Remote sensing of physiographic soil units of Bennett County, South Dakota

A study was conducted in Bennett County, South Dakota, to establish a rangeland test site for evaluating the usefulness of ERTS data for mapping soil resources in rangeland areas. Photographic imagery obtained in October, 1970, was analyzed to determine which type of imagery is best for mapping drainage and land use patterns. Imagery of scales ranging from 1:1,000,000 to 1.20,000 was used to delineate soil-vegetative physiographic units. The photo characteristics used to define physiographic units were texture, drainage pattern, tone pattern, land use pattern and tone. These units will be used as test data for evaluating ERTS data. The physiographic units were categorized into a land classification system. The various categories which were delineated at the different scales of imagery were designed to be useful for different levels of land use planning. The land systems are adequate only for planning of large areas for general uses. The lowest category separated was the facet. The facets have a definite soil composition and represent different soil landscapes. These units are thought to be useful for providing natural resource information needed for local planning

Effective use of ERTS multisensor data in the Northern Great Plains

The author has identified the following significant results. ERTS imagery was used as a tool in the identification and refinement of soil association areas; to classify land use patterns between crop and fallow fields; to identify corn, soybeans, and oats; and to identify broad generalized range ecosystems. Various data handling techniques were developed and applied to accomplish these tasks. A map outlining soil associations and relative land values was completed on a base mosaic of ERTS imagery and is included as an appendix to the report

Estimation of Capital Matrices for Multisectoral Models: An Application to Italy and Tuscany

This paper refers to the Tuscany case study which constitutes a systems analysis of integrated regional development in the Tuscany region. A core of this study is the development of applied models and methods undertaken by the Regional Development Group at IIASA, in collaboration with the Regional Institute for Economic Planning of Tuscany (IRPET). A bi-regional input-output model has a central part in the system of model development. In order to capture the dynamic process of capacity creation and removal, the capital formation has to be included into the input-output framework in a systematic way. This presupposes an estimation of capacity change and of capital coefficient matrices. This paper presents a systematic approach to obtain these estimates, also in the case where only a limited set of data is available. In summary, the method combines a vintage type production theory and an estimation technique based on information theory

Effects of Ecotourism on the Behavior and Health of Red Howler Monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) in Suriname

Ecological changes and habitat degradation have measurable effects on nonhuman primate group size, but little is known about their effects on the behavior and health of primates. Specifically, ecological change caused by the implementation of tourism projects can impact nonhuman primates. In this project I assess the impact of tourism on the health and behavior of free-ranging red howler monkeys (Alouatta seniculus) in Suriname. I evaluated the health of subjects through observations of external indicators of poor health such as wounds, scars, and bot fly lesions, and through the analysis of non-invasively collected urine and feces. Urine samples were screened for indicators of poor health such as the presence of protein, glucose, or blood, and fecal samples were analyzed for the presence of intestinal parasite eggs and larvae. I also conducted behavioral observations to assay the effects of tourists on monkey behavioral patterns and responses to human activities. I monitored changes in weather and resource availability as other potential sources of stress. Results of this study suggest that monkeys living in areas of high tourist use altered their behaviors in response to tourism, while monkeys living in areas with little tourist presence responded more to specific disturbances imposed on them by the tourists. Health parameters were not as strongly affected by tourist presence, though in general, monkeys in areas of high tourist presence suffered slightly poorer health than other monkeys. These results contribute to our understanding of how nonhuman primates respond to human actions and ecological changes, and have important implications for conservation and tourism programs in tropical forests. Moreover, these results indicate that responsibly managed tourism programs may only minimally affect howler monkeys, and may provide the economic incentive needed for local managers to keep parks and reserves intact rather than degrade them through extractive harvesting or mining.Ph.D.AnthropologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57667/2/jwestin_1.pd

