Digital Commons Network^™

Evotext: A New Tool For Analyzing The Biological Sciences, Grant Ramsey, Charles H. Pence

Faculty Publications

We introduce here evoText, a new tool for automated analysis of the literature in the biological sciences. evoText contains a database of hundreds of thousands of journal articles and an array of analysis tools for generating quantitative data on the nature and history of life science, especially ecology and evolutionary biology. This article describes the features of evoText, presents a variety of examples of the kinds of analyses that evoText can run, and offers a brief tutorial describing how to use it.

Enhanced Spectral Sensitivity Of A Chip-Scale Photonic-Crystal Slow-Light Interferometer, Omar S. Magaña-Loaiza, Boshen Gao, Sebastian A. Schulz, Kashif M. Awan, Jeremy Upham, Ksenia Dolgaleva, Robert W. Boyd

Faculty Publications

We experimentally demonstrate that the spectral sensitivity of a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer can be enhanced through structural slow light. We observe a 20-fold resolution enhancement by placing a dispersion-engineered, slow-light, photonic-crystal waveguide in one arm of a fiber-based MZ interferometer. The spectral sensitivity of the interferometer increases roughly linearly with the group index, and we have quantified the resolution in terms of the spectral density of interference fringes. These results show promise for the use of slow-light methods for developing novel tools for optical metrology and, specifically, for compact high-resolution spectrometers.

Laser Ablation Sample Transfer For Localized Lc-Ms/Ms Proteomic Analysis Of Tissue, Fabrizio Donnarumma, Kermit K. Murray

Faculty Publications

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. We have developed a mid-infrared laser ablation sampling technique for nano-flow liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry proteomic profiling of discrete regions from biological samples. Laser ablation performed in transmission geometry was used to transfer material from 50-μm thick tissue sections mounted on a glass microscope slide to a capturing solvent. Captured samples were processed using filter-aided sample preparation and enzymatically digested to produce tryptic peptides for data-dependent analysis with an ion trap mass spectrometer. Comparison with ultraviolet laser capture microdissection from neighboring regions on the same tissue section revealed that infrared …

Growth Dynamics Of A Laminated Microbial Mat In Response To Variable Irradiance In An Antarctic Lake, Ian Hawes, Anne D. Jungblut, Maciej K. Obryk, Peter T. Doran

Faculty Publications

© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Laminated microbial mats are important ecosystem components of perennially ice-covered Antarctic dry valley lakes. In order to understand better their response to changing environment, we made observations and carried out a manipulation experiment to determine their response to variations in irradiance in Lake Hoare (77°38′ S, 162°53′ E). Ice transparency was the most variable parameter that affected benthic light dose, both spatially and between years. Patterns of lamina accrual corresponded to irradiance history, with laminae that were initiated in high transmission years thicker than those from low transmission years. A shading experiment confirmed …

14th Congress Of Combustion By-Products And Their Health Effects—Origin, Fate, And Health Effects Of Combustion-Related Air Pollutants In The Coming Era Of Bio-Based Energy Sources, Eva Weidemann, Patrik L. Andersson, Terry Bidleman, Christoffer Boman, Danielle J. Carlin, Elena Collina, Stephania A. Cormier, Sandra C. Gouveia-Figueira, Brian K. Gullett, Christer Johansson, Donald Lucas, Lisa Lundin, Staffan Lundstedt, Stellan Marklund, Malin L. Nording, Nuria Ortuño, Asmaa A. Sallam, Florian M. Schmidt, Stina Jansson

Faculty Publications

© 2016, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. The 14th International Congress on Combustion By-Products and Their Health Effects was held in Umeå, Sweden from June 14th to 17th, 2015. The Congress, mainly sponsored by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Superfund Research Program and the Swedish Research Council for Environment, Agricultural Sciences and Spatial Planning, focused on the “Origin, fate and health effects of combustion-related air pollutants in the coming era of bio-based energy sources”. The international delegates included academic and government researchers, engineers, scientists, policymakers and representatives of industrial partners. The Congress provided a unique forum for the discussion of …

Phylogenetic And Epigenetic Footprinting Of The Putative Enhancers Of The Peg3 Domain, Joomyeong Kim, An Ye

