Estimating dominant runoff modes across the conterminous United States

Effective natural resource planning depends on understanding the prevalence of runoff generating processes. Within a specific area of interest, this demands reproducible, straightforward information that can complement available local data and can orient and guide stakeholders with diverse training and backgrounds. To address this demand within the contiguous United States (CONUS), we characterized and mapped the predominance of two primary runoff generating processes: infiltration‐excess and saturation‐excess runoff (IE vs. SE, respectively). Specifically, we constructed a gap‐filled grid of surficial saturated hydraulic conductivity using the Soil Survey Geographic and State Soil Geographic soils databases. We then compared surficial saturated hydraulic conductivity values with 1‐hr rainfall‐frequency estimates across a range of return intervals derived from CONUS‐scale random forest models. This assessment of the prevalence of IE versus SE runoff also incorporated a simple uncertainty analysis, as well as a case study of how the approach could be used to evaluate future alterations in runoff processes resulting from climate change. We found a low likelihood of IE runoff on undisturbed soils over much of CONUS for 1‐hr storms with return intervals \u3c5 years. Conversely, IE runoff is most likely in the Central United States (i.e., Texas, Louisiana, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, and Western South Dakota), and the relative predominance of runoff types is highly sensitive to the accuracy of the estimated soil properties. Leveraging publicly available data sets and reproducible workflows, our approach offers greater understanding of predominant runoff generating processes over a continental extent and expands the technical resources available to environmental planners, regulators, and modellers

Effects of management regimes on structure, composition and diversity of seasonally inundated herbaceous communities in the Mkomazi National Park, Tanzania

The effects of management regimes on structural composition and diversity of seasonally inundated herbaceous communities were investigated in the Mkomazi National Park, Tanzania. Three sites were selected based on management regimes, that is "fire-grazing" (FG), "fire-no grazing" (FNG) and "no fire-no grazing" (NFNG), and sampled in the 2015 wet season. The studied vegetation parameters resulted significantly different across the sites, with the exceptions of species abundance between NFNG versus FG and NFNG versus FNG sites and species evenness, which remained constant among sites. A significantly higher species richness, Shannon diversity Index, standing biomass and percentage vegetation cover was detected at FNG site, than in the other sites. No significant differences arose when comparing FG and NFNG sites. Although the responses we found may in part be caused by confounding underlying variables such as variation in soil type, soil moisture or elevation, the patterns found may contribute to a more general understanding of the effects of management regimes in seasonally inundated savannah, as well as to sound approaches in environmental conservation and management. However, further research is needed to support our findings, replicating the study in other areas under the same or similar management conditions and in a wider array of ecosystems. 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Vowel reduction in word-final position by early and late Spanish-English bilinguals

Vowel reduction is a prominent feature of American English, as well as other stress-timed languages. As a phonological process, vowel reduction neutralizes multiple vowel quality contrasts in unstressed syllables. For bilinguals whose native language is not characterized by large spectral and durational differences between tonic and atonic vowels, systematically reducing unstressed vowels to the central vowel space can be problematic. Failure to maintain this pattern of stressed-unstressed syllables in American English is one key element that contributes to a ?foreign accent? in second language speakers. Reduced vowels, or ?schwas,? have also been identified as particularly vulnerable to the co-articulatory effects of adjacent consonants. The current study examined the effects of adjacent sounds on the spectral and temporal qualities of schwa in word-final position. Three groups of English-speaking adults were tested: Miami-based monolingual English speakers, early Spanish-English bilinguals, and late Spanish-English bilinguals. Subjects performed a reading task to examine their schwa productions in fluent speech when schwas were preceded by consonants from various points of articulation. Results indicated that monolingual English and late Spanish-English bilingual groups produced targeted vowel qualities for schwa, whereas early Spanish-English bilinguals lacked homogeneity in their vowel productions. This extends prior claims that schwa is targetless for F2 position for native speakers to highly-proficient bilingual speakers. Though spectral qualities lacked homogeneity for early Spanish-English bilinguals, early bilinguals produced schwas with near native-like vowel duration. In contrast, late bilinguals produced schwas with significantly longer durations than English monolinguals or early Spanish-English bilinguals. Our results suggest that the temporal properties of a language are better integrated into second language phonologies than spectral qualities. Finally, we examined the role of nonstructural variables (e.g. linguistic history measures) in predicting native-like vowel duration. These factors included: Age of L2 learning, amount of L1 use, and self-reported bilingual dominance. Our results suggested that different sociolinguistic factors predicted native-like reduced vowel duration than predicted native-like vowel qualities across multiple phonetic environments

Land Grant Application- Todd, Archibald (Mansfield)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office for Archibald Todd for service in the Revolutionary War.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_mass/1356/thumbnail.jp

Ontario superior court practice 2009/2010 forms

v, 836 h

Ontario superior court ptactice 2011 forms

LXXVIII, 1788 H

Ontario superior court practice (Bag.2)

iii, 838 h