Water Quality Analysis of Eastern Kentucky Reservoirs

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Science and Technology at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Biology by Stephen E. Davis III on July 19, 1995

Feeder Cattle Basis in South Carolina 2000-2004

Livestock Production/Industries,

Importance of water source in controlling leaf leaching losses in a dwarf red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle L.) wetland

The southern Everglades mangrove ecotone is characterized by extensive dwarf Rhizophora mangle L. shrub forests with a seasonally variable water source (Everglades – NE Florida Bay) and residence times ranging from short to long. We conducted a leaf leaching experiment to understand the influence that water source and its corresponding water quality have on (1) the early decay of R. mangle leaves and (2) the early exchange of total organic carbon (TOC) and total phosphorus (TP) between leaves and the water column. Newly senesced leaves collected from lower Taylor River (FL) were incubated in bottles containing water from one of three sources (Everglades, ambient mangrove, and Florida Bay) that spanned a range of salinity from 0 to 32‰, [TOC] from 710 to 1400 μM, and [TP] from 0.17 to 0.33 μM. We poisoned half the bottles in order to quantify abiotic processes (i.e., leaching) and assumed that non-poisoned bottles represented both biotic (i.e., microbial) and abiotic processes. We sacrificed bottles after 1,2, 5, 10, and 21 days of incubation and quantified changes in leaf mass and changes in water column [TOC] and [TP]. We saw 10–20% loss of leaf mass after 24 h—independent of water treatment—that leveled off by Day 21. After 3 weeks, non-poisoned leaves lost more mass than poisoned leaves, and there was only an effect of salinity on mass loss in poisoned incubations—with greatest leaching-associated losses in Everglades freshwater. Normalized concentrations of TOC in the water column increased by more than two orders of magnitude after 21 days with no effect of salinity and no difference between poisoned and non-poisoned treatments. However, normalized [TP] was lower in non-poisoned incubations as a result of immobilization by epiphytic microbes. This immobilization was greatest in Everglades freshwater and reflects the high P demand in this ecosystem. Immobilization of leached P in mangrove water and Florida Bay water was delayed by several days and may indicate an initial microbial limitation by labile C during the dry season

Cosmic Strings, Zero Modes and SUSY breaking in Nonabelian N=1 Gauge Theories

We investigate the microphysics of cosmic strings in Nonabelian gauge theories with N=1 supersymmetry. We give the vortex solutions in a specific example and demonstrate that fermionic superconductivity arises because of the couplings and interactions dictated by supersymmetry. We then use supersymmetry transformations to obtain the relevant fermionic zero modes and investigate the role of soft supersymmetry breaking on the existence and properties of the superconducting strings.Comment: 12 pages, RevTex, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Restoring the Heart of the Everglades: The Challenges and Benefts

The slow pace of Everglades restoration has drawn concern from all sides of political affiliations, nonprofits, and industries alike. With such a large-scale restoration process underway, the overwhelming task of determining how and when to implement the numerous aspects of the restoration plan have become a challenge for all those working towards restoring the historic flow of water south

The contribution of leaching to the rapid release of nutrients and carbon in the early decay of wetland vegetation

Our goal was to quantify the coupled process of litter turnover and leaching as a source of nutrients and fixed carbon in oligotrophic, nutrient-limited wetlands. We conducted poisoned and non-poisoned incubations of leaf material from four different perennial wetland plants (Eleocharis spp., Cladium jamaicense, Rhizophora mangle and Spartina alterniflora) collected from different oligotrophic freshwater and estuarine wetland settings. Total phosphorus (TP) release from the P-limited Everglades plant species (Eleocharis spp., C. jamaicense and R. mangle) was much lower than TP release by the salt marsh plant S. alterniflora from N-limited North Inlet (SC). For most species and sampling times, total organic carbon (TOC) and TP leaching losses were much greater in poisoned than non-poisoned treatments, likely as a result of epiphytic microbial activity. Therefore, a substantial portion of the C and P leached from these wetland plant species was bio-available to microbial communities. Even the microbes associated with S. alterniflora from N-limited North Inlet showed indications of P-limitation early in the leaching process, as P was removed from the water column. Leaves of R. mangle released much more TOC per gram of litter than the other species, likely contributing to the greater waterborne [DOC] observed by others in the mangrove ecotone of Everglades National Park. Between the two freshwater Everglades plants, C. jamaicense leached nearly twice as much P than Eleocharis spp. In scaling this to the landscape level, our observed leaching losses combined with higher litter production of C. jamaicense compared to Eleocharis spp. resulted in a substantially greater P leaching from plant litter to the water column and epiphytic microbes. In conclusion, leaching of fresh plant litter can be an important autochthonous source of nutrients in freshwater and estuarine wetland ecosystems