Faculty Publications

© 2016 Kim, Ye. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. The Peg3 (Paternally Expressed Gene 3) imprinted domain is predicted to be regulated through a large number of evolutionarily conserved regions (ECRs) that are localized within its middle 200-kb region. In the current study, we characterized these potential cis-regulatory regions using phylogenetic and epigenetic approaches. According to the results, the majority of these ECRs are potential enhancers for the transcription of the …

Revisiting Coptotermes (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae): A Global Taxonomic Road Map For Species Validity And Distribution Of An Economically Important Subterranean Termite Genus, Thomas Chouvenc, Hou Feng Li, James Austin, Christian Bordereau, Thomas Bourguignon, Stephen L. Cameron, Eliana M. Cancello, Reginaldo Constantino, Ana Maria Costa-Leonardo, Paul Eggleton, Theodore A. Evans, Brian Forschler, J. Kenneth Grace, Claudia Husseneder, Jan Křeček, Chow Yang Lee, Timothy Lee, Nathan Lo, Matthew Messenger, Aaron Mullins, Alain Robert, Yves Roisin, Rudolf H. Scheffrahn, David Sillam-Dussès, Jan Šobotník, Allen Szalanski, Yoko Takematsu, Edward L. Vargo, Akinori Yamada, Tsuyoshi Yoshimura, Nan Yao Su

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Repellent Effect Of Formic Acid Against The Red Imported Fire Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae): A Field Study, Cai Wang, Gregg Henderson

Faculty Publications

Previous studies showed that the formic acid secreted by tawny crazy ants not only has fumigation toxicity to the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren (Chen et al. 2013), but also can detoxify fire ant venom (LeBrun et al. 2014). These lead us to a field study to determine if low concentrations of formic acid might be useful in repelling S. invicta. Filter paper discs treated with 1.3% or 5% formic acid (v: v) or distilled water (control) were placed on each of the 46 S. invicta mounds and a disturbance was created. For a minute or less, there …

Frequency Of Cry1f Non-Recessive Resistance Alleles In North Carolina Field Populations Of Spodoptera Frugiperda (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Guoping Li, Dominic Reisig, Jin Miao, Fred Gould, Fangneng Huang, Hongqiang Feng

Faculty Publications

Fall armyworm, Spodoptera frugiperda (J.E. Smith) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), is a target species of transgenic corn (Zea mays L.) that expresses single and pyramided Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) toxin. In 2014, S. frugiperda were collected from a light trap in North Carolina, and a total of 212 F1/F2 isofemale lines of S. frugiperda were screened for resistance to Bt and non-Bt corn. All of the 212 isolines were susceptible to corn tissue expressing Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab, Cry1F + Cry1A.105 + Cry2Ab, and Cry1F + Cry1Ab + Vip3Aa20. Growth rate bioassays were performed to isolate non-recessive Bt resistance alleles. Seven individuals out of …

Determination Of Sperm Concentration Using Flow Cytometry With Simultaneous Analysis Of Sperm Plasma Membrane Integrity In Zebrafish Danio Rerio, Huiping Yang, Jonathan Daly, Terrence R. Tiersch

Faculty Publications

Control of sperm concentration is required to ensure consistent and reproducible results for cryopreservation and in vitro fertilization protocols. Determination of sperm concentration is traditionally performed with a counting chamber (e.g., hemocytometer), or more recently with a spectrophotometer. For small-sized biomedical model fishes, the availability of sperm sample is limited to microliters, so it is desirable to develop fast and accurate approaches for concentration determination that also minimize sample use. In this study, a new approach was developed for sperm concentration determination using a flow cytometer (Accuri C6, BD Biosciences, San Jose, CA) with simultaneous measurement of sperm membrane integrity …

A Procedure-Spanning Analysis Of Plasma Membrane Integrity For Assessment Of Cell Viability In Sperm Cryopreservation Of Zebrafish Danio Rerio, Huiping Yang, Jonathan Daly, Carrie Carmichael, Jen Matthews, Zoltan M. Varga, Terrence Tiersch

