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Effects Of Spatially Distributed Stream Power On Check Dam Function In Small Upland Watersheds: A Case Study Of The Upper Laja Watershed, Guanajuato, Mexico, Zachary Andrew Herzfeld

Dissertations and Theses

Watershed restoration comes in a variety of forms depending on which set of problems are sought to be remedied. Severe soil erosion, in the form of gullying and/or headcutting, can be mitigated through constructing check dams in well-selected locations. This practice has been used throughout the upland subwatersheds within the Upper Laja River watershed in Guanajuato, México. The present study employed Wolman pebble counts to systematically assess the effectiveness of 21 check dams located near the city of San Miguel de Allende. Particle size distributions taken directly downstream and upstream of each check dam were differentiated, aggregated and compared--with the …

Moderator Biographies, Heart Of America Grazing Conference

Kentucky Grazing Conference

No abstract provided.

Grazing Panel, Jeff Beasley, Trevor Toland, Ted Krauskopf

Kentucky Grazing Conference

No abstract provided.

Cover Crops/Annuals And Grazing, Roger Staff

Kentucky Grazing Conference

The use of annual forages (cover crops), both summer and winter, have been utilized for several years. When cover crops first were used to extend the grazing season, it began with one to three species in a mixture. That was before the soil health benefits were being observed and discussed as they are now. There have been a wide variety of planting methods used: airplanes, helicopters, conventional and No-till drills. Some seeding methods is simply broadcast on the soils surface and lightly tilled in or just rained in depending upon the weather. Then we discovered the herbicides and amounts used …

Seedhead Suppression In Tall Fescue With Chaparral Herbicide, E. S. Flynn, P. B. Burch

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Tall Fescue (Lolium arundinaceum (Schreb.)) is cool-season perennial grass found in pastures throughout the Eastern US, most commonly in the transition zone. It’s tolerance to extreme temperatures, drought, poor soil fertility, heavy grazing, and pests have made it a reliable forage base for livestock pastures. Released in 1943, ‘KY-31’ tall fescue was quickly adopted by cattle producers and now inhabits an estimated 40 million acres in the US.

Soon after its adoption, cattle producers began to notice a reduction in animal performance and signs that animals were heat stressed following tall fescue consumption. These symptoms were an indication of an …

Fescue Tolerance Testing, Monty Kerley

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Fescue toxicosis is characterized by clinical symptoms such as vasoconstriction, immunosuppression, and poor thermoregulation. Fescue toxins bind to membrane receptors of cells that control constriction of blood through capillaries responsible for heat dissipation. When cattle consume toxic tall fescue, they lose ability to move blood to their skin where heat can be lost to the environment. As they lose this ability they become more prone to heat stress. In the winter, this lack of blood flow leads to other clinical symptoms, such as fescue foot and loss of tail switch, that occur from restricted blood flow.

Research Update: Beef Cattle Management Considerations For Grazing Tall Fescue, Frank Ireland

Kentucky Grazing Conference

It has been reported that 8 million beef cattle graze an estimated 35 million acres of endophyte-infected tall fescue in the United States with the majority of tall fescue being produced in the Midwest and southeastern regions of the United States. In the presence of the endophytic fungus, ergot alkaloids are present that when consumed by beef cattle results in decreased animal performance as measured in reduced weight gains, lower body condition scores, decreased conception rates, rough hair coats and the inability to regulate body temperatures. It has been estimated that this loss in animal performance accounts for a $600 …

In Defense Of Soil Health, Allen R. Williams

Kentucky Grazing Conference

Soil health is a hot topic today in sustainable agriculture circles and is even becoming more popular in conventional agriculture. However, the term is often thrown around loosely, and sometimes the meaning gets muddled.

Foreword And Conference Information [2017], Matt Bunger

Kentucky Grazing Conference

This is the front matter of the proceedings.

