Oregon-Burgundy Challenge

This document summarizes the Oregon-Burgundy Challenge, which took place at the International Wine Center (IWC) in New York City on September 12, 1985. The tasting was a blind comparison of the 1983 Pinot Noir vintages from Burgundy, France and Oregon, U.S.A. Inspired by comparative tastings conducted by several Oregon winemakers, and frustrated by the lack of respect Oregon Pinot Noirs were seeing in the wider market, Stephen Cary suggested the tasting to IWC President Al Hotchkin, who predicted poor results. The Oregon Wine Advisory Board (now the Oregon Wine Board) funded the event that presented 10 Oregon wines and 7 French wines; judges were asked to identify the origin of each wine and to select their three favorites. As a group, the twenty-five judges could not correctly identify the place of origin for at least 50% of the wines. The Oregon wines placed 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and tied for 4th and 5th. With many displeased French winemakers, a second competition took place two years later where Oregon, once again, swept the top two spots and tied for 3rd. These events helped Oregon wines earn the respect of the French (as well as wine consumers throughout the United States) while still maintaining a positive relationship between the two winemaking regions

Steamboat Conference History

This document describes the history of the Steamboat Conference. The Steamboat Conference is an annual collaboration between Pinot Noir winemakers from Oregon and California. Eugene chef Del Pearl, Sunriver sommelier Rick Denton, California winemaker Jim Olsen, and Stephen Cary came up with the idea for the gathering and sharing of knowledge in the fall of 1979. Originally the plan was to alternate locations for the conference between Oregon and California, but after the first four years they decided the Steamboat Inn in Oregon\u27s Umpqua Valley was the best location, and the conference has remained there since. In the last 28 years, the conference has welcomed makers of Pinot Noir from around the globe. Based on the success of the collaboration, similar conferences are now held in New Zealand, Central Coastal California, Chile, and both Victoria and Tasmania in Australia

Diverse hypolithic refuge communities in the McMurdo Dry Valleys

Hyper-arid deserts present extreme challenges to life. The environmental buffering provided by quartz and other translucent rocks allows hypolithic microbial communities to develop on sub-soil surfaces of such rocks. These refuge communities have been reported, for many locations worldwide, to be predominantly cyanobacterial in nature. Here we report the discovery in Antarctica’s hyper-arid McMurdo Dry Valleys of three clearly distinguishable types of hypolithic community. Based on gross colonization morphology and identification of dominant taxa, we have classified hypolithic communities as Type I (cyanobacterial dominated), Type II (fungal dominated) and Type III (moss dominated). This discovery supports a growing awareness of the high biocomplexity in Antarctic deserts, emphasizes the possible importance of cryptic microbial communities in nutrient cycling and provides evidence for possible successional community processes within a cold arid landscape

Public Rates Of Return On Higher Education Investments, By State

Public rates of return on higher education expenditures are calculated by state.  Benefits accruing to states from their investments in higher education are measured by differential tax revenues collected from college-educated citizens versus high-school-educated citizens.  For most states we find an adequate rate of return on such investments.  However, we conclude that in addition to monetary returns, state governments likely consider other factors when deciding upon expending resources for higher education needs

Characterisation of bacterioplankton communities in the meltwater ponds of Bratina Island, Victoria Land, Antarctica

A unique collection of Antarctic aquatic environments (meltwater ponds) lies in close proximity on the rock and sediment-covered undulating surface of the McMurdo Ice Shelf, near Bratina Island (Victoria Land, Antarctica). During the 2009–10 mid-austral summer, sets of discrete water samples were collected across the vertical geochemical gradients of five meltwater ponds (Egg, P70E, Legin, Salt and Orange) for geochemical and microbial community structure analysis. Bacterial DNA fingerprints (using Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis) statistically clustered communities within ponds based on ANOSIM (R = 0.766, P = 0.001); however, one highly stratified pond (Egg) had two distinct depth-related bacterial communities (R = 0.975, P = 0.008). 454 pyrosequencing at three depths within Egg also identified phylum level shifts and increased diversity with depth, Bacteroidetes being the dominant phyla in the surface sample and Proteobacteria being dominant in the bottom two depths. BEST analysis, which attempts to link community structure and the geochemistry of a pond, identified conductivity and pH individually, and to a lesser extent Ag109, NO2 and V51 as dominant influences to the microbial community structure in these ponds. Increasing abundances of major halo-tolerant OTUs across the strong conductivity gradient reinforce it as the primary driver of community structure in this stud