Faculty Publications

The goal of this study was to evaluate plasma membrane integrity and motility for zebrafish sperm quality assessment along the cryopreservation pathway - from sample collection through refrigerated storage, cryoprotectant equilibration, freezing, thawing, and fertilization. The objectives were to: (1) evaluate the effects of osmolality, extender, and refrigerated storage on sperm plasma membrane integrity and motility, and (2) compare cryopreservation of sperm from farm-raised and well-characterized research populations by evaluating motility and membrane integrity of fresh, post-equilibration (before freezing) and post-thaw sperm, and post-thaw fertility. Osmolality, extender, and storage time each influenced sperm motility and membrane integrity. Isotonic osmolality showed …

Response Of Plant Height, Species Richness And Aboveground Biomass To Flooding Gradient Along Vegetation Zones In Floodplain Wetlands, Northeast China, Yanjing Lou, Yanwen Pan, Chuanyu Gao, Ming Jiang, Xianguo Lu, Y. Jun Xu

Faculty Publications

Flooding regime changes resulting from natural and human activity have been projected to affect wetland plant community structures and functions. It is therefore important to conduct investigations across a range of flooding gradients to assess the impact of flooding depth on wetland vegetation. We conducted this study to identify the pattern of plant height, species richness and aboveground biomass variation along the flooding gradient in floodplain wetlands located in Northeast China. We found that the response of dominant species height to the flooding gradient depends on specific species, i.e., a quadratic response for Carex lasiocarpa, a negative correlation for Calamagrostis …

Climate, Habitat Associations And The Potential Distributions Of Neotropical Birds: Implications For Diversification Across The Andes, Carlos Daniel Cadena, Carlos A. Pedraza, Robb T. Brumfield

Faculty Publications

Contrary to the long-held view that the uplift of the Andes spurred biotic diversification by causing vicariance across multiple lineages with formerly continuous distributions, recent work suggests that dispersal across the Andes occurring after major uplift episodes was a major driver of speciation in Neotropical birds, with the ability of lineages to persist and disperse in the landscape being strong predictors of speciation. However, where and when dispersal events across the Andes occurred is unknown, and the role of climatic fluctuations and associated shifts in vegetation in promoting cross-Andes dispersal at different moments remains to be studied. We used models …

Comparisons And Correlations Of Phenolic Profiles And Anti-Oxidant Activities Of Seventeen Varieties Of Pineapple, Liqing Du, Guangming Sun, Xiumei Zhang, Yuge Liu, Witoon Prinyawiwatkul, Zhimin Xu, Yixiao Shen

Faculty Publications

Major phenolic, β-carotene, and ascorbic acid (AA) contents in 17 pineapple varieties were quantified and compared. Anti-oxidant activities were evaluated using 2,2-Diphenyl-l-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), 2,2’-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) (ABTS), ferric reducing anti-oxidant power (FRAP), and metal chelating capacity (MCC) assays. MD-2 exhibited the highest AA and total phenolic (TP) contents and DPPH and ABTS assay results, but was lower in β-carotene contents. Ripley had the highest total flavonoid (TF) content with a low AA content. Comte de Pairs exhibited the highest MCC and the lowest FRAP values. TP contents and both DPPH and ABTS activities, FRAP values and both AA contents and DPPH …

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus And Subparaventricular Zone Lesions Disrupt Circadian Rhythmicity But Not Light-Induced Masking Behavior In Nile Grass Rats, Andrew J. Gall, Dorela D. Shuboni, Lily Yan, Antonio A. Nunez, Laura Smale

Faculty Publications

The ventral subparaventricular zone (vSPVZ) receives direct retinal input and influences the daily patterning of activity in rodents, making it a likely candidate for the mediation of acute behavioral responses to light (i.e., masking). We performed chemical lesions aimed at the vSPVZ of diurnal grass rats (Arvicanthis niloticus) using N-methyl-D,L-aspartic acid (NMA), a glutamate agonist. Following NMA lesions, we placed grass rats in various lighting conditions (e.g., 12:12 light-dark, constant dark, constant light); presented a series of light pulses at circadian times (CT) 6, 14, 18, and 22; and placed them in a 7-h ultradian cycle to assess behavioral masking. …

