Digital Commons Network^™

Beryllium-7 Elucidate Sediment Dynamics Of The Branford River Estuary, Connecticut, Usa, Gaboury Benoit, Matthew Hirschbeck, Beth Bisson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Berrylium-7 elucidates sediment dynamics (i.e., sources, sinks, deposition, and resuspension) in a Connecticut estuary. Average 7 −2−1 annual atmospheric deposition of Be is 290 mBq cm year. Sediment samples from 43 locations within the estuary show that 7Be deposition is spatially complex, but were statistically indistinguishable a year apart. Weekly time series of sediments indicate 7 that levels are nearly constant on this shorter time scale on ceradio active decay is taken into account. Be levels in sediments area balance between steady losses through radioactive decay and periodic pulse inputs following rainstorms. The water column was measured intensively during three …

Implications Of Organic Mass To Carbon Ratios Increasing Over Time In The Rural United States, W.C. Malm, B.A. Schichtel, J.L. Hand, A.J. Prenni

United States National Park Service: Publications

The thermal evolution procedure used by most monitoring programs in the United States to determine carbonaceous aerosol concentrations is referred to as the thermal‐optical reflectance method, where an aerosol sample that has been collected on a quartz filter is heated and evolved carbon is characterized as either organic (OC) or light absorbing carbon (LAC). Evolved carbon assigned to OC is multiplied by a factor, Roc, to achieve an estimate of organic mass. Over the last 10–15 years, Roc, estimated through multiple linear regression analysis of data collected in the Interagency Monitoring of Protected Visual Environments (IMPROVE) program, has increased at …

Children’S Voices About ‘Return’ Migration From The United States To Mexico: The 0.5 Generation, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Since 2004, our research has focused precisely in those minors who ‘returned’ from the United States to Mexico. Our interest has been to know the social, geographical, educational, and symbolic trajectories of those migrant children and adolescents who are part of the contemporary move of returnees. Based on the children’s narratives (all collected before US November 2016 federal election), we now have a multifaceted response to the question: How and why are young Mexican migrants returning from the United States to Mexico? Some of these returnees were born in Mexico and arrived to the United States when they were young. …

Berry Important? Wolf Provisions Pups With Berries In Northern Minnesota, Austin T. Homkes, Thomas D. Gable, Steve K. Windles, Joseph K. Bump

United States National Park Service: Publications

Wolves (Canis lupus) primarily provision pups by catching mammalian prey and bringing remains of the carcass to the pups at a den or rendezvous site via their mouths or stomach. In August 2017, we observed an adult wolf regurgitating wild blueberries (Vaccinium spp.) to pups at a rendezvous site in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, Minnesota, USA, which is the only known observation of wolves provisioning pups with wild berries. This observation, in combination with other evidence from the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem, suggests wild berries might be a more valuable food source for wolves in southern boreal ecosystems than previously appreciated.

Modelling Pinniped Abundance And Distribution By Combining Counts At T Terrestrial Sites And In-Water Sightings, Steven L. Whitlock, Jamie N. Womble, James T. Peterson

United States National Park Service: Publications

Pinnipeds are commonly monitored using aerial photographic surveys at land- or ice-based sites, where animals come ashore for resting, pupping, molting, and to avoid predators. Although these counts form the basis for monitoring population change over time, they do not provide information regarding where animals occur in the water, which is often of management and conservation interest. In this study, we developed a hierarchical model that links counts of pinnipeds at terrestrial sites to sightings-at-sea and estimates abundance, spatial distribution, and the proportion of time spent on land (attendance probability). The structure of the model also allows for the inclusion …

Dental Microwear As A Behavioral Proxy For Distinguishing Between Canids At The Upper Paleolithic (Gravettian) Site Of Predmostí, Czech Republic, Kari A. Prassack, Josephine Dubois, Martina Laznickova-Galetova, Mietje Germonpre, Peter S. Ungar

United States National Park Service: Publications

Morphological and genetic evidence put dog domestication during the Paleolithic, sometime between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago, with identification of the earliest dogs debated. We predict that these earliest dogs (referred to herein as protodogs), while potentially difficult to distinguish morphologically from wolves, experienced behavioral shifts, including changes in diet. Specifically, protodogs may have consumed more bone and other less desirable scraps within human settlement areas. Here we apply Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA) to canids from the Gravettian site of P�redmostí (approx. 28,500 BP), which were previously assigned to the Paleolithic dog or Pleistocene wolf morphotypes. We test whether …

