Valuing Ecosystem Services with Fishery Rents: A Lumped-Parameter Approach to Hypoxia in the Neuse River Estuary

Valuing ecosystem services with microeconomic underpinnings presents challenges because these services typically constitute nonmarket values and contribute to human welfare indirectly through a series of ecological pathways that are dynamic, nonlinear, and difficult to quantify and link to appropriate economic spatial and temporal scales. This paper develops and demonstrates a method to value a portion of ecosystem services when a commercial fishery is dependent on the quality of estuarine habitat. Using a lumped-parameter, dynamic open access bioeconomic model that is spatially explicit and includes predator-prey interactions, this paper quantifies part of the value of improved ecosystem function in the Neuse River Estuary when nutrient pollution is reduced. Specifically, it traces the effects of nitrogen loading on the North Carolina commercial blue crab fishery by modeling the response of primary production and the subsequent impact on hypoxia (low dissolved oxygen). Hypoxia, in turn, affects blue crabs and their preferred prey. The discounted present value fishery rent increase from a 30% reduction in nitrogen loadings in the Neuse is $2.56 million, though this welfare estimate is fairly sensitive to some parameter values. Surprisingly, this number is not sensitive to initial conditions.Open access, Predator-prey, Hypoxia, Habitat-dependent fisheries

The Early Evolution of the Cricetidae in North America

42 p., 26 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

The Economics of Exporting North Dakota Beef to Asian Pacific Markets

International Relations/Trade,

Net Bet Debt

The prospective high returns from gaming operations have introduced the Internet as a new competitor to the hotel and travel industry. With the dawn of the new millennium, am epidemic of gamblers has infected the virtual world and raised leagal problems yet to be solved

Bears (Ursidae) from the Late Cenozoic of Nebraska

A ramus and partial premaxilla establish the presence of a new subspecies of Indarctos in the upper Pliocene (Kimball Formation, Ogallala Group) of Frontier County, Nebraska. An extremely large species of Agriotherium is represented by fragmentary remains from the middle Pliocene (middle part of Ash Hollow Formation, Ogallala Group) of Sherman County, Nebraska. This study is part of a series of papers dealing primarily with the fauna of the Kimball formation in Nebraska (Barbour 1927, 1929; Barbour and Schultz, 1941; Schultz and Stout, 1948, 1961; Kent 1963, 1967; Tanner, 1967; Short, 1969; Martin and Tate, 1970; Schultz, Schultz, and Martin, 1970). The Kimballian fauna from Nebraska differs from the Hemphillian fauna in that most of the known forms are markedly more advanced, but definitely pre-Blancan (Early Pleistocene). A large bear, Indarctos oregonensis keithi, new subspecies, from U.N.S.M. Coli. Loc. Ft-40 is included in the Kimballian fauna from Nebraska. An edentulous ramus and a radius of Agriotherium brought in by Frank Garvel of Ashton, Nebraska, from near U.N.S.M. Coll. Loc. Sm-101 in Sherman County, Nebraska, is also reported. This latter locality is Hemphillian in age (Ash Hollow Formation) and has produced Machairodus as well as some rhinoceros material (personal communication from Lloyd Tanner)

A New Genus of Cricetid Rodent from the Hemingfordian (Miocene) of Nebraska

5 p., 2 fig.http://paleo.ku.edu/contributions.htm

Excavations at Natural Trap Cave

Among the more important questions addressed by students of earth history are those that relate to climatic change. This is especially true of change that has taken place during the last two million years of the Ice Age. It is not an accident that a great deal of effort has been directed towards the Late Pleistocene, and our knowledge of Late Pleistocene environmental parameters has increased markedly in the past few years. However, our knowledge of these changes is still incomplete, and we still have some uncertainty about the cause and nature of Late Pleistocene climatic change, its possible relationship to large mammal extinction, and the establishment of the modern distribution of fauna and flora in North America. Natural Trap Cave in the Big Horn Basin gives us an excellent opportunity to examine a record of these events extending from Late Pleistocene to Recent times