A Wind-Derived Upwelling Index for Lake Michigan

Coastal upwelling is a phenomenon that occurs along coastlines throughout the world, and has been shown to be strongly correlated with large fish populations in these areas. Coastal upwelling occurs when strong coastal winds drive water transport away from the coast, causing colder, often nutrient-rich water to upwell in its place. While coastal upwellings can be detected with satellite imagery or in situ temperature measurements, these datasets are neither continuous nor long-term. A wind-derived upwelling index was created for Lake Michigan to continuously quantify upwellings over multiple decades, and to allow for further understanding of the impact of upwelling in the Great Lakes region. Following work on oceanic upwelling, directional upwelling indices were calculated by taking wind velocity data from both buoys and land stations in Lake Michigan and estimating the off-shore transport of water as predicted by standard dynamical arguments (Ekman transport). Indices were calculated on episodic, daily, monthly, and seasonal timescales. The calculated indices were then validated with direct metrics of upwellings, including in situ water temperature and velocity data and satellite-derived sea surface temperatures (SST). The results of these validations show that there is a strong qualitative correlation between the upwelling index model and the other sources of data, suggesting that the wind-derived index is a robust metric of coastal upwelling, at least for Muskegon. Historical calculations of interannual variability in the derived upwelling index show that the Muskegon coast is downwelling favorable for the middle of the year, but can vary greatly from year to year in magnitude. Future work will include validation of additional locations in Lake Michigan in order to provide a more complete picture of upwelling in the lake

Airborne bacterial populations above desert soils of the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica

Bacteria are assumed to disperse widely via aerosolized transport due to their small size and resilience. The question of microbial endemicity in isolated populations is directly related to the level of airborne exogenous inputs, yet this has proven hard to identify. The ice-free terrestrial ecosystem of Antarctica, a geographically and climatically isolated continent, was used to interrogate microbial bio-aerosols in relation to the surrounding ecology and climate. High-throughput sequencing of bacterial ribosomal RNA (rRNA) genes was combined with analyses of climate patterns during an austral summer. In general terms, the aerosols were dominated by Firmicutes, whereas surrounding soils supported Actinobacteria-dominated communities. The most abundant taxa were also common to aerosols from other continents, suggesting that a distinct bio-aerosol community is widely dispersed. No evidence for significant marine input to bio-aerosols was found at this maritime valley site, instead local influence was largely from nearby volcanic sources. Back trajectory analysis revealed transport of incoming regional air masses across the Antarctic Plateau, and this is envisaged as a strong selective force. It is postulated that local soil microbial dispersal occurs largely via stochastic mobilization of mineral soil particulates

Benthic microbial communities of coastal terrestrial and ice shelf Antarctic meltwater ponds.

The numerous perennial meltwater ponds distributed throughout Antarctica represent diverse and productive ecosystems central to the ecological functioning of the surrounding ultra oligotrophic environment. The dominant taxa in the pond benthic communities have been well described however, little is known regarding their regional dispersal and local drivers to community structure. The benthic microbial communities of 12 meltwater ponds in the McMurdo Sound of Antarctica were investigated to examine variation between pond microbial communities and their biogeography. Geochemically comparable but geomorphologically distinct ponds were selected from Bratina Island (ice shelf) and Miers Valley (terrestrial) (<40 km between study sites), and community structure within ponds was compared using DNA fingerprinting and pyrosequencing of 16S rRNA gene amplicons. More than 85% of total sequence reads were shared between pooled benthic communities at different locations (OTU0.05), which in combination with favorable prevailing winds suggests aeolian regional distribution. Consistent with previous findings Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes were the dominant phyla representing over 50% of total sequences; however, a large number of other phyla (21) were also detected in this ecosystem. Although dominant Bacteria were ubiquitous between ponds, site and local selection resulted in heterogeneous community structures and with more than 45% of diversity being pond specific. Potassium was identified as the most significant contributing factor to the cosmopolitan community structure and aluminum to the location unique community based on a BEST analysis (Spearman's correlation coefficient of 0.632 and 0.806, respectively). These results indicate that the microbial communities in meltwater ponds are easily dispersed regionally and that the local geochemical environment drives the ponds community structure

Guest Artist Recital: Stephen Cary, Tenor; James Allison, Baritone; Cheryl Rascoe, Piano; January 16, 1975

Centennial East Recital HallThursday EveningJanuary 16, 19758:15 p.m