Keck Spectroscopy of Objects with Lens-like Morphologies in the Hubble Deep Field

We present spectroscopy from the Keck telescope of three sets of objects in the Hubble Deep Field which have lens-like morphologies. In the case of J123641+621204, which is composed of four objects with similar colors and a mean separation of <= 0.8", we find at least two distinct components at redshifts of z=3.209 and z=3.220 which are separated by 0.5" spatially. Each of these components has narrow Ly-alpha emission, and possibly NV emission and SiIV and CIV in absorption or with a P-Cygni profile. The second case is J123652+621227, which has an arc-like feature offset by 1.8" to the southwest of a red elliptical-like galaxy, and a ``counterimage'' offset 1.4" on the opposite side. We tentatively find a single line at 5301 AA at the spatial position of the counterimage, and no corresponding emission line at the position of the arc. The colors of the counterimage are consistent with the identification of this line as Ly-alpha at z=3.36. The colors of the arc are different than those of the counterimage, and thus both the colors and spectra indicate that this object is unlikely to be a gravitational lens. For a third lensing candidate (J123656+621221), which is a blue arc offset by 0.9" from a red, elliptical-like galaxy, our spectroscopy does not clearly resolve the system spatially, complicating the interpretation of the spectrum. We discuss possible identifications of features in the spectrum, and find that gravitational lensing remains a possibility in this case. We conclude that the frequency of strong gravitational lensing by galaxies in the HDF appears to be very low. This result is difficult to reconcile with the introduction of a cosmological constant to account for the large number of faint blue galaxies via a large volume element at high redshift.Comment: To be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. 10 pages, 3 Figures, 2 Plates. AAS LaTex v4.0. Paper+Figures+Plates also available at http://astro.berkeley.edu/davisgrp/HDF/ and via anonymous ftp at ftp://magicbean.berkeley.edu/pub/HDFLen

Relating Freshwater Flow with Estuarine Water Quality in the Southern Everglades Mangrove Ecotone

Florida Bay is more saline than it was historically, and reduced freshwater flows may lead to more phosphorus inputs to the mangrove ecotone from the marine end-member. This is important given plans to restore freshwater flow into eastern Florida Bay. We investigated the relationships between salinity, nutrients, and hydrologic variables in the mangrove ecotone of Taylor Slough. We expected that total phosphorus (TP) would increase with salinity, reflecting a downstream marine source, while total nitrogen (TN) would increase with flow in the mangrove ecotone. Despite expectations of increased flows improving the ecological health of lower Taylor Slough and Florida Bay, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) dynamics may shift in response to new conditions of flow and salinity as well as organic carbon, N, and P availability. Our results showed that TP concentrations are more discharge-driven while TN is more variable and potentially derived from different sources along the flow path from the freshwater Everglades marshes to Florida Bay. Increased flow of freshwater through Taylor Slough will likely decrease TP concentrations in this historically oligotrophic and P-limited ecosystem. However, more studies along the mangrove ecotone is needed to understand how increased flows will affect nitrogen dynamics relative to phosphorus

Tin Silsesquioxanes as Models for the “Open” Site in Tin-Containing Zeolite Beta

The use of biomass as a resource to produce value-added products has garnered significant interest as a means of reducing reliance on fossil fuels. This task is complicated by the complex, highly functionalized nature of abundant biomass derivatives, such as glucose. Tin-containing zeolite Beta (Sn-Beta) can selectively isomerize glucose to fructose through a 1,2-intramolecular hydride shift (1,2-HS) or selectively produce mannose through a 1,2-intramolecular carbon shift (1,2-CS) by titration of the silanol groups with sodium (Na-Sn-Beta). To understand the structure–activity relationships between the conditions of the active sites in the zeolite, two molecular models (tin silsesquioxanes) of the tin sites in the zeolite were synthesized. Tin silsesquioxanes that contain an octahedral tin site with and without an adjacent silanol group selectively form fructose through a 1,2-HS and mannose through a 1,2-CS, respectively, and provide further evidence for the nature of the active sites in Sn-Beta