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2015

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Articles 661 - 690 of 1152

Full-Text Articles in Earth Sciences

Mapping The Decision Points And Climate Information Use Of Agricultural Producers Across The U.S. Corn Belt, Tonya Haigh, Eugene S. Takle, Jeffrey Andresen, Melissa Widhalm, J. Stuart Carlton, Jim Angel Feb 2015

Mapping The Decision Points And Climate Information Use Of Agricultural Producers Across The U.S. Corn Belt, Tonya Haigh, Eugene S. Takle, Jeffrey Andresen, Melissa Widhalm, J. Stuart Carlton, Jim Angel

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

The usefulness of climate information for agricultural risk management hinges on its availability and relevance to the producer when climate-sensitive decisions are being made. Climate information providers are challenged with the task of balancing forecast availability and lead time with acceptable forecast skill, which requires an improved understanding of the timing of agricultural decision making. Achieving a useful balance may also require an expansion of inquiry to include use of non-forecast climate information (i.e. historical climate information) in agricultural decision making. Decision calendars have proven valuable for identifying opportunities for using different types of climate information. The extent to which …

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Sigma Gamma Epsilon 2014 W.A. Tarr Awards, Paula Even Feb 2015

Sigma Gamma Epsilon 2014 W.A. Tarr Awards, Paula Even

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

First established in March 1949, the W. A. Tarr Award was created to distinguish outstanding students in the Earth Sciences. A list of the individuals who received this award for the 2013-2014 academic year as well as the qualifying criteria for the award are provided.

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Characterization Of The Major Ions Of Coal Creek Near Cedar City, Utah, Jared Bryce Weaver, Christopher Lamb, Kim Weaver, Jason Kaiser, J. Ty Redd Feb 2015

Characterization Of The Major Ions Of Coal Creek Near Cedar City, Utah, Jared Bryce Weaver, Christopher Lamb, Kim Weaver, Jason Kaiser, J. Ty Redd

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The major ions of Coal Creek near Cedar City, in southwest Utah, were measured to determine if there were any differences in ion concentrations in July of 2014 as compared with spring measurements of 2012 and 2013. Past analyses have shown higher ion concentrations in lower regions of Coal Creek despite the apparent lack of water input. This research is aimed to better characterize these abrupt increases in concentration and determine if these trends varied when samples were acquired in the summer vs. in the spring when sample acquisition has occurred in the past. Environmental water samples were collected at …

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Strain Accomodation In The Footwall Of The Rubys Inn Thrust Fault, Hillsdale Canyon, Southern Utah, Claire Cleveland, Rhiannon M. Garrard, Devin M. Mclemore, Jeff C.E. Yon, Genevieve Kidman, John S. Maclean Feb 2015

Strain Accomodation In The Footwall Of The Rubys Inn Thrust Fault, Hillsdale Canyon, Southern Utah, Claire Cleveland, Rhiannon M. Garrard, Devin M. Mclemore, Jeff C.E. Yon, Genevieve Kidman, John S. Maclean

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The Rubys Inn thrust fault in southern Utah has produced several styles of deformation in its footwall. This project describes four exceptionally well exposed examples of strain accommodation, including a mountain-scale, ductile footwall drag fold, cataclastic flexural slip between bedding surfaces of differing competencies, plastically deformed petrified wood within the zone of flexural slip, and cataclastic shear expressed as deformation bands. Such examples show how various lithologies can be deformed into a wide array of structures during a single deformation event. Furthermore, some of these structures result in changes in permeability, which are important for those interested in subsurface fluid …

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Sigma Gamma Epsilon's W.A. Tarr Award: Honoring The Memory Of William Arthur Tarr (1881-1939), Grand Editor Of The Compass, Larry E. Davis, Robert L. Eves, Paula Even, James C. Walters Feb 2015

Sigma Gamma Epsilon's W.A. Tarr Award: Honoring The Memory Of William Arthur Tarr (1881-1939), Grand Editor Of The Compass, Larry E. Davis, Robert L. Eves, Paula Even, James C. Walters

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

In 1947, delegates to the 14th National Convention of the Society of Sigma Gamma Epsilon established the W.A. Tarr Award in honor of William Arthur Tarr (1881-1939) and the awards were made by active Society chapters in the spring of 1948. William Arthur Tarr was the first editor of The Compass. W.A. Tarr was a professor of Mineralogy and Geology at the University of Missouri from 1911 to 1939, during which he was the faculty advisor to the Epsilon chapter of Sigma Gamma Epsilon.