The Potential Role Of Polyamines In Gill Epithelial Remodeling During Extreme Hypoosmotic Challenges In The Gulf Killifish, Fundulus Grandis, Ying Guan, Guo Xia Zhang, Shujun Zhang, Beau Domangue, Fernando Galvez

Faculty Publications

© 2016 Elsevier Inc. Polyamines are a family of low molecular weight organic cations produced in part by the coordinated actions of arginase II (Arg II) and ornithine decarboxylase (Odc). Although gill polyamine homeostasis is affected by acute transfer to fresh water, little is known of its function in fish osmoregulation. The current study investigated the role of polyamines in the compensatory response of hypoosmotic challenge in the euryhaline fish, Fundulus grandis. Adult F. grandis were acclimated to 5ppt water, transferred abruptly to 5, 2, 1, 0.5 and 0.1 ppt water, and assessed for osmoregulatory function, gill morphology, and polyamine …

Environmental Stress In The Gulf Of Mexico And Its Potential Impact On Public Health, B. Singleton, J. Turner, L. Walter, N. Lathan, D. Thorpe, P. Ogbevoen, J. Daye, D. Alcorn, S. Wilson, J. Semien, T. Richard, T. Johnson, K. Mccabe, J. J. Estrada, F. Galvez, C. Velasco, K. Reiss

Faculty Publications

© 2015 Elsevier Inc. The Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was the largest maritime oil spill in history resulting in the accumulation of genotoxic substances in the air, soil, and water. This has potential far-reaching health impacts on cleanup field workers and on the populations living in the contaminated coastal areas. We have employed portable airborne particulate matter samplers (SKC Biosampler Impinger) and a genetically engineered bacterial reporter system (umu-ChromoTest from EBPI) to determine levels of genotoxicity of air samples collected from highly contaminated areas of coastal Louisiana including Grand Isle, Port Fourchon, and Elmer's …

Seasonal Phytoplankton Blooms In The North Atlantic Linked To The Overwintering Strategies Of Copepods, Kevin D. Friedland, Nicholas R. Record, Rebecca G. Asch, Trond Kristiansen, Vincent S. Saba, Kenneth F. Drinkwater, Stephanie Henson, Robert T. Leaf, Ryan E. Morse, David G. Johns, Scott I. Large, Solfrid S. Hjollo, Janet A. Nye, Mike A. Alexander, Rubao Ji

Faculty Publications

The North Atlantic Ocean contains diverse patterns of seasonal phytoplankton blooms with distinct internal dynamics. We analyzed blooms using remotely-sensed chlorophyll a concentration data and change point statistics. The first bloom of the year began during spring at low latitudes and later in summer at higher latitudes. In regions where spring blooms occurred at high frequency (i. e., proportion of years that a bloom was detected), there was a negative correlation between bloom timing and duration, indicating that early blooms last longer. In much of the Northeast Atlantic, bloom development extended over multiple seasons resulting in peak chlorophyll concentrations in …

Case-Oriented Pathways Analysis In Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Using Data From A Sleeping Beauty Transposon Mutagenesis Screen, Yen Yi Ho, Timothy K. Starr, Rebecca S. Larue, David A. Largaespada

Faculty Publications

Background: Mutation studies of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) have revealed complicated heterogeneous genomic landscapes of the disease. These studies cataloged a number of genes mutated at high frequencies, but also report a very large number of genes mutated in lower percentages of tumors. Taking advantage of a well-established forward genetic screening technique, with the Sleeping Beauty (SB) transposon, several studies produced PDA and discovered a number of common insertion sites (CIS) and associated genes that are recurrently mutated at high frequencies. As with human mutation studies, a very large number of genes were found to be altered by transposon insertion …

Breast Cancer Risk Perceptions Among Relatives Of Women With Uninformative Negative Brca1/2 Test Results: The Moderating Effect Of The Amount Of Shared Information, Deborah O. Himes Msn, Aprn-Bc, Margaret F. Clayton, Gary W. Donaldson, Lee Ellington, Saundra S. Buys, Anita Y. Kinney