User Guide For Luminescence Sampling In Archaeological And Geological Context, Michelle C. Summa-Nelson, Harrison J. Gray, Jack A. Johnson, Tammy M. Rittenour, James K. Feathers, Shannon A. Mahan

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Luminescence dating provides a direct age estimate of the time of last exposure of quartz or feldspar minerals to light or heat and has been successfully applied to deposits, rock surfaces, and fired materials in a number of archaeological and geological settings. Sampling strategies are diverse and can be customized depending on local circumstances, although all sediment samples need to include a light-safe sample and material for dose-rate determination. The accuracy and precision of luminescence dating results are directly related to the type and quality of the material sampled and sample collection methods in the field. Selection of target material …

Evolution Of Floral Zygomorphy In Androecium And Corolla In Solanaceae, Jingbo Zhang, Peter Stevens, Wenheng Zhang

Biology Department Faculty Works

In Solanaceae, a group dominated by actinomorphic‐flowered species, floral zygomorphy is frequently observed among the early‐branching clades. Morphological studies indicated that a zygomorphic androecium is much more common than a zygomorphic corolla in the family. Ontogenic studies suggested the evolution of floral zygomorphy in these two whorls is independent. Here, we have examined the evolution of floral symmetry in the androecium and corolla in Solanaceae. The character states of floral symmetry were assembled for androecium and corolla separately, and ancestral state reconstructions were carried out at both the genus and species levels for Solanaceae and its outgroups. Correlation tests were …

Phylogenetic Patterns Of Rarity In A Regional Species Pool Of Tropical Woody Plants, M. Loza, Iván Jiménez, Peter Jørgensen, Gabriel Arellano, Manuel Macía, Vania Torrez, Robert Ricklefs

Biology Department Faculty Works

AimRarity, which is believed to influence extinction risk, can be defined in terms of local abundance, geographical range size and habitat breadth. Phylogenetic patterns in these attributes provide insight into the extent to which rarity and extinction risk are conserved during evolution and the potential for species‐level heritability. We evaluated phylogenetic signal (i.e., related species resembling each other more than species drawn at random) and evolutionary conservatism (similarity among related species exceeding that expected from a Brownian model of evolution) in three axes of rarity (local abundance, geographical range size and habitat breadth) among species in a regional pool of …

Toxicity Of Fluorescent Tracers And Their Degradation Byproducts, Philippe Gombert, Hugues Biaudet, René De Sèze, Pascal Pandard, Jean Carré

International Journal of Speleology

Tracer tests are frequently used to delineate catchment area of water supply springs in karstic zones. In the karstic chalk of Normandy, the main tracers used are fluorescent: uranine, sulforhodamine B, naphtionate, and Tinopal®. In this area, a statistical analysis shows that less than half of the injected tracers joins the monitored restitution points and enters the drinking water system where they undergo chlorination. Most of the injected tracers is absorbed in the rock matrix or is thrown out of the aquifer via karstic springs: then it can join superficial waters where it is degraded due to the sun and …

Paid To Pump: How A Tax Credit Could Discourage Conservation Of The High Plains Aquifer, S. Polzkill,, A. Stejskal, H. Wilke, Anna Wistrom, Katherine E. B. Gibson, Mindy J. Spiehs, Nicholas Brozovic

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

In 1965’s United States v. Shurbet case, an irrigator from Texas asserted his claim for a depletion tax deduction for groundwater pumped from the High Plains Aquifer. He argued that the unique conditions of the southern High Plains region - a plateau where the shallow aquifer is recharged only through precipitation at a slow rate - meant the groundwater resource would be depleted in time. The state argued that groundwater was not fundamentally an exhaustible natural deposit, but the Supreme Court concluded the tax deduction was appropriate given the “peculiar” conditions in the area. It was stated the decision was …

Nebraska, Usa: Wonderful Fossils, Natural History Museums And Public Art Depicting Fossils, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

