Comparison of Different Methods of Measuring Turbidity for Estimation of Total Suspended Sediments (Poster)

Proceedings of the 2001 Georgia Water Resources Conference, April 26 and 27, 2001, Athens, Georgia.Turbidity in streams has long been thought of as an important indicator of stream health. The standard methods for measuring turbidity in streams today are nephelometric methods (NTU). However there are a variety of relationships and correlations between nephelometric units and total suspended sediments (Tss). Colorimetric methods (FAU) of measuring turbidity may reduce the number of instruments needed while stream sampling and may also have a more reliable relationship with total suspended sediments than nephelometric units in Southern Piedmont streams. We sampled stream base flow (n = 224) and storm flow (n = 145) and runoff (n = 141) from grazing lands within two Southern Piedmont watersheds and determined relationships of Tss with NTU and FAU. Using linear regression to predict Tss from either NTU or FAU, we found r² of 0.89 and 0.80 for base flow, 0.94 and 0.92 for storm flow and 0.93 and 0.94 for runoff, respectively. However, when turbidity units were < 25 NTU or 25 FAU, relationships with Tss were much weaker.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202. The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of The University of Georgia, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Georgia Water Research Institute as authorized by the Water Resources Research Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397) or the other conference sponsors

Modeling Groundwater Levels on the Calera Aquifer Region in Central Mexico Using ModFlow

A conceptual model for the Calera Aquifer has been created to represent the aquifer system beneath the Calera Aquifer Region (CAR) in the State of Zacatecas, Mexico. The CAR area was uniformly partitioned into a 500 X 500 m grid generating a high resolution model that represented the natural boundaries of the aquifer. A computer model was calibrated and validated to verify output from the model corresponding to situations that matched the historical aquifer performance. Predicted groundwater levels were compared with measured data collected from nine observation wells between 1954 and 2004 to evaluate model performance. The main objective of this study was to develop and evaluate a groundwater modeling system using ModFlow-2000 for the CAR. Performance statistics indicated that the model performed well in simulating historic groundwater levels in the central part of the CAR where irrigated agriculture was concentrated. Results evaluation yielded average coefficients of determination of 0.81 and 0.67 and root mean square error values lower than 25.1 m and 25.9 m for the calibration and validation processes, respectively. These results are indicative of a good agreement between predicted and observed groundwater levels. However, further improvements in the conceptual model may be needed to improve predictions in other parts of the CAR for evaluating alternative groundwater management strategies

Evaluation of a Small, In-field Runoff Collector

Proceedings of the 1999 Georgia Water Resources Conference, March 30 and 31, Athens, Georgia.Increased environmental concern about surface water pollution has heightened the need for small, in-field runoff collectors to assess the impact of land management practices without altering the landscape. We modified a surface flow sampler designed for sheet flow in Coastal Plain soils. Modifications were made to accommodate steep slopes (3 to 15% ), large flow rates, and channelized flow which are common in the Southern Piedmont. The runoff collector consists of two sample splitters (10x and 100x) and two sample collectors. Runoff collector performance was evaluated in the laboratory to determine percent flow captured by 10x and 100x splitters relative to flow rate and slope. Average flow captured on a 5% slope was 10.3% for 10x and 1.8% for the l00x. When the slope was increased to 12% the percent flow capture also increased slightly, 10.4% for l0x and 2.3% for l00x. It was determined that the small, in-field runoff collector captures runoff volumes at specific rates at fairly consistent ratios.Sponsored and Organized by: U.S. Geological Survey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, The University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of TechnologyThis book was published by the Institute of Ecology, The University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia 30602-2202 with partial funding provided by the U.S. Department of Interior, geological Survey, through the Georgia Water Research Insttitute as authorized by the Water Research Institutes Authorization Act of 1990 (P.L. 101-397). The views and statements advanced in this publication are solely those of the authors and do not represent official views or policies of the University of Georgia or the U.S. Geological Survey or the conference sponsors

The FASTK family proteins fine-tune mitochondrial RNA processing.