Risk And Cost Assessment Of Nitrate Contamination In Domestic Wells, Pongpun Juntakut, Erin M.K. Haacker, Daniel D. Snow, Chittaranjan Ray

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This study combines empirical predictive and economics models to estimate the cost of remediation for domestic wells exceeding suggested treatment thresholds for nitrates. A multiple logistic regression model predicted the probability of well contamination by nitrate, and a life cycle costing methodology was used to estimate costs of nitrate contamination in groundwater in two areas of Nebraska. In south-central Nebraska, 37% of wells were estimated to be at risk of exceeding a threshold of 7.5 mg/L as N, and 17% were at risk of exceeding 10 mg/L as N, the legal limit for human consumption in the United States. In …

Bird Community Monitoring At Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas, Status Report 2001–2018, David G. Peitz, Kathleen A. Kull

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

In 2001, the Heartland I&M Network initiated breeding bird surveys on Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Kansas, to assess the ecological integrity of the preserve’s habitat. Birds are an important component of ecosystems and can serve as good indicators of habitat change in an ecosystem. In the 17 years of bird surveys at the preserve (2001 to 2018, excluding 2003), there were 2,089 plot visits and 119 different bird species recorded, 96 of which have the potential to breed within the preserve. These 96 species represent approximately 81% of the total species one would reasonably expect to have breeding …

Homestead National Monument Of America, Acoustic Monitoring Report, 2017, Emma Brown

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

This report presents acoustical data gathered by Student Conservation Association interns and the Natural Resource Specialist at Homestead National Monument of America in 2017. Data were collected at one site to provide park managers with information about the acoustical environment, sources of noise, and the existing ambient sound levels within the monument. This deployment also captured acoustic conditions during the total solar eclipse on 8/21/2017. (Results of the eclipse monitoring effort are provided in Appendix B.)

In this deployment, sound pressure level (SPL) was measured continuously every second by a calibrated sound level meter. Other equipment included an …

Homestead National Monument Of America, Acoustic Monitoring, 2011-2012

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

This report presents acoustical data gathered by Student Conservation Association interns and the Natural Resource Specialist at Homestead National Monument of America in 2011 and 2012. Data were collected at four sites to provide park managers with information on the acoustical environment, sources of noise, and the existing ambient sound levels within the monument. The data will also inform the park managers with information regarding the potential impact of traffic on Highway 4.

Monitoring occurred at each site during two different seasons (except HOME002) in order to document seasonal variations. In each deployment, sound pressure level (SPL) was …

Natural Resources Condition Assessment, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (February 2020 Revision), Reilly R. Dibner, Nicole Korfanta, Gary Beauvais

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

In collaboration with the National Park Service, the University of Wyoming Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment and Natural Resources and the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database completed the Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) for Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (NM). The purpose of the NRCA is to provide park leaders and resource managers with information on resource conditions to support near-term planning and management, long-term strategic planning, and effective science communication to decision-makers and the public.

Agate Fossil Beds NM was authorized in 1965 and established in 1997. The purposes of the park include protecting the paleontological resources on the …

Measuring Spatial And Temporal Shifts In Forest Structure And Composition In T High Elevation Beech Forests In Response To Beech Bark Disease In Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Lee Rubmle, Glenn Taylor, Joshua B. Grinath, Ashley B. Morris

United States National Park Service: Publications

Exotic forest pests and pathogens are among the most serious environmental threats to millions of hectares of forested land worldwide. Beech Bark Disease (BBD) is a non-native, pathogenic complex consisting of associations between scale insects and fungi. First confirmed in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (GRSM) in 1986, this complex has since threatened local high elevation beech forests, which are G-1 ranked (critically imperiled) forest communities where American beech (Fagus grandifolia Ehrh.) is a foundational tree species. In 1994, GRSM initiated the BBD Monitoring Protocol at 10 high elevation beech forest plots in the Park. The plots were sampled biennially …