Nebraska is known by vertebrate palaeontologists as the place in North America where there is a very complete Cenozoic geologic record of mammalian evolution over the last thirty-five million years or so. All you have to do is visit any of the many major natural history museums in the USA and in many countries around the world, including the UK, to see fossil skulls, articulated skeletons and large slabs of rock containing bones of fossil mammals from Nebraska to verify this assertion. Nebraska is also the site of Cretaceous rocks containing the oldest known Cretaceous fossil flower and many other …

Elemental Contamination Of An Ancient Copper Mine In Killarney National Park, Killarney, Ireland, Courtney Chouinard

Geology: Student Scholarship & Creative Works

Ross Island Copper Mine, located in Killarney National Park, Killarney, Ireland, is known for archeological artifacts of copper from the Bronze Age. Copper production surged in the late 1700s and into the mid-1800s. The mine included both open pits (e.g. Blue Hole) and underground excavations (e.g. Western Mine). Copper veins were found in the Mississippian-aged limestone bedrock along with chalcopyrite and tennantite ore. In 1912, tourism had become the main source of income in the area, and the mines and the land surrounding them were remediated and became a part of the national park. Mine shafts were filled in, waste …

Agricultural Trade Publications And The 2012 Midwestern U.S. Drought: A Missed Opportunity For Climate Risk Communication, Sarah P. Church, Tonya Haigh, Melissa Widhalm, Silvestre Garcia De Jalon, Nicholas Babin, J. Stuart Carlton, Michael Dunn, Katie Fagan, Cody L. Knutson, Linda Stalker Prokopy

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The Midwestern United States experienced a devastating drought in 2012, leading to reduced corn and soybean yields and increased instances of pests and disease. Climate change induced weather variability and extremes are expected to increase in the future, and have and will continue to impact the agricultural sector. This study investigated how agricultural trade publications portrayed the 2012 U.S. Midwestern drought, whether climate change was associated with drought, and whether these publications laid out transformative adaptation measures farmers could undertake in order to increase their adaptive capacity for future climate uncertainty. We performed a content analysis of 1000 media reports …

Taphonomic Problems In Reconstructing Sea-Level History From The Late Quaternary Marine Terraces Of Barbados, Daniel R. Muhs, Kathleen R. Simmons

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Although uranium series (U-series) ages of growth-position fossil corals are important to Quaternary sea-level history, coral clast reworking from storms can yield ages on a terrace dating to more than one high-sea stand, confounding interpretations of sea-level history. On northern Barbados, U-series ages corals from a thick storm deposit are not always younger with successively higher stratigraphic positions, but all date to the last interglacial period (~127 ka to ~112 ka), Marine Isotope Substage (MIS) 5.5. The storm deposit ages are consistent with the ages of growth-position corals found at the base of the section and at landward localities on …

Smartphone Technologies And Bayesian Networks To Assess Shorebird Habitat Selection, Sara L. Zeigler, E. Robert Thieler, Benjamin T. Gutierrez, Nathaniel G. Plant, Megan Hines, James D. Fraser, Daniel H. Catlin

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Understanding patterns of habitat selection across a species’ geographic distribution can be critical for adequately managing populations and planning for habitat loss and related threats. However, studies of habitat selection can be time consuming and expensive over broad spatial scales, and a lack of standardized monitoring targets or methods can impede the generalization of site-based studies. Our objective was to collaborate with natural resource managers to define available nesting habitat for piping plovers (Charadrius melodus) throughout their U.S. Atlantic coast distribution from Maine to North Carolina, with a goal of providing science that could inform habitat management in …

Semi-Arid Grassland Bird Responses To Patch-Burn Grazing And Drought, Susan K. Skagen, David J. Augustine, Justin D. Derner