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Sigma Gamma Epsilon Student Research Poster Session, Geological Society Of America Meeting 2014, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Paula Even Feb 2015

Sigma Gamma Epsilon Student Research Poster Session, Geological Society Of America Meeting 2014, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Paula Even

The Compass: Earth Science Journal of Sigma Gamma Epsilon

The 2014 Sigma Gamma Epsilon Undergraduate Research (Poster Session) took place during the 2014 Geological Society of American annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on Tuesday, 21 October 2014. Fifty-two posters were presented at the SGE poster session. The National Council of Sigma Gamma Epsilon awarded the Austin A. Sartin Best Poster Award to Megan Flansburg a student at the College of William and Mary. Emily Lubicich, a student at the State University of New York - New Paltz, was awarded the National Council Best Poster Award.

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Stoichiometric Controls On Denitrification In High Nitrate Watersheds, Brian Grebliunas Feb 2015

Stoichiometric Controls On Denitrification In High Nitrate Watersheds, Brian Grebliunas

Theses and Dissertations

Watershed biogeochemistry throughout Midwestern agroecosystems have been altered through hydrologic manipulation and over-application of nitrogenous fertilizers. As a result, nitrate (NO3-N) export from subsurface drainage has negative impacts on local and downstream ecosystem health. Wetland installation has proven to be a viable option for targeted management where a large proportion of NO3-N is removed through the bacterially mediated process denitrification. For denitrification to maintain high rates under prolonged NO3-N saturation, a stable supply of labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is required. The focus of this dissertation was to study how the stoichiometry of agricultural wetlands limits denitrification within a controlled …

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Memories, Kentucky Alfalfa Conference Feb 2015

Memories, Kentucky Alfalfa Conference

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

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Photo Highlights Of The 35th Kentucky Alfalfa Conference, Darold J. Akridge Feb 2015

Photo Highlights Of The 35th Kentucky Alfalfa Conference, Darold J. Akridge

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

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Farmer Panel--What Hay Quality Means To Me, Clayton Geralds, Ben Cox, John Mccoy, Dennis Wright, Minos Cox Feb 2015

Farmer Panel--What Hay Quality Means To Me, Clayton Geralds, Ben Cox, John Mccoy, Dennis Wright, Minos Cox

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

No abstract provided.

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Hay Quality: What Is It?, Garry D. Lacefield, Don Ball Feb 2015

Hay Quality: What Is It?, Garry D. Lacefield, Don Ball

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Profitable livestock production almost always requires a forage program that will supply large quantities of adequate quality, homegrown feed. A major percentage of the feed units for beef (83%) and dairy cattle (61%) come from forages. In addition, forages supply an estimated 91%, 72%, 15% and 99% of the nutrients consumed by sheep and goats, horses, swine, and wildlife, respectively.

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Alfalfa And The Environment, Don Ball Feb 2015

Alfalfa And The Environment, Don Ball

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

We live in a society in which many people don’t understand or appreciate agriculture as much as they really should. After all, only about 2% of the population of the United States is involved in agriculture, so most people don’t know much about it. Furthermore, most don’t spend much time thinking about it. Forage crops, including alfalfa, are especially under-appreciated because forage is not consumed directly by humans (alfalfa sprouts being a minor exception).

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Red Meat, Our Health And Alfalfa--Separating Scientific Fact From Opinions, Policy, Politics, And Bureaucracy, Peter Ballerstedt Feb 2015

Red Meat, Our Health And Alfalfa--Separating Scientific Fact From Opinions, Policy, Politics, And Bureaucracy, Peter Ballerstedt

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

The general public is becoming increasingly aware of the failure of the official nutritional policy of United States and other countries. Books like Good Calories, Bad Calories: Fats, Carbs, and the Controversial Science of Diet and Health (Taubes, 2008), Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It (Taubes, 2011) and The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet (Teicholz, 2014) have exposed the disconnect between nutrition science and nutrition policy, and have told the story of how we’ve come to this point in history.