Prey Of Reintroduced Fishers And Their Habitat Relationships In The Cascades T Range, Washington, Mitchell A. Parsons, Jeffrey C. Lewis, Jonathan N. Pauli, Tara Chestnut, Jason I. Ransom, David O. Werntz, Laura R. Prugh

United States National Park Service: Publications

Conservation and recovery of forest carnivores requires an understanding of their habitat requirements, as well as requirements of their prey. In much of the western United States, trapping and habitat loss led to extirpations of fishers (Pekania pennanti) by the mid-20th century, and reintroductions are ongoing to restore fishers to portions of their former range. Fisher recovery in Washington State has been limited by isolation from other populations, but other potentially important factors, such as diet of fishers in this region and prey availability, have not been thoroughly investigated. We collected hair samples from potential prey and fishers for stable …

Insights About Diversity Of Tetrabothriidae (Eucestoda) Among Holarctic Alcidae (Charadriiformes): What Is Tetrabothrius Jagerskioeldi?, Eric P. Hoberg, Kaylen Marie Soudachanh

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

Tetrabothriid cestodes are characteristic helminths that infect species of seabirds globally. We begin with the exploration of the diversity of tapeworms of the genus Tetrabothrius Rudolphi, 1819 (Eucestoda: Tetrabothriidae), some of which are distributed among seabirds of the family Alcidae (Charadriiformes) at boreal to higher latitudes of Holarctic seas. During the course of 2 decades of field inventory from 1975 through the early 1990s (in addition to earlier collections assembled by Robert L. Rausch and colleagues in Alaska initiated in the late 1940s), an extensive series of tapeworm specimens attributable to species of Tetrabothrius was recovered from seabirds across the …

Plains Zebra (Equus Quagga) Behaviour In A Restored Population Reveals Seasonal Resource Limitations, Charli De Vos, Alison J. Leslie, Jason I. Ransom

United States National Park Service: Publications

A once abundant species, plains zebra (Equus quagga), is declining across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Reintroduction efforts at Majete Wildlife Reserve, Malawi, have resulted in rapid population increases, but little is known about how such populations resemble natural populations socially or behaviourally, and what those attributes may reveal about restoration success. Incorporating behavioural knowledge into conservation efforts is an important tool for managing the effects of habitat fragmentation and resource competition. The aim of this study was to quantify the daylight time budget of both family and bachelor bands of reintroduced plains zebra to determine if such behaviours …

Informal Science Experiences Among Urban And Rural Youth: Exploring Differences At The Intersections Of Socioeconomic Status, Gender And Ethnicity, Patricia Wonch Hill, Julia Mcquillan, Eileen A. Hebets, Amy N. Spiegel, Judy Diamond

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The current study explores patterns of informal science experiences among youth in urban and rural middle schools by gender and socioeconomic status. Data come from surveys in two Midwestern middle schools, one in a mid-sized city, and the other in a rural-remote town. We asked about participation in informal science activities (e.g. visiting zoos or museums, or watching shows about science) and if youth had participated in science-focused clubs in the last 12 months (e.g. after-school science clubs, 4-H, scouts). Rural youth reported lower rates of participation in after-school science clubs and a greater desire to participate in after-school science …

Predicting Livestock Depredation Risk By African Lions (Panthera Leo) In A Multi-Use Area Of Northern Tanzania, K. Beattie, E. R. Olson, B. Kissui, A. Kirschbaum, C. Kiffner

United States National Park Service: Publications

Human-wildlife conflicts, especially those involving large carnivores, are of global conservation and livelihood concern and require effective and locally-adapted prevention measures. Risk of lion attack on livestock (i.e. depredation) may vary seasonally and may be associated with variation in wild prey abundance or landscape characteristics. To test these competing hypotheses, we used a resource selection approach, and determined whether prey catchability (indicated by geo-spatial variables), or prey availability (indicated by modeled abundance recorded via camera traps) explained spatial and seasonal variation in livestock depredation risk by African lions on Manyara Ranch Conservancy, a multi-use area in northern Tanzania. Seasonal variation …

Niche Modeling Reveals Life History Shifts In Birds At La Brea Over The Last Twenty Millennia, Robert M. Zink, Sebastian Botero-Canola, Helen Martinez, Katelyn M. Herzberg

