau, Joel L. Pederson, Neil Burnside, Zoe Shipton, Tammy M. Rittenour

Geosciences Faculty Publications

The Colorado Plateau presents a contrast between deep and seemingly recent erosion and apparently only mild late Cenozoic tectonic activity. Researchers have recently proposed multiple sources of epeirogenic uplift and intriguing patterns of differential incision, yet little or no quantitative constraints exist in the heart of the plateau to test these ideas. Here, we use both optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) and uranium-series dating to delimit the record of fluvial strath terraces at Crystal Geyser in southeastern Utah, where the Little Grand Wash fault crosses the Green River in the broad Mancos Shale badlands of the central plateau. Results indicate there …

Water Resources Planning And Management - Michigan Technological University, Houghton, David Watkins

All ECSTATIC Materials

Graduate course in water resources planning and management offered at Michigan Technological University, Houghton in Fall 2013.

Bear River Heritage Area Visitor Survey - General Results, Tyler Baird

All Current Publications

Heritage tourism, sometimes referred to as cultural-heritage tourism, is one of the fastest growing sectors of the tourism market today