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2008 Cutr Annual Report, Cutr

CUTR Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

National Cave And Karst Research Institute 2007-2008 Annual Report, National Cave And Karst Research Institute

KIP Articles

No abstract provided.

2008: Physical Resources Stewardship Report: Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Deanna Greco, Ellen Porter, David Vana-Miller

KIP Data Sets and Technical Reports

Natural Resource Technical Report provided by Louise Hose in support of ICS Field Trip 051 - "Scientific Rambles in Southeastern New Mexico." Open Access See Extended description for more information.

Katherine Bell Tippetts: A Female Voice For Conservation During Florida’S Boom, Leslie Kemp Poole

Tampa Bay History

No abstract provided.

Voices From The Past And Echoes Of The Future: Management Of Forest And Woodland Resources By Local Religious Institutions Within The Mufurudzi Resettlement Scheme In Zimbabwe, Geoffrey Mukwada

Journal of Ecological Anthropology

The existing body of literature on community-based natural resource management suggests that local institutions are a mainstay, particularly for the management of plants and animals upon which communities depend for livelihood. However, evidence from the Mufurudzi resettlement scheme in Zimbabwe refutes this assertion. This paper examines the effectiveness of local religious institutions in the management of forest and woodland resources at the micro-level. In this setting, communities were “grafted;” that is, their members were arbitrarily selected for resettlement without consideration for the diversity of their cultural backgrounds or whether they were neighbors to one another prior to resettlement. Based on …

National Cave And Karst Research Institute 2006-2007 Annual Report Nckri Biennial Report, 2006-2007, National Cave And Karst Research Institute

KIP Articles

Contents: Executive Summary -- A Time of Changes -- Organizational Chart -- Board of Directors -- Board Meetings -- Building Design -- NCKRI Projects -- Visiting Scholar Program -- Distinguished Lecture Series -- Publications -- Website -- Karst Information Portal -- NCKRI Sponsored Projects -- Volunteers -- Budget Information -- Future Directions.

The Weekly Challenger, December 20, 2007, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The December 20, 2007, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

Measuring The Impacts Of Employer-Based Transportation Demand Management Programs On An Interstate Corridor, Nevine Labib Georggi, Phil Winters, Sachin Rai, Liren Zhou

Journal of Public Transportation

This article is based on a study that analyzed the impacts of employer-based transportation demand management (TDM) strategies and the performance of a transportation system. The study simulated the effects of the Washington State Commute Trip Reduction (CTR) programs implemented by 189 employers on an 8.6-mile segment of I-5 in the Seattle downtown area. This comprehensive dataset included before/after employer trip reduction plans and the origins/destinations of nearly 63,000 commuters working for those 189 employers. The current performance of the selected network was compared to that of a scenario with reduced vehicle trips due to CTR programs added back onto …

Differences In Bark Beetle (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Community Composition Within Cecropia Obtusifolia (Cecropiaceae) Petioles In Two Habitats In Monteverde, Costa Rica, December 2007, Amy Strauss

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Cecropia obtusifolia trees shed leaves daily throughout the year, regularly dropping large, woody leaf petioles. These petioles serve as the perfect habitat for Scolytine bark beetles, which burrow in, lay their eggs, and feed on the moist, fibrous pith of the petiole (Wood 1983). Cecropia spp. are known to thrive in fragmented, edge habitats altered by human land use transformation (Bello et al 1996) but success rates of associated fauna, including Azteca spp. ants, scale insects and Scolytine beetles, are less understood. This study examined the bark beetle community composition, morphospecies richness, and abundance inside C. obtusifolia petioles. It also …

The Weekly Challenger, October 25, 2007, The Weekly Challenger, Et Al

Weekly Challenger Newspaper Collection

The October 25, 2007, issue of The Weekly Challenger.