Faculty Publications

The most common result of BRCA1/2 mutation testing when performed in a family without a previously identified mutation is an uninformative negative test result. Women in these families may have an increased risk for breast cancer because of mutations in non-BRCA breast cancer predisposition genes, including moderate- or low-risk genes, or shared environmental factors. Genetic counselors often encourage counselees to share information with family members, however it is unclear how much information counselees share and the impact that shared information may have on accuracy of risk perception in family members. We evaluated 85 sisters and daughters of women who received …

Biology, Genetics, Nurture, And The Law: The Expansion Of The Legal Definition Of Family To Include Three Or More Legal Parents, Myrisha S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Insomnia Is Associated With Suicide Attempt In Middle-Aged And Older Adults With Depression, Daniel Kay, Alexandre Y. Dombrovski, Daniel J. Buysse, Charles F. Reynolds Iii, Amy Begley, Katalin Szanto

Faculty Publications

Background—Insomnia increases in prevalence with age, is strongly associated with depression, and has been identified as a risk factor for suicide in several studies. The aim of this study was to determine whether insomnia severity varies between those who have attempted suicide (n = 72), those who only contemplate suicide (n = 28), and those who are depressed but have no suicidal ideation or attempt history (n = 35).

Methods—Participants were middle-aged and older adults (Age 44–87, M = 66 years) with depression. Insomnia severity was measured as the sum of the early, middle, and late insomnia items from the …

Characteristic Length Scales Of The Secondary Relaxations In Glass-Forming Glycerol, Sudipta Gupta, Eugene Mamontov, Niina Jalarvo, Laura Stingaciu, Michael Ohl

Faculty Publications

We investigate the secondary relaxations and their link to the main structural relaxation in glass-forming liquids using glycerol as a model system. We analyze the incoherent neutron scattering signal dependence on the scattering momentum transfer, Q , in order to obtain the characteristic length scale for different secondary relaxations. Such a capability of neutron scattering makes it somewhat unique and highly complementary to the traditional techniques of glass physics, such as light scattering and broadband dielectric spectroscopy, which provide information on the time scale, but not the length scales, of relaxation processes. The choice of suitable neutron scattering techniques depends …

Does Habitat Restoration Increase Coexistence Of Native Stream Fishes With Introduced Brown Trout: A Case Study On The Middle Provo River, Utah, Usa, Mark C. Belk, Eric J. Billman, Craig Ellsworth, Brock R. Mcmillan

Faculty Publications

Restoration of altered or degraded habitats is often a key component in the conservation plan of native aquatic species, but introduced species may influence the response of the native community to restoration. Recent habitat restoration of the middle section of the Provo River in central Utah, USA, provided an opportunity to evaluate the effect of habitat restoration on the native fish community in a system with an introduced, dominant predator—brown trout (Salmo trutta). To determine the change in distribution of fish species and community composition, we surveyed 200 m of each of the four study reaches both before …

Discovery Of Novel Nonactive Site Inhibitors Of The Prothrombinase Enzyme Complex, Karan Kapoor, Nicole Mcgill, Cynthia B. Peterson, Harold V. Meyers, Michael N. Blackburn, Jerome Baudry

Faculty Publications

© 2016 American Chemical Society. The risk of serious bleeding is a major liability of anticoagulant drugs that are active-site competitive inhibitors targeting the Factor Xa (FXa) prothrombin (PT) binding site. The present work identifies several new classes of small molecule anticoagulants that can act as nonactive site inhibitors of the prothrombinase (PTase) complex composed of FXa and Factor Va (FVa). These new classes of anticoagulants were identified, using a novel agnostic computational approach to identify previously unrecognized binding pockets at the FXa-FVa interface. From about three million docking calculations of 281 128 compounds in a conformational ensemble of FXa …

A Comparison Of Soil Hydrothermal Properties In Zonal And Uniform Tillage Systems Across The Us Corn Belt, Alwyn Williams, Adam S. Davis, Patrick M. Ewing, A. Stuart Grandy, Daniel A. Kane, Roger T. A. Koide, David A. Mortensen, Richard G. Smith, Sieglinde S. Snapp, Kurt A. Spokas, Anthony C. Yannarell, Nicholas R. Jordan