Funder: The Cancer Council of Western AustraliaFunder: UWA Postgraduate ScholarshipsTranscription of the human mitochondrial genome and correct processing of the two long polycistronic transcripts are crucial for oxidative phosphorylation. According to the tRNA punctuation model, nucleolytic processing of these large precursor transcripts occurs mainly through the excision of the tRNAs that flank most rRNAs and mRNAs. However, some mRNAs are not punctuated by tRNAs, and it remains largely unknown how these non-canonical junctions are resolved. The FASTK family proteins are emerging as key players in non-canonical RNA processing. Here, we have generated human cell lines carrying single or combined knockouts of several FASTK family members to investigate their roles in non-canonical RNA processing. The most striking phenotypes were obtained with loss of FASTKD4 and FASTKD5 and with their combined double knockout. Comprehensive mitochondrial transcriptome analyses of these cell lines revealed a defect in processing at several canonical and non-canonical RNA junctions, accompanied by an increase in specific antisense transcripts. Loss of FASTKD5 led to the most severe phenotype with marked defects in mitochondrial translation of key components of the electron transport chain complexes and in oxidative phosphorylation. We reveal that the FASTK protein family members are crucial regulators of non-canonical junction and non-coding mitochondrial RNA processing

Growing Environmental Activists: Developing Environmental Agency and Engagement Through Children’s Fiction.

We explore how story has the potential to encourage environmental engagement and a sense of agency provided that critical discussion takes place. We illuminate this with reference to the philosophies of John Macmurray on personal agency and social relations; of John Dewey on the primacy of experience for philosophy; and of Paul Ricoeur on hermeneutics, dialogue, dialectics and narrative. We view the use of fiction for environmental understanding as hermeneutic, a form of conceptualising place which interprets experience and perception. The four writers for young people discussed are Ernest Thompson Seton, Kenneth Grahame, Michelle Paver and Philip Pullman. We develop the concept of critical dialogue, and link this to Crick's demand for active democratic citizenship. We illustrate the educational potential for environmental discussions based on literature leading to deeper understanding of place and environment, encouraging the belief in young people that they can be and become agents for change. We develop from Zimbardo the key concept of heroic resister to encourage young people to overcome peer pressure. We conclude with a call to develop a greater awareness of the potential of fiction for learning, and for writers to produce more focused stories engaging with environmental responsibility and activism

BAFF, a Novel Ligand of the Tumor Necrosis Factor Family, Stimulates B Cell Growth

Members of the tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family induce pleiotropic biological responses, including cell growth, differentiation, and even death. Here we describe a novel member of the TNF family, designated BAFF (for B cell activating factor belonging to the TNF family), which is expressed by T cells and dendritic cells. Human BAFF was mapped to chromosome 13q32-34. Membrane-bound BAFF was processed and secreted through the action of a protease whose specificity matches that of the furin family of proprotein convertases. The expression of BAFF receptor appeared to be restricted to B cells. Both membrane-bound and soluble BAFF induced proliferation of anti-immunoglobulin M–stimulated peripheral blood B lymphocytes. Moreover, increased amounts of immunoglobulins were found in supernatants of germinal center–like B cells costimulated with BAFF. These results suggest that BAFF plays an important role as costimulator of B cell proliferation and function

Intensification differentially affects the delivery of multiple ecosystem services in subtropical and temperate grasslands

Intensification, the process of intensifying land management to enhance agricultural goods, results in “intensive” pastures that are planted with productive grasses and fertilized. These intensive pastures provide essential ecosystem services, including forage production for livestock. Understanding the synergies and tradeoffs of pasture intensification on the delivery of services across climatic regions is crucial to shape policies and incentives for better management of natural resources. Here, we investigated how grassland intensification affects key components of provisioning (forage productivity and quality), supporting (plant diversity) and regulating services (CO2 and CH4 fluxes) by comparing these services between intensive versus extensive pastures in subtropical and temperate pastures in the USDA Long-term Agroecosystem Research (LTAR) Network sites in Florida and Oklahoma, USA over multiple years. Our results suggest that grassland intensification led to a decrease in measured supporting and regulating services, but increased forage productivity in temperate pastures and forage digestibility in subtropical pastures. Intensification decreased the net CO2 sink of subtropical pastures while it did not affect the sink capacity of temperate pastures; and it also increased environmental CH4 emissions from subtropical pastures and reduced CH4 uptake in temperate pastures. Intensification enhanced the global warming potential associated with C fluxes of pastures in both ecoregions. Our study demonstrates that comparisons of agroecosystems in contrasting ecoregions can reveal important drivers of ecosystem services and general or region-specific opportunities and solutions to maintaining agricultural production and reducing environmental footprints. Further LTAR network-scale comparisons of multiple ecosystem services across croplands and grazinglands intensively vs extensively managed are warranted to inform the sustainable intensification of agriculture within US and beyond. Our results highlight that achieving both food security and environmental stewardship will involve the conservation of less intensively managed pastures while adopting sustainable strategies in intensively managed pastures