The Use Of Microarrays In The Detection Of The Gene Expression Of Ribulose- 1,5- Bisphosphate Carboxylase/Oxygenase (Rubisco) In The Marine Environment, Kathryn Lafaye Bailey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Calvin-Benson-Bassham (CBB) pathway is the primary pathway for the entry of inorganic carbon in the biosphere. Autotrophic organisms use this cycle to ultimately convert CO₂ into carbohydrates using a key enzyme known as ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase (RubisCO). The gene that encodes for the large subunit of RubisCO is rbcL and detection of its expression can be used to determine the autotrophic organisms present in the environment. Recently, microarrays have been used to study functional gene expression from environmental samples such as those obtained from sediments and soil. The purpose of this thesis is to combine microarray technology and rbcL …

Simulations Of The Redistribution Of Formaldehyde, Formic Acid, And Peroxides In The 10 July 1996 Stratospheric‐Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols, And Ozone Deep Convection Storm, M. C. Barth, S.-W. Kim, W. C. Skamarock, Amy L. Stuart, K. E. Pickering, L. E. Ott

Environmental and Occupational Health Faculty Publications

By using a three‐dimensional convective cloud model to simulate the 10 July 1996, Stratospheric‐Tropospheric Experiment: Radiation, Aerosols, and Ozone‐Deep Convection experiment storm, we investigate the fate of formaldehyde (CH₂O), formic acid (HCOOH), hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), and methyl hydrogen peroxide (CH₃OOH) in an isolated thunderstorm. CH₂O, H₂O₂, and CH₃OOH are important HOx radical and ozone (O₃) precursors in the upper troposphere. Thus, determining their source strength to the upper troposphere is important for estimating O₃ production. The model simulates O_{3 …}

Factors Influencing Dispersal And Population Structure Of Phoretic Mites In Centropogon Solanifolius (Campanulaceae) And Columnea Spp. (Gesneriaceae), May 2007, Emily Davis

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Phoretic hummingbird flower mites of the genus Rhinoseius are nectar thieves of Centropogon solanifolius (Campanulaceae) and Columnea spp. (Gesneriaceae) at Monteverde. Dispersal by phoresy is a rare and risky, but nonetheless critical, event in the lives of hummingbird mites (Colwell and Naeem 1994). This study investigates factors that influence phoretic dispersal by R. colwelli (Mesostigmata: Ascidae), by comparing dispersal from C. solanifolius and Columnea spp. Additionally, this study explores the relationships between mite population size and structure in the two plant species. Flower age, mite population density, sex ratio, and nectar availability were considered as possible influences on dispersal and …

Evaluating Windbreaks As A Conservation Strategy For Pollinator Communities In Altered And Fragmented Landscapes, May 2007, Anna Gouznova

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

In Costa Rica, sustaining human population growth has required fragmentation and conversion of its Tropical landscape to an agricultural one. Such large scale land use changes decrease local abundance of species and disrupt important ecological relationships, including species richness and productivity within pollinator communities (Kearns et al. 1997). Pollinators are essential in maintaining stability of plant communities and their dependent consumers. Moreover, in specialized pollinator-host plant mutualisms, the loss of either will reduce or eradicate population of the other. To counter effects of habitat fragmentation, agricultural communities incorporated windbreaks into crop fields and pastures as a restorative effort. I evaluate …

Pages News, Volume 15, No. 1, April 2007, John Dearing, Louise Cromer, Thorsten Kiefer

PAGES

Contents: Editorial: Past human-climate-ecosystem interactions -- PAGES calendar -- Inside PAGES -- PAGES session at INQUA -- Broecker awarded the 2006 Crafoord Prize -- New on the PAGES bookshelf -- National Page -- United Kingdom -- Program News -- IMAGES - The hydrological cycle and ocean temperature - A paleo-perspective -- RESOLuTION - Rapid climatic and environmental shifts during Oxygen Isotope Stage 2 and 3 -- Special Section: Past Human Climate Ecosystem Interactions -- Program News -- PHAROS - Past Human- Climate Ecosystem Interactions -- IHOPE - Integrated History and future Of People on Earth -- Science Highlights -- The …