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Grazing Alfalfa: Real Cost Of "Fear" Of Bloat, S. Ray Smith, Kenneth H. Burdine, Jeff Lehmkuhler Feb 2015

Grazing Alfalfa: Real Cost Of "Fear" Of Bloat, S. Ray Smith, Kenneth H. Burdine, Jeff Lehmkuhler

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

In the Southeast, including legumes like alfalfa and clover in pastures provides many advantages. It reduces the impact of fescue toxicosis, provides free nitrogen, and improves pasture quality leading to increased animal performance. Individual animal performance is greater on grass/legume pastures compared to performance on similar monoculture grass stands. Daily gains for steers grazing clover-fescue swards is improved compared to straight tall fescue pastures (Figure 1). Improved performance is partially due to greater forage intakes. This practice is sound management even though legume bloat is a risk to livestock. If one considers the number of cattle grazing pastures containing legumes …

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What's Required To Break The "Beef Per Acre" Kentucky Record, Kenneth R. Johnson Feb 2015

What's Required To Break The "Beef Per Acre" Kentucky Record, Kenneth R. Johnson

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

As I approach the task that Garry assigned me, I ask the question, “Do I really want to attempt to produce 1400 or more pounds of beef per acre?” An easy answer is “yes,” but more likely “no.” Most farmers I know, full or part time have all they can do now and to reach record levels of anything requires much more time and management. I am going to attempt to discuss the steps I think that will be required to reach record breaking production. Higher gains are certainly possible. We know alfalfa can produce 8 to 10 tons of …

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Alfalfa Is Our Family Farming Operation, Myron Ellis Feb 2015

Alfalfa Is Our Family Farming Operation, Myron Ellis

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

Ellis Family Farm is a 5th generation family farm located in Harrodsburg, KY. Currently we farm 1250 acres total of which 870 acres is owned and the remainder is leased. We buy and resale between 1500-1800 head of feeder cattle per year and have 100 head of brood cows. The cattle operation feed is completely supplied by the first cutting of our 580 acres of alfalfa and alfalfa grass mix hay. From the second cutting on, we produce small square bales of alfalfa for the horse market in four states. Our normal production of square bales ranges between 75,000 and …

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Kentucky Alfalfa Conference Reflections After 35 Years, Garry D. Lacefield Feb 2015

Kentucky Alfalfa Conference Reflections After 35 Years, Garry D. Lacefield

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This event today marks the 35th consecutive year we have come together for a full day’s conference featuring "Alfalfa - Queen of the Forages" as the theme and focal point. Only one other state (California) in the U.S. has such an annual event.

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Foreword And Recipients Of Kentucky Alfalfa Awards [2015], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe Feb 2015

Foreword And Recipients Of Kentucky Alfalfa Awards [2015], Garry D. Lacefield, Christi L. Forsythe

Kentucky Alfalfa and Stored Forage Conference

This is the front matter of the proceedings.

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Karst Porosity Estimations From Archive Cave Surveys - Studies In The Buda Thermal Karst System (Hungary), Gáspár Albert, Magdolna Virág, Anita Erőss Feb 2015

Karst Porosity Estimations From Archive Cave Surveys - Studies In The Buda Thermal Karst System (Hungary), Gáspár Albert, Magdolna Virág, Anita Erőss

International Journal of Speleology

The Buda Thermal Karst System is located under the densely populated hills of Budapest. One of its caves (Pál-völgy Cave System) is the longest cave of Hungary with 30.1 km. The research was done in this area as a methodological study to estimate karst porosity parameters of aquifers or hydrocarbon reservoirs. In this study two modeling methods are demonstrated. The volumetric modeling method was primarily aimed to determine the macro-scale (>0.5 m) conduit porosity (referred as macroporosity) of the study area as percentage of the incorporating limestone and marl. This method is based on archive survey data (maps and …

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U.S. Drought Monitor, February 24, 2015, Richard R. Heim Jr. Feb 2015

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 24, 2015, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for February 24, 2015 (2/24/15) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), an approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during the past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

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Beyond The Angle Of Repose: A Review And Synthesis Of Landslide Processes In Response To Rapid Uplift, Eel River, Northern Eel River, Northern California, Joshua J. Roering, Benjamin H. Mackey, Alexander L. Handwerger, Adam M. Booth, David A. Schmidt, Georgina L. Bennett, Corina Cerovski-Darriau Feb 2015

