Understanding Trends in the New Mexico Dairy Industry, and Accounting for Direct and Indirect Water Use in Dairy Productions

Water planning is important in all places, and particularly so in an arid state like New Mexico. How the water is used, and how much is thereby important. Often water use by the agricultural sector, is considered as an aggregated whole such as New Mexico First (2014). The objective of this research was to conduct an analysis of the growth and change of the New Mexico dairy industry, and water use to support this industry, that might better inform the future structure of state and regional water planning in New Mexico. The dairy industry has been a high growth industry in New Mexico since the 1990\u27s (and then has leveled off more recently). The extent to which the New Mexico dairy industry exhibits a dual structure, an uneven distribution of farm sizes, with medium sized farms being less frequent, was examined. Recent changes to the national Farm Bill are also likely to impact the dairy sector. This industry has had concentration in the eastern part of New Mexico, and increasingly concentrated in terms of sales. The importance of dairy production in explaining the spatial variation in NM farm income was examined and demonstrated econometrically. A broad estimation of water use in the dairy production industry, including both direct use by dairies (32,361 acre-ft) and indirect use associated with production of animal feed (1,317,640 acre-ft), were developed following the approach of Guerrero et al (2012) in calculated based on dairy cow consumption

The Impacts of the 2015/2016 El Niño on California’s Sandy Beaches

AbstractThe Impacts of the 2015/2016 El Niño on California’s Sandy BeachesBy Schuyler SmithThe El Niño Southern Oscillation is the most dominant mode of interannual climate variability in the Pacific. The 2015/2016 El Niño event was one of the strongest of the last 145 years, resulting in anomalously high wave energy across the U.S. West Coast, and record coastal erosion for many California beaches (Barnard et al., 2017). Currently, 26 million people live in California’s coastal counties (2010 U.S. Census), and over 600,000 people in California will likely be at risk of coastal flooding by the end of this century due to projected sea level rise and storms (Barnard et al., 2019). To better manage our coastal resources, it is critical that we understand the impacts of both short-term climate variability and long-term climate impacts across the varied coastal settings of California. This study is the first to quantify the effects of one of the strongest El Niño events in the historical record across the entire coast of California, represented by 8000, 50-m spaced shore-normal transects across sandy beaches along the length of the state’s shoreline. The response of sandy shorelines to the extreme El Niño winter of 2015/2016 is quantified in the context of net shoreline movement, using the mean high water (MHW) line as a shoreline proxy. MHW contours were extracted from Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation models (DEMS) from the Oregon border to Mexico using ArcGIS, to represent the 1998/2002, 2015 and 2016 shorelines. Both net shoreline movement values (from fall of 2015 to spring of 2016) and long-term end-point rates of change (1998/2002-2016) were calculated. Satellite-derived long-term (1984-2019) rates of shoreline change acquired from Luijendijk et al. (2018) are summarized for comparison. To determine the influence of wave energy on the coastal response observed here, wave energy flux values for the El Niño winter were calculated at the 20 m depth contour every 100 m along the entire California coastline using hindcast data generated by O'Reilly et al. (2016).We find that central and northern California experienced the most sandy beach erosion during the El Niño winter, with 96% of analyzed beaches in Central California eroding (mean = 45.7 m of erosion), compared to 89% in northern California (mean = 25.5 m of erosion), and 79% in southern California (mean = 9.7 m of erosion). Although local beach response was highly variable, much of the erosion was observed at river mouths, and on the southern side of structures impeding littoral drift, with accretion observed on the northern or upcoast side of these structures. Within west-facing embayments, more extreme erosion was observed in the north than in the south. These erosional patterns contrast to those of typical El Niño events, when the direction of alongshore transport has been observed as south to north, and accretion occurs in the northern end of embayments. In the long-term (1998/2002-2016), southern California and central California beaches are moderately accreting, while northern California is eroding on average at 79 cm per year. A significant correlation was found between cumulative wave energy flux and shoreline change during the El Niño winter across the state of California (R2 = -0.45, P<0.001). The correlation is lower (-0.25, P<0.001) for the 2015/2016 winter cumulative wave energy flux anomaly and shoreline change in southern California. After assessing the impact of the 2015/2016 El Niño event, spatial patterns indicate that an unusual, more northerly wave direction, extreme wave energy, and coastline orientation were key factors in the observed shoreline response. This response was markedly different from the classic El Niños of 1982-83 and 1997-98, where more southerly storm tracks and southerly wave directions were key factors controlling shoreline behavior

Molecular analysis of genetic diversity in a Texas maize (Zea mays L) breeding program