Alaskan Caver, Volume 27, No. 2, April 2007, Carlene Allred

Alaskan Caver

Contents: Juneau’s UAS Caving Club Happenings - Chitistone Expedition Report, By Donald G. Davis - Map Of Whispering Cave And Others In Vicinity - Map Of Birthday Cave - Map Of Ominous Crack Cave - Map Of Upper Sheep Cave - Ketchikan Caving Club Happenings - Map Of Frost Ring Cave - World’s Largest Cave Crystals - Grotto Election Results - Dr. Science

Evaluation Of Taqman Real-Time Pcr For The Detection Of Viable Cryptosporidium Parvum Oocysts In Environmental Water Samples, Melissa A. Cameron

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cryptosporidium parvum is of growing public health concern due to its ability to survive typical water treatment processes. In order to protect the public from infection, the Environmental Protection Agency developed Method 1623 for the detection of Cryptosporidium oocysts in environmental water samples. Execution of this method is time consuming, and the results do not provide an accurate estimation of viability. Therefore, current research is focused on creating a real-time PCR method for the accurate detection of viable Cryptosporidium parvum in environmental water samples.

This thesis presents the development of a real-time PCR method, and the results obtained in its …

Cutrlines [January 2007], Cutr

CUTR Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Cave Research Foundation Annual Report, Cave Research Foundation

KIP Data Sets and Technical Reports

Annual reports describing the activities of the Cave Research Foundation. Open Access - Permission by Publisher (2006-2007) See Extended description for more information.

Jonas Kamlet (1914-1960) Chemist/Entrepreneur, Dean F. Martin, Barbara B. Martin

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Jonas Kamlet, Ph.D., as a chemist, inventor, and a significant entrepreneur who founded Kamlet Laboratories in New York City that became the model of a successful consulting firm. Among his hundreds of patents and inventions were a tablet that could be used to measure glucose in urine, a treated strip that could detect pregnancy, a fodder for ruminants that used newsprint, and biuret (a self-condensation product of urea) that could be used as a non-protein component of fodder. Following his death in an airplane collision on December 16, 1960, his wife and collaborator (and later a resident of Florida) carried …

Colonization Of The Brown Booby At The Coronado Islands, Baja California, Mexico, Darrell L. Whitworth, Harry R. Carter, Josh S. Koepke

Western Birds

No abstract provided.

Maternal Defensive Behavior Of Umbonia Ataliba Treehoppers, December 2006, Sarah Anvik

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

A population of Umbonia ataliba (Homoptera: Membracidae) located between 1300 and 1500 m in Monteverde, Costa Rica was studied from October to November 2006. The maternal defensive behavior exhibited by these subsocial insects toward nymphs of different developmental stages was experimentally investigated. The purpose of my study was to determine how the defensive behavior changed from eggs to adults and in response to two different predator types. I attached dead wasps to long wooden sticks and then simulated predator approaches toward family groups of eggs, second instar and fourth instars nymphs. I found that the defensive behavior by females guarding …

Baja California Peninsula, Robert A. Hamilton, Richard A. Erickson, Eduardo Palacios, Roberto Carmona

North American Birds

No abstract provided.

Territorial Response Of Rufous-And-White Wrens (Thryothorus Rufalbus) To Neighbor/Stranger Conspecific Playbacks, December 2006, Kaitlin Dunn

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

I tested the Rufous-and-white Wren (T. rufalbus) for discrimination between the songs of neighbor and stranger conspecifics. I found significant differences in behavioral responses between the song playbacks of neighboring and unfamiliar conspecifics in seventeen pairs of the Rufous-and-white Wren. Birds sang for longer periods and sang more songs in response to playbacks of strangers. However, the amount that they approached the playback source did not differ between the song types. These results suggest that Rufous-and-white wrens recognize the songs of neighbors and identify the individuals as less threatening than strangers. This diminished response may be an adaptive strategy to …