Two Lynx-like Cats from the Pliocene and Pleistocene

A new species (Lynx stouti) of small felid is described from the lower Pliocene of Colorado. This form has several characters in common with the modern Lynx and may be ancestral to that genus. A new subspecies of Lynx issiodorensis Croizet and Jobert is described as L. i. kurteni from the Mullen Assemblage, Cherry County, Nebraska. The relationships of this form to other lynxes are discussed along with the paleo-distribution of the genus. The classification of the felinae has always been somewhat controversial, especially at the generic level. One fairly homogenous group of cats which has been separated from the genus Fe/is are the lynxes. The ancestors of the modern lynxes can be traced back at least to the Villafranchian although the early forms did not have the characteristic short body and long legs found in the living species (Kurten, 1968, p. 80). New material from the Early Pliocene of Colorado U.N.S.M.4 25490 suggests that the separation of these small felids from other lines of felid evolution may have occurred quite early. By the Early Pleistocene the lynxes had already achieved a holartic distribution and are found in the Villafranchian of Europe and China as well as in the Blancan of North America. The characteristic form of this period is Lynx issiodorensis Croizet and Jobert which is known primarily from the Villafranchian of Europe. This species, or very closely related forms, are also known from Early Pleistocene sediments in North America and add strength to the already considerable arguments (Schultz and Stout, 1945, 1948; Schultz and Martin, 1970) for the correlation of the Villafranchian with the Blancan

A new spontaneous model of fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva.

Fibrodisplasia ossificante progressiva (FOP) é uma doença genética caracterizada por uma acentuada, progressiva e aparentemente incontrolável ossificação dos tendões, ligamentos, faciais e músculos estriados da formação de osso heterotópico resultando na imobilização em cadeiraa de rodas por 30 anos. Estudos mais avaçados relacionados a sua gestão foi sempre comprometida pela falta de um modelo animal natural. Esqueletos de mamíferos “Defleshed” foram examinados para demonstrar a evidência de formação de osso heterotópico. O cervo-rato do sudeste asiático do gênero Tragulus foi diagnosticado por possuir uma bainha ósseas cobrindo a parte inferior das costas e na região da coxa consistente com a definição clínica da FOP. Esta deposição óssea heterotophica está presente em todos os machos adultos, incluindo os obtidos selvagens e zoológico de animais desta linhagem. Nós relatamos o primeiro exemplo conhecido de natural de fibrodisplasia ossificante progressiva (FOP) em um mamífero não-humano. Tragulus pode oferecer a oportunidade de examinar muitos dos atributos mais importantes da doença experimentalmenteFibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) is a genetic disorder characterized by relentlessly progressive and seemingly uncontrollable progressive ossification of tendons, ligaments, fascia, and striated muscle with heterotopic bone formation resulting in immobilization and wheel chair confinement by age 30. Progress in its management has been compromised by lack of a natural animal model. Defleshed mammal skeletons were examined for evidence of heterotopic bone formation. The Southeast Asian mouse deer of the genus Tragulus was found to have an osseous sheath covering the lower back and upper thigh region consistent with the clinical definition of FOP. This heterotophic bone deposition is present in all adults males, including both wild obtained and zoo bred animals. We report the first known example of spontaneous, naturally occurring fibrodysplasia ossificans progressiva (FOP) in a non-human mammal. Tragulus may offer the opportunity to examine many of the disease’s most significant attributes experimentally

Influence of Water Quality on Cholesterol-Induced Tau Pathology: Preliminary Data

The studies employed the cholesterol-fed rabbit model of Alzheimer's disease (AD) to investigate the relationship between AD-like neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) neuropathology and tau protein levels as the main component of NFT. We measured brain and plasma tau levels and semiquantified NFT-like neuropathology in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered drinking water of varying quality (distilled, tap, and distilled+copper) compared to animals receiving normal chow and local tap water. Total tau levels in plasma were increased in all cholesterol-fed rabbits compared to animals on normal chow, regardless of quality of water. In contrast, increased tau in brain and increased AT8 immunoreactive NFT-like lesions were greatest in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered distilled water. A substantial decrease in brain tau and incidence and density of AT8 immunoreactive NFT-like lesions occurred in cholesterol-fed rabbits administered copper water, and an even greater decrease was observed in cholesterol-fed animals on local tap water. These studies suggest the possibility that circulating tau could be the source of the tau accumulating in the brain