The Texas maize (Zea mays L) breeding program at Texas A&M University has been unique among breeding pro- grams for the incorporation of diverse germplasm from a wide range of origins into elite inbred lines. The Texas program, situated in a subtropical environment, has found beneficial traits in maize of tropical origin beyond what is available in the temperate material commonly used in the far more productive Midwestern region of the United States. To date, no molecular studies had been conducted to make any quantitative differentiations between the genetic diversity in the germplasm developed in the Texas program or comparisons to the germplasm available from the Midwest. In this study, a molecular characterization of genetic diversity was performed. A unique set of 266 elite Texas lines were genotyped using 766 single nucleotide polymorphism markers, this was then combined with data published in a previous study focusing on ex-PVP lines released by private companies. The two data sets combined had 380 genotypes with 635 markers. It was determined that there were five subpopulations of material in this combined set as demonstrated by population structure. The data suggested that the array mark- ers, designed to cluster the Midwestern heterotic groups, did not discriminate this exotic material well and/or that the Texas heterotic pools were not well supported. We conclude that the majority of Texas program material is a novel population, genetically dissimilar to Midwest temperate material, and would be a useful source of unique genetics for other maize breeding programs

A Massive Progenitor of the Luminous Type IIn Supernova 2010jl

The bright, nearby, recently discovered supernova SN2010jl is a member of the rare class of relatively luminous Type~IIn events. Here we report archival HST observations of its host galaxy UGC5189A taken roughly 10yr prior to explosion, as well as early-time optical spectra of the SN. The HST images reveal a bright, blue point source at the position of the SN, with an absolute magnitude of -12.0 in the F300W filter. If it is not just a chance alignment, the source at the SN position could be (1) a massive young (less than 6 Myr) star cluster in which the SN resided, (2) a quiescent, luminous blue star with an apparent temperature around 14,000K, (3) a star caught during a bright outburst akin to those of LBVs, or (4) a combination of option 1 and options 2 or 3. Although we cannot confidently choose between these possibilities with the present data, any of them imply that the progenitor of SN2010jl had an initial mass above 30Msun. This reinforces mounting evidence that many SNe IIn result from very massive stars, that massive stars can produce visible SNe without collapsing quietly to black holes, and that massive stars can retain their H envelopes until shortly before explosion. Standard stellar evolution models fail to account for these observed properties.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, submitted to Ap

On the Progenitor System of the Type Iax Supernova 2014dt in M61

We present pre-explosion and post-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images of the Type Iax supernova (SN Iax) 2014dt in M61. After astrometrically aligning these images, we do not detect any stellar sources at the position of the SN in the pre-explosion images to relatively deep limits (3 sigma limits of M_F438W > -5.0 mag and M_F814W > -5.9 mag). These limits are similar to the luminosity of SN 2012Z's progenitor system (M_F435W = -5.43 +/- 0.15 and M_F814W = -5.24 +/- 0.16 mag), the only probable detected progenitor system in pre-explosion images of a SN Iax, and indeed, of any white dwarf supernova. SN 2014dt is consistent with having a C/O white-dwarf primary/helium-star companion progenitor system, as was suggested for SN 2012Z, although perhaps with a slightly smaller or hotter donor. The data are also consistent with SN 2014dt having a low-mass red giant or main-sequence star companion. The data rule out main-sequence stars with M_init > 16 M_sun and most evolved stars with M_init > 8 M_sun as being the progenitor of SN 2014dt. Hot Wolf-Rayet stars are also allowed, but the lack of nearby bright sources makes this scenario unlikely. Because of its proximity (D = 12 Mpc), SN 2014dt is ideal for long-term monitoring, where images in ~2 years may detect the companion star or the luminous bound remnant of the progenitor white dwarf.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, submitted to ApJ

Constraints on the Progenitor of SN 2010jl and Pre-Existing Hot Dust in its Surrounding Medium

A search for the progenitor of SN~2010jl, an unusually luminous core-collapse supernova of Type~IIn, using pre-explosion {\it Hubble}/WFPC2 and {\it Spitzer}/IRAC images of the region, yielded upper limits on the UV and near-infrared (IR) fluxes from any candidate star. These upper limits constrain the luminosity and effective temperature of the progenitor, the mass of any preexisting dust in its surrounding circumstellar medium (CSM), and dust proximity to the star. A {\it lower} limit on the CSM dust mass is required to hide a luminous progenitor from detection by {\it Hubble}. {\it Upper} limits on the CSM dust mass and constraints on its proximity to the star are set by requiring that the absorbed and reradiated IR emission not exceed the IRAC upper limits. Using the combined extinction-IR emission constraints we present viable $M_d-R_1$ combinations, where $M_d$ and $R_1$ are the CSM dust mass and its inner radius. These depend on the CSM outer radius, dust composition and grain size, and the properties of the progenitor. The results constrain the pre-supernova evolution of the progenitor, and the nature and origin of the observed post-explosion IR emission from SN~2010jl. In particular, an $\eta$~Car-type progenitor will require at least 4~mag of visual extinction to avoid detection by the {\it Hubble}. This can be achieved with dust masses $\gtrsim 10^{-3}$~\msun\ (less than the estimated 0.2-0.5~\msun\ around $\eta$~Car) which must be located at distances of $\gtrsim 10^{16}$~cm from the star to avoid detection by {\it Spitzer}.Comment: Accepted for publication in the ApJ. 14 pages 10 figures. The complete figure set for Figure 10 (24 images) is available in the online journa