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A species presence at a particular site can change over time, resulting in temporally dynamic species pools. Ecological niche models provide estimates of species presence at different time intervals. The avifauna of La Brea includes approximately 120 species dating to approximately 15,000 years ago. Niche models predicted presence at the Last Glacial Maximum for over 90% of 89 landbird species. This confirms that niche modeling produces sensible range estimates at the Last Glacial Maximum. For 97 currently local species that are as yet undocumented at La Brea over 90% were predicted to occur; absence is due to insufficient study, lack …

Cultivating Water Literacy In Stem Education: Undergraduates’ Socio-Scientific Reasoning About Socio-Hydrologic Issues, David C. Owens, Destini N. Petitt, Diane Lally, Cory Forbes

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Water-literate individuals effectively reason about the hydrologic concepts that underlie socio-hydrological issues (SHI), but functional water literacy also requires concomitant reasoning about the societal, non-hydrological aspects of SHI. Therefore, this study explored the potential for the socio-scientific reasoning construct (SSR), which includes consideration of the complexity of issues, the perspectives of stakeholders involved, the need for ongoing inquiry, skepticism about information sources, and the affordances of science toward the resolution of the issue, to aid undergraduates in acquiring such reasoning skills. In this fixed, embedded mixed methods study (N = 91), we found SHI to hold great potential as meaningful …

Leaf Reflectance Spectra Capture The Evolutionary History Of Seed Plants, Jose Eduardo Meireles, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Philip A. Townsend, Susan Ustin, John A. Gamon, Anna K. Schweiger, Michael E. Schaepman, Gregory P. Asner, Roberta E. Martin, Aditya Singh, Franziska Schrodt, Adam Chlus, Brian C. O’Meara

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

• Leaf reflection spectra have been increasingly used to assess plant diversity. However, we do not yet understand how spectra vary across the tree of life or how the evolution of leaf traits affects the differentiation of spectra among species and lineages.
• Here we describe a framework that integrates spectra with phylogenies and apply it to aglobal dataset of over 16 000 leaf-level spectra (400–2400 nm) for 544 seed plant species. We test for phylogenetic signal in spectra, evaluate their ability to classify lineages, and characterize their evolutionary dynamics.
• We show that phylogenetic signal is present in leaf spectra but that …

Chronology Of Advance And Recession Dynamics Of The Southern Green Bay Lobe Of The Laurentide Ice Sheet, South-Central Wisconsin, Usa, Eric C. Carson, John W. Attig, J. Elmo Rawling Iii, Paul R. Hanson, Stefanie E. Dodge

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

We used a combination of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating, optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) age estimates, and stratigraphic data from cores collected along the southern margin of the Green Bay Lobe (GBL) of the Laurentide Ice Sheet to provide new information on the timing and dynamics of the end of advance of the GBL and the dynamics of the ice sheet while very near its maximum position. Coring at multiple sites along the margin of the GBL indicate that ice had reached a stable position near its maximum extent by 24.7 ka; that ice advanced several kilometers to the …

Can Hydraulic Conductivity Of Fluvial Sediments Be Informed By Spectral Reflectance?, Li Yao Li, Can Liu, Gengxin Ou, Zhaowei Wang, Jesse Korus, Ran Jiang

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Engineer Operations, United States Army

United States Army: Field Manuals

Engineer Operations, United States Army Field Manual FM 3-34

6th Grade: English Level 3, Learning Packet #5 • Theme: Aztecs, Mayans, & Incas, Amanda Mclaughlin, Lauren Gatti, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 3 of English Proficiency (K-12)

This week you will travel back in time to the civilizations of the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. These three civilizations built great cities throughout Central America and South America, also known as Mesoamerica. Their inventions and culture can still be found in these regions today!

Day 1 • Ancient Mesoamerica Vocabulary, Mesoamerica: Where Civilizations Flourished, and Crashed, Repeatedly, Map of Mesoamerica Scavenger Hunt, What is PEMDAS?

Day 2 • Aztec Primary Source, Mayan Xocolatl, Order of Operations

Day 3 • Suspension Bridges, Mayan Girls use their language skills to help immigrants from Guatemala, Roll an equation

Day 4 • Math …

6th–8th Grade: English Level 1, Learning Packet #2 • Theme: Migrations And Family [Students With Interrupted Formal Schooling], Jessica L. Millen, Brooke David, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 1 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Day 1 • Migration and geography vocabulary, What are verbs?, Numbers 1-10, Introduce someone else

Day 2 • Family vocabulary, New vocabulary, Where are you from?