Faculty Publications

Zonal tillage (e.g. ridge tillage, RT) separates management of row and inter-row positions, while non-zonal tillage (e.g. chisel plough, CP) applies management uniformly across a field. This may have large effects on soil hydrothermal properties, affecting soil processes and crop development. We examined the effects of RT versus CP on soil hydrothermal conditions under maize (Zea mays L.) at four sites spanning the US Corn Belt over two growing seasons (2012–2013). We also investigated whether RT, as a result of changes in hydrothermal conditions, could stimulate greater soil nitrogen (N) availability during peak maize N demand. We captured wide variation …

Astrocytes Regulate Glp-1 Receptor-Mediated Effects On Energy Balance, David J. Reiner, Elizabeth G. Mietlicki-Baase, Lauren E. Mcgrath, Derek J. Zimmer, Kendra K. Bence, Gregory L. Sousa, Vaibhav R. Konanur, Joanna Krawczyk, David H. Burk, Scott E. Kanoski, Gerlinda E. Hermann, Richard C. Rogers, Matthew R. Hayes

Faculty Publications

© 2016 the authors. Astrocytes are well established modulators of extracellular glutamate, but their direct influence on energy balance-relevant behaviors is largely understudied. As the anorectic effects of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonists are partly mediated by central modulation of glutamatergic signaling, we tested the hypothesis that astrocytic GLP-1R signaling regulates energy balance in rats. Central or peripheral administration of a fluorophore-labeled GLP-1R agonist, exendin-4, localizes within astrocytes and neurons in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS), a hindbrain nucleus critical for energy balance control. This effect is mediated by GLP-1R, as the uptake of systemically administered fluorophore-tagged exendin-4 was blocked …

Pelvic Sexual Dimorphism Among Species Monomorphic In Body Size: Relationship To Relative Newborn Body Mass, Robert G. Tague

Faculty Publications

Females have larger pelves than males among eutherians to mitigate obstetrical difficulty. This study addresses 3 issues concerning pelvic sexual dimorphism using 8 species that are sexually monomorphic in nonpelvic size: Aotus azarae, Castor canadensis, Dasypus novemcinctus, Hylobates lar, Saguinus geoffroyi, Sciurus carolinensis, Sylvilagus floridanus, and Urocyon cinereoargenteus. Using published data to compute the index of relative newborn body mass (RNBM = [newborn body mass/adult female body mass]100%) for 266 eutherian species, A. azarae, H. lar, and S. geoffroyi are characterized as giving birth to relatively large newborns and the other 5 species as giving birth to relatively small newborns. …

Characteristics Of Communication In Families Of Alcoholics, Marie Haverfield, Jennifer Theiss, John Leustek

Faculty Publications

In the United States, roughly 43% of adults have encountered alcoholism in their family, and one in four children lives with an alcoholic parent (Grant, 2000). Prior research suggests that alcoholism can negatively impact the nature and quality of family relations, but studies rarely consider the specific ways in which family communication dynamics are impacted by the disease. Thus, the goal of this study was to identify the characteristics of communication in families of alcoholics and to develop a larger conceptual model to guide future inquiries in this context. A national sample of 682 adult children of alcoholics were asked …

Climate Change Decreases Nitrogen Pools And Mineralization Rates In Northern Hardwood Forests, Jorge Duran, Jennifer L. Morse, Peter M. Groffman, John L. Campbell, Lynn M. Christenson, Charles T. Driscoll, Timothy J. Fahey, Melany C. Fisk, Gene E. Likens, Jerry M. Melillo, Myron J. Mitchell, Pamela H. Templer, Matthew A. Vadeboncoeur

Faculty Publications

Nitrogen (N) supply often limits the productivity of temperate forests and is regulated by a complex mix of biological and climatic drivers. In excess, N is linked to a variety of soil, water, and air pollution issues. Here, we use results from an elevation gradient study and historical data from the long‐term Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (New Hampshire, USA) to examine relationships between changes in climate, especially during winter, and N supply to northern hardwood forest ecosystems. Low elevation plots with less snow, more soil freezing, and more freeze/thaw cycles supported lower rates of N mineralization than high elevation plots, …