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

As grassland birds of central North America experience steep population declines with changes in land use, management of remaining tracts becomes increasingly important for population viability. The integrated use of fire and grazing may enhance vegetation heterogeneity and diversity in breeding birds, but the subsequent effects on reproduction are unknown. We examined the influence of patch-burn grazing management in shortgrass steppe in eastern Colorado on habitat use and reproductive success of 3 grassland bird species, horned lark (Eremophila alpestris), lark bunting (Calamospiza melanocorys), and McCown’s longspur (Rhynchophanes mccownii), at several spatial scales during 2011 …

Lack Of Observed Movement Response To Lead Exposure Of California Condors, Sharon A. Poessel, Joseph Brandt, Linda Uyeda, Molly Astell, Todd E. Katzner

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Lead poisoning is an important conservation concern for wildlife, and scavenging birds are especially at risk from consumption of carcasses of animals killed with lead ammunition. Because current methods to identify lead exposure require animal capture and blood collection, management would benefit from the development of a less costly and noninvasive behavioral test for illness in wild animals. We attempted to design such a test to identify lead exposure in California condors (Gymnogyps californianus) that we tracked with global positioning system (GPS) telemetry in southern California, USA, 2013–2016. We measured blood-lead concentrations in tracked birds and expected that …

Effects Of Industrial And Investigator Disturbance On Arctic-Nesting Geese, Brandt W. Meixell, Paul L. Flint

United States Geological Survey: Staff Publications

Oil and gas development on the Arctic Coastal Plain (ACP) of Alaska, USA may have effects on Arctic-nesting birds. To estimate effects of industrial activity and investigator disturbance on avian productivity, we monitored nests of greater white-fronted geese (Anser albifrons) with digital cameras and periodic nest visits during 2013–2014 at 2 sites on the ACP. A disturbed site was adjacent to human-made infrastructure and industrial clean-up activities initiated at the onset of the study and a control site was >2 km from sources of industrial disturbance. We assessed variation in estimates of incubation constancy, nest survival, and predator …

A Model-Based Assessment Of Potential Impacts Of Man-Made Reservoirs On Precipitation, Jesse Winchester, Rezaul Mahmood, William Rodgers, Faisal Hossain, Eric Rappin, Joshua D. Durkee, Themis Chronis

High Plains Regional Climate Center: Staff Publications

Land-use land-cover change (LULCC) plays an important role in weather and climate systems. Human modifications of land cover include building reservoirs and thus creating artificial lakes for multipurpose use. In this research, the authors have completed a Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model–based assessment of impacts of two large parallel lakes on precipitation. This area is located in the western part of the states of Kentucky and Tennessee and known as the Land between the Lakes (LBL). To determine the impacts, this study has replaced the lakes with grass, deciduous forests, and bare soil and conducted model simulations for three …

Effects Of Biochar Treatment Of Municipal Biosolids And Horse Manure On Quality Of Runoff From Fescue Plots, Rachel Williams, Dwayne R. Edwards

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

Land-applied horse manure and municipal biosolids can increase nutrient and bacteria concentrations in runoff. Biochar has been demonstrated to have beneficial impacts on nutrient retention and runoff quality when used to treat other land-applied organic soil amendments (e.g., poultry manure). The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of biochar addition to horse manure and municipal biosolids on runoff concentrations of nutrients and fecal coliforms. Biochar was added at 5% to 8% (wet basis) to horse manure and biosolids that were applied to 2.4 m x 6.1 m fescue plots followed by application of simulated rainfall (102 mm …

Response Of Soil Properties To 23-25 Years Of Diverse Crop Rotations And Tillage Systems In South Dakota, Usa, Abdullah H. Alhameid

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Diverse cropping systems and no-till (NT) are beneficial in improving soil organic carbon (SOC) and other soils properties. The present study was conducted to evaluate the interactions and impacts of long-term tillage and diverse crop rotation systems on soil quality indicators that include a range of soil chemical, physical, hydrological, and microbial properties. The study was established in 1991 at Beresford, South Dakota and included three crop rotation systems [2-yr; maize (Zea mays L.)-soybean (Glycine max L.), 3-yr; maize-soybean-oat (Avena sativa L.), and 4-yr; maize-soybean-oat-wheat (Triticum aestivum L.)] managed under two tillage systems (NT and CT; conventional- tillage). Soil sampling …