Integration Of Art And Environmental Education: The Centro De Educación Creativa In Monteverde, Costa Rica, December 2006, Veronica Harried

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

Population growth and deforestation are negatively affecting biodiversity in the Tropics, necessitating environmental education for local populations. Arts education increases the ability to comprehend complex information, enhance creativity and provide problem solving skills (Longley 1999, Siegesmund 1998). Together, environmental education and Arts education can enhance ecological processes and conservation themes in students’ minds so they are retained well into their adulthood. This increases the likelihood that these individuals will make environmentally informed decisions throughout their lives (Gurevitz 2000). In this project, I incorporate current Arts curriculum guidelines from the United States into the Costa Rican environmental curriculum used at the …

Inside Earth, Volume 9, No. 1, Summer 2006, Rodney D. Horrocks, Cave And Karst Program (U.S.)

Inside Earth

Contents: New Cave Discovered in Sequoia National Park -- Using SpeleoWorks and Wind Cave Inventory Database to Locate Paleo Sites in Wind Cave -- Wind Cave Survey Becomes Fourth Longest Cave in the World -- Park Updates

Permaculture Garden Design For The Cloud Forest School-The Centro De Educación Creativa, June 2006, Lauren Fifield

Monteverde Institute: Tropical Ecology and Conservation

This is a proposal for the creation of a permaculture garden at the Cloud Forest School- Centro de Educación Creativa (CFS-CEC), in Monteverde, Costa Rica. This garden will be used for food production, but will also be used for educational purposes. Permaculture gardens teach students how to live with nature. They are able to produce food for themselves in a way that uses the least amount of land as possible, thus leaving this land for forest species. The garden provides various teaching tools such as native species, gap area, gardening techniques, mimicry complexes as well attracts various species. It will …

Animal Husbandry At Tell El Hesi (Israel): Results From Zooarchaeological And Isotopic Analysis, Shannon Marie Peck-Janssen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Located in today’s southern Israel, Tell el Hesi provides archaeologists with important clues to political and social changes in the ancient Near East. Zooarchaeological and stable isotopic analyses were conducted to evaluate shifts in animal husbandry practices during changing socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions in the southern Levant.

During the Early Bronze Age, Tell el Hesi thrived as an agricultural grain producing center for the southern Levant. The acropolis served as both a storage and redistribution center for the inhabitants of Tell el Hesi. Coinciding with the collapse of the southern Levant, Tell el Hesi was abandoned throughout the Middle Bronze …

Modeling The 100-Year Flood Using Gis: A Flood Analysis In The Avon Park Watershed, Alan Stephen Booker

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using hydraulic modeling and Geographic Information System (GIS) software, the 100-year flood was delineated for the municipality of Avon Park located in Highlands County, Florida. A detailed and rigorous approach was undertaken to first collect and develop an extensive spatial database to store the data collected that is pertinent to the model. This analysis combined ArcGIS version 8.3 and the Interconnected Channel and Pond Routing (ICPR) model version 3.02 to develop hydraulic models that assigned regulatory flood elevation within the watershed. The model results were post processed and brought into GIS to delineate the 100-year flood.The steps outlined in this …

Temporal And Spatial Distribution Of Chlorophyll On The West Florida Shelf, Danylle N. Ault

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The West Florida Shelf (WFS), typically characterized as being oligotrophic, is one of the most productive continental shelves in the United States. In addition to supporting a large fishing industry, the WFS also supports high biomass blooms of the toxic dinoflagellate Karenia brevis. Because of the large ecological and economic impacts these blooms have on the area, the ECOHAB: Florida program was developed to gain a better understanding of red tides and their initiation, maintenance, and dispersal. This interdisciplinary program consisted of monthly cruises from June 1998 through December 2001, with a hiatus from January through March of 2001. Hydrography, …