Day 3 • Vocabulary review, What are pronouns?, Family relationships reading, Write about your family, My family compare and contrast, Compare and contrast Ahmed's family, Compare and contrast your family

Day 4 • , Ku Moo's journey

Day 5 • Where are you from?

My Packet Journal

Reference Sheet

Answer Keys

11th–12th Grade: English Level 2, Learning Packet #5 • Theme: Dolores Huerta, Trevin Wurm, Aaron P. Johnson, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 2 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Day 1 • Journal: think about a job you have or want to have, Who was Dolores Huerta?, Science: What are landforms?

Day 2 • Journal: what are some ways you can help the students in your school?. Strikes and boycotts, Compare and contrast, Science: Landforms, adjectives

Day 3 • Journal: how is Dolores Huerta similar and different from Susan B. Anthony?, Strike or boycott?, Is and are, Science: Landforms, adjectives

Day 4 • Journal: what is an example of a job many people have?, Strike and boycott: draw a picture, Science: identifying and describing landforms

Day 5 • Journal: …

4th–5th Grade: English Level 2, Learning Packet #1 • Theme: Our Planet, Claudia T. Yunes, Tricia Gray, Kara Mitchell Viesca, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 2 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Packet #1 Outline: Our Planet (activity, content area)

Choose a Buddy

Reading daily practice

Roll your sight words #1

Vocabulary

Vocabulary cards: Earth

Our planet

Fill in the blanks

Vocabulary matching

My report

Math daily practice

Numbers in word form and expanded form

Math facts about Earth

Where do I come from?

Let's move!

My Packet Journal

Reference Sheet

Answer Key

6th–8th Grade: English Level 2, Learning Packet #1 • Theme: Traveling To Mexico, Ronnie Grace, Aaron P. Johnson, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 2 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Day 1 • Traveling to Mexico!, Vocabulary you need to know, Where in the world are we?, Mexico's flag, Mexico's language, Pack your suitcase!, Mexico's climate, What do you know? What do you want to learn?, Let's go to Mexico!

Day 2 • Vocab review, Weather in Mexico, Instagram post!, Mexico's geography (land), Geography questions, Math review

Day 3 • Vocab review, Math review, Soccer in Mexico, Your turn!, Sugar skull art

Day 4 • Vocab review, Chichén Itzá, Plants in Mexico, What is the same and what is different?, Money in Mexico

Day 5 • Vocab review, "Juego de …

6th–8th Grade: English Level 2, Learning Packet #3 • Theme: Australia, Ronnie Grace, Aaron P. Johnson, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 2 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Day 1 • Traveling to Australia!, Vocabulary you need to know, Where in the world are we?, Australia's flag, Pack your suitcase!, What do you know? What do you need to know?

Day 2 • Vocabulary review, Australia's geography, Geography questions, Math practice

Day 3 • Math practice, Rugby vs. football, Great Barrier Reef

Day 4 • Vocabulary review, Wildfires in Australia. Australian Outback

Day 5 • Vocab practice, What did you learn in Australia?, The Sydney Opera House, Goodbye, Australia!

My Packet Journal

Reference Sheet

Answer Keys

6th–8th Grade: English Level 2, Learning Packet #4 • Theme: Russia, Ronnie Grace, Aaron Johnson, Alexa Yunes

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 2 of English Proficiency (K-12)

Day 1 • Traveling to Russia!, Vocabulary you need to know, Where in the world are we?, Now it's your turn!, Russia's flag, Pack your suitcase!, What do you know? What do you want to learn?

Day 2 • Vocabulary review, Time to write, Russia's climate, Questions!, Math practice

Day 3 • Vocabulary review, Time to write, Math practice, Let's write poetry!

Day 4 • Vocabulary review, White Night festival, Now it's your turn!, Russian money and way of life, Your turn!

Day 5 • Stargazing in Russia, Your turn!, Cathedrals in Russia, Your turn!, Postcard reflection, Goodbye, Russia!

My …