Beyond The Angle Of Repose: A Review And Synthesis Of Landslide Processes In Response To Rapid Uplift, Eel River, Northern Eel River, Northern California, Joshua J. Roering, Benjamin H. Mackey, Alexander L. Handwerger, Adam M. Booth, David A. Schmidt, Georgina L. Bennett, Corina Cerovski-Darriau

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In mountainous settings, increases in rock uplift are often followed by a commensurate uptick in denudation as rivers incise and steepen hillslopes, making them increasingly prone to landsliding as slope angles approach a limiting value. For decades, the threshold slope model has been invoked to account for landslide-driven increases in sediment flux that limit topographic relief, but the manner by which slope failures organize themselves spatially and temporally in order for erosion to keep pace with rock uplift has not been well documented. Here, we review past work and present new findings from remote sensing, cosmogenic adionuclides, suspended sediment records, …

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Bubble Mobility In Mud And Magmatic Volcanoes, Aaron Tran, Maxwell L. Rudolph, Michael Manga Feb 2015

Bubble Mobility In Mud And Magmatic Volcanoes, Aaron Tran, Maxwell L. Rudolph, Michael Manga

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The rheology of particle-laden fluids with a yield stress, such as mud or crystal-rich magmas, controls the mobility of bubbles, both the size needed to overcome the yield stress and their rise speed. We experimentally measured the velocities of bubbles and rigid spheres in mud sampled from the Davis-Schrimpf mud volcanoes adjacent to the Salton Sea, Southern California. Combined with previous measurements in the polymer gel Carbopol, we obtained an empirical model for the drag coefficient and bounded the conditions under which bubbles overcome the yield stress. Yield stresses typical of mud and basaltic magmas with sub-mm particles can immobilize …

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Global Warming And Population Responses Among Great Plains Birds, Paul A. Johnsgard Feb 2015

Global Warming And Population Responses Among Great Plains Birds, Paul A. Johnsgard

Zea E-Books Collection

Based on an analysis of 47 years (1967–2014) of Audubon Christmas Bird Counts (CBC), evidence for population changes and shifts in early winter (late December) ranges of nearly 150 species of birds in the Great Plains states is summarized, a region defined as including the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas panhandle. The rationale for this study had its origins in Terry Root’s 1988 Atlas of North American Wintering Birds. Root’s landmark study provided a baseline for evaluating the nationwide winter distributions of 253 North American birds in the mid-20th century, using data from the National Audubon Society’s …

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Comparing Flow-Through And Static Ice Cave Models For Shoshone Ice Cave, Kaj E. Williams, Christopher Mckay Feb 2015

Comparing Flow-Through And Static Ice Cave Models For Shoshone Ice Cave, Kaj E. Williams, Christopher Mckay

International Journal of Speleology

In this paper we suggest a new ice cave type: the “flow-through” ice cave. In a flow-through ice cave external winds blow into the cave and wet cave walls chill the incoming air to the wet-bulb temperature, thereby achieving extra cooling of the cave air. We have investigated an ice cave in Idaho, located in a lava tube that is reported to have airflow through porous wet end-walls and could therefore be a flow-through cave. We have instrumented the site and collected data for one year. In order to determine the actual ice cave type present at Shoshone, we have …

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U.S. Drought Monitor, February 17, 2015, Richard R. Heim Jr. Feb 2015

U.S. Drought Monitor, February 17, 2015, Richard R. Heim Jr.

United States Agricultural Commodities in Drought Archive

Drought map of the United States for February 17, 2015 (2/17/15) plus: United States crop areas experiencing drought (map), an approximate percentage of crop located in drought by state (bar graph), and the percentage of crop area located in drought during the past 52 weeks (line graph) for corn, soybeans, hay, cattle, and winter wheat.