Higher-Resolution Biostratigraphy For The Kinta Limestone And An Implication For Continuous Sedimentation In The Paleo-Tethys, Western Belt Of Peninsular Malaysia, Haylay Tsegab Gebretsadik, Chow Weng Sum, Gatovsky A.Yuriy, Aaron W. Hunter, Jasmi Ab Talib, Solomon Kassa

Turkish Journal of Earth Sciences

The paleogeography of the juxtaposed Southeast Asian terranes, derived from the northeastern margins of Gondwana during the Carboniferous to Triassic, resulted in complex basin evolution with massive carbonate deposition on the margins of the Paleo-Tethys. Due to the inherited structural and tectonothermal complexities, discovery of diagnostic microfossils from these carbonates has been problematic. This is particularly the case for the Kinta Limestone, a massive Paleozoic carbonate succession that covers most of the Kinta Valley in the central part of the Western Belt of Peninsular Malaysia. Owing to the complex structural and igneous events, as well as extensive diagenetic alterations, establishing …

America's National Parks And The Anthropocene: Addressing The Present To Accommodate The Future In Acadia National Park, Sophie A. Swetz

Honors Theses

In 2000, atmospheric chemist, Paul J. Crutzen, and limnologist, Eugene Stoermer, formally proposed the idea of “the Anthropocene,” a new geologic epoch in which humans are the dominant force shaping the Earth. To claim the Anthropocene's existence is to declare that human actions have altered the Earth in such a way that geologic indicators render it a distinct epoch in the stratification of geologic time. This new epoch emerges as a consequence of increased technological development employed to accommodate an anthropocentric human existence. That is, rapid advancements in technology have driven the transformation from a primarily naturally controlled planet to …

Habitat Modeling And Vegetation Mapping Of Mammoth Cave National Park Using Lidar Data And Multispectral Imagery, Hongli Yang

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

An up-to-date and detailed vegetation map provides critical information for habitat management. In addition, a habitat model is necessary for Park’s Fire Management, for classification of fuel types, and for delineation of fire management units. Several attempts to map the vegetation at the Mammoth Cave National Park were conducted in 1934, 1975, 1997 and 2011. This essential goal of this study was to produce a new vegetation habitat model and update the vegetation map for the Park. Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery, LiDAR and bedrock dataset were used for habitat model configuration and vegetation mapping at Mammoth Cave National …

Soil Response To Cropping Sequences And Grazing Under Integrated Crop-Livestock System, Hanxiao Feng

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Integrated crop-livestock system (ICLS) is helpful in diversifying a farm for improving its long-term sustainability and economic benefits. In the United States, the ICLS has been increasing in recent years because of its economic and environmental benefits. However, the impacts of ICLS on soil quality is not well documented in North Dakota. The objective of our study is to assess the impacts of cropping sequences and cattle grazing on the selected soil properties in the crop diversity and livestock integration practice. This study site was established in 2010 at the Dickinson Research Extension Center, Dickinson, North Dakota. The study design …

Impacts Of Integrated Crop-Livestock System On Soil Surface Greenhouse Gas Fluxes At A Farm Scale In South Dakota, Brant Douville

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Grazing and cover crops (CC) can impact soil nutrient cycling but may increase the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from soils. However, little is known about their impacts on soil properties and soil surface GHG emissions in an integrated crop-livestock system (ICLS) in South Dakota, USA. The present study was conducted at a farm scale at the Research Farm of South Dakota State University, Brookings, South Dakota, to assess the impact of cover crops and grazing on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), and bulk density (BD), and soil surface carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane (CH₄), and nitrous oxide …