Radio Observations of SN 1980K: Evidence for Rapid Presupernova Evolution

New observations of SN 1980K made with the VLA at 20 and 6 cm from 1994 April through 1996 October show that the supernova (SN) has undergone a significant change in its radio emission evolution, dropping by a factor of ~2 below the flux density S \propto t^{-0.73} power-law decline with time t observed earlier. However, although S at all observed frequencies has decreased significantly, its current spectral index of \alpha= -0.42\pm0.15 (S \propto \nu^{+\alpha}) is consistent with the previous spectral index of \alpha=-0.60_{-0.07}^{+0.04}. It is suggested that this decrease in emission may be due to the SN shock entering a new region of the circumstellar material which has a lower density than that expected for a constant speed (w), constant mass-loss rate (Mdot) wind from the progenitor. If such an interpretation is correct, the difference in wind and shock speeds appears to indicate a significant evolution in the mass-loss history of the SN progenitor ~10^4 years before explosion, with a change in circumstellar density (\propto Mdot/w) occurring over a time span of \lesssim 4 kyr. Such features could be explained in terms of a fast ``blue-loop'' evolutionary phase of a relatively massive pre-SN progenitor star. If so, we may, for the first time, provide a stringent constraint on the mass of the SN progenitor based solely on the SN's radio emission.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figures, to appear in Ap

The Progenitor of Supernova 2011dh Has Vanished

We conducted Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Snapshot observations of the Type IIb Supernova (SN) 2011dh in M51 at an age of ~641 days with the Wide Field Camera 3. We find that the yellow supergiant star, clearly detected in pre-SN HST images, has disappeared, implying that this star was almost certainly the progenitor of the SN. Interpretation of the early-time SN data which led to the inference of a compact nature for the progenitor, and to the expected survival of this yellow supergiant, is now clearly incorrect. We also present ground-based UBVRI light curves obtained with the Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope (KAIT) at Lick Observatory up to SN age ~70 days. From the light-curve shape including the very late-time HST data, and from recent interacting binary models for SN 2011dh, we estimate that a putative surviving companion star to the now deceased yellow supergiant could be detectable by late 2013, especially in the ultraviolet. No obvious light echoes are detectable yet in the SN environment.Comment: 6 pages, new versions of the 3 figures, improved U-band SN photometry, to appear in ApJ Letter

Ultraviolet Detection of the Binary Companion to the Type IIb SN 2001ig

We present HST/WFC3 ultraviolet imaging in the F275W and F336W bands of the Type IIb SN 2001ig at an age of more than 14 years. A clear point source is detected at the site of the explosion having $m_{\rm F275W}=25.39 \pm 0.10$ and $m_{\rm F336W}=25.88 \pm 0.13$ mag. Despite weak constraints on both the distance to the host galaxy NGC 7424 and the line-of-sight reddening to the supernova, this source matches the characteristics of an early B-type main sequence star having $19,000 < T_{\rm eff} < 22,000$ K and $\log (L_{\rm bol}/L_{\odot})=3.92 \pm 0.14$. A BPASS v2.1 binary evolution model, with primary and secondary masses of 13 M$_{\odot}$ and 9 M$_{\odot}$ respectively, is found to resemble simultaneously in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram both the observed location of this surviving companion, and the primary star evolutionary endpoints for other Type IIb supernovae. This same model exhibits highly variable late-stage mass loss, as expected from the behavior of the radio light curves. A Gemini/GMOS optical spectrum at an age of 6 years reveals a narrow He II emission line, indicative of continuing interaction with a dense circumstellar medium at large radii from the progenitor. We review our findings on SN 2001ig in the context of binary evolution channels for stripped-envelope supernovae. Owing to the uncrowded nature of its environment in the ultraviolet, this study of SN 2001ig represents one of the cleanest detections to date of a surviving binary companion to a Type IIb supernova.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Resubmitted to ApJ after minor changes requested by refere