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Current State Of Strain In The Central Cascadia Margin Derived From Changes In Distance Between Gps Stations, Kenneth M. Cruikshank, Curt D. Peterson Feb 2015

Current State Of Strain In The Central Cascadia Margin Derived From Changes In Distance Between Gps Stations, Kenneth M. Cruikshank, Curt D. Peterson

Geology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Using continuously operating Global Positioning Stations in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, over 100 station-station baseline length changes were determined along seven West-East transects, two North-South transects and in three localized areas to determine both the average annual strains over the past several years, and the variation in strain over the central Cascadia convergent margin. The North-South transects (composed of multiple baselines) show shortening. Along West-East transects some baselines show shortening and others extension. The direction of the principle strains calculated for two areas 100 km from the deformation front are close to per-pendicular to the deformation front. …

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Sustainability, Efficiency And Equitability Of Water Consumption And Pollution In Latin America And The Caribbean, Mesfin Mekonnen, Markus Pahlow, Maite M. Aldaya, Erika Zarate Feb 2015

Sustainability, Efficiency And Equitability Of Water Consumption And Pollution In Latin America And The Caribbean, Mesfin Mekonnen, Markus Pahlow, Maite M. Aldaya, Erika Zarate

Daugherty Water for Food Global Institute: Faculty Publications

This paper assesses the sustainability, efficiency and equity of water use in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) by means of a geographic Water Footprint Assessment (WFA). It aims to provide understanding of water use from both a production and consumption point of view. The study identifies priority basins and areas from the perspectives of blue water scarcity, water pollution and deforestation. Wheat, fodder crops and sugarcane are identified as priority products related to blue water scarcity. The domestic sector is the priority sector regarding water pollution from nitrogen. Soybean and pasture are priority products related to deforestation. We estimate …

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Long-Term Forest Soil Warming Alters Microbial Communities In Temperate Forest Soils, Kristen M. Deangelis, Grace Pold, Begum D. Topcuoglu, Linda T. A. Van Diepen, Rebecca M. Varney, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Jerry Melillo, Serita D. Frey Feb 2015

Long-Term Forest Soil Warming Alters Microbial Communities In Temperate Forest Soils, Kristen M. Deangelis, Grace Pold, Begum D. Topcuoglu, Linda T. A. Van Diepen, Rebecca M. Varney, Jeffrey L. Blanchard, Jerry Melillo, Serita D. Frey

Faculty Publications

Soil microbes are major drivers of soil carbon cycling, yet we lack an understanding of how climate warming will affect microbial communities. Three ongoing field studies at the Harvard Forest Long-term Ecological Research (LTER) site (Petersham, MA) have warmed soils 5°C above ambient temperatures for 5, 8, and 20 years. We used this chronosequence to test the hypothesis that soil microbial communities have changed in response to chronic warming. Bacterial community composition was studied using Illumina sequencing of the 16S ribosomal RNA gene, and bacterial and fungal abundance were assessed using quantitative PCR. Only the 20-year warmed site exhibited significant …

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Role Of Engineering In Sustainable Water Management, Balázs M. Fekete, János J. Bogárdi Feb 2015

Role Of Engineering In Sustainable Water Management, Balázs M. Fekete, János J. Bogárdi

Publications and Research

The recognition of the limits of resources is almost as old as the realization that our planet is a sphere leading to concerns about sustainable resources management. Water resources in particular receive growing attention given its uneven distribution in many parts of the world. Engineering solutions to address water management challenges played significant roles in the past in areas such as access to clean water and sanitation, providing water for irrigation, offering protection against floods, allowing power generation, etc. Despite their proven benefits, engineering solutions are receiving increasing criticism due to their negative environmental and societal impacts and the high …

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The Use Of A Statistical Model Of Storm Surge As A Bias Correction For Dynamical Surge Models And Its Applicability Along The U.S. East Coast, Haydee Salmun, Andrea Molod Feb 2015

The Use Of A Statistical Model Of Storm Surge As A Bias Correction For Dynamical Surge Models And Its Applicability Along The U.S. East Coast, Haydee Salmun, Andrea Molod

Publications and Research

The present study extends the applicability of a statistical model for prediction of storm surge originally developed for The Battery, NY in two ways: I. the statistical model is used as a biascorrection for operationally produced dynamical surge forecasts, and II. the statistical model is applied to the region of the east coast of the U.S. susceptible to winter extratropical storms. The statistical prediction is based on a regression relation between the “storm maximum” storm surge and the storm composite significant wave height predicted ata nearby location. The use of the statistical surge prediction as an alternative bias correction for …

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