Evaluation of HCMM data for assessing soil moisture and water table depth

Soil moisture in the 0-cm to 4-cm layer could be estimated with 1-mm soil temperatures throughout the growing season of a rainfed barley crop in eastern South Dakota. Empirical equations were developed to reduce the effect of canopy cover when radiometrically estimating the soil temperature. Corrective equations were applied to an aircraft simulation of HCMM data for a diversity of crop types and land cover conditions to estimate the soil moisture. The average difference between observed and measured soil moisture was 1.6% of field capacity. Shallow alluvial aquifers were located with HCMM predawn data. After correcting the data for vegetation differences, equations were developed for predicting water table depths within the aquifer. A finite difference code simulating soil moisture and soil temperature shows that soils with different moisture profiles differed in soil temperatures in a well defined functional manner. A significant surface thermal anomaly was found to be associated with shallow water tables

A Progress Report: Agricultural Research at the Range Field Station, South Dakota State College Experiment Station, Cottonwood, S.D.

South Dakota, west of the Missouri River, may be divided into three distinct regions. The most northerly of these is a series of benches, plateaus, and isolated buttes underlain by both sandstone and shale. These soils range from sandy loams to clays but are predominantly loamy. The most southerly region is a series of plateaus and broad benches underlain by silty, sandy, and clayey strata. These soils range from very sandy on the Nebraska border to silty and clayey at the southern tributaries of the White River. Between the two just described lies the third region. This is the region of the State represented by the Cottonwood Range Field Station. It is called the Pierre hills and is underlain by shaly strata which weather to dark clayey soils that are sticky when wet. These shaly strata do not form benches and plateaus like the younger strata to the north and south. Rather, they are reduced by weathering to a series of smooth grassy hills and ridges with convex tops. In the central region the major rivers, and the other two as well, Bow east. Stream valleys are entrenched several hundred feet and the rivers in them pursue meandering courses. Cottonwood trees flourish in the stream channels. (See more in text

Evaluation of HCMM data for assessing soil moisture and water table depth

Data were analyzed for variations in eastern South Dakota. Soil moisture in the 0-4 cm layer could be estimated with 1-mm soil temperatures throughout the growing season of a rainfed barley crop (% cover ranging from 30% to 90%) with an r squared = 0.81. Empirical equations were developed to reduce the effect of canopy cover when radiometrically estimating the 1-mm soil temperature, r squared = 0.88. The corrective equations were applied to an aircraft simulation of HCMM data for a diversity of crop types and land cover conditions to estimate the 0-4 cm soil moisture. The average difference between observed and measured soil moisture was 1.6% of field capacity. HCMM data were used to estimate the soil moisture for four dates with an r squared = 0.55 after correction for crop conditions. Location of shallow alluvial aquifers could be accomplished with HCMM predawn data. After correction of HCMM day data for vegetation differences, equations were developed for predicting water table depths within the aquifer (r=0.8)

The Homogeneity of Interstellar Oxygen in the Galactic Disk

We present an analysis of high resolution HST Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) observations of O I 1356 and H I Lyman-alpha absorption in 36 sight lines that probe a variety of Galactic disk environments and include paths that range over nearly 4 orders of magnitude in f(H_2), over 2 orders of magnitude in mean sight line density, and that extend up to 6.5 kpc in length. Consequently, we have undertaken the study of gas-phase O/H abundance ratio homogeneity using the current sample and previously published Goddard High-Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) results. Two distinct trends are identified in the 56 sight line sample: an apparent decrease in gas-phase oxygen abundance with increasing mean sight line density and a gap between the mean O/H ratio for sight lines shorter and longer than about 800 pc. The first effect is a smooth transition between two depletion levels associated with large mean density intervals; it is centered near a density of 1.5 cm^-3 and is similar to trends evident in gas-phase abundances of other elements. Paths less dense than the central value exhibit a mean O/H ratio of log_10 (O/H) = -3.41+/-0.01 (or 390+/-10 ppm), which is consistent with averages determined for several long, low-density paths observed by STIS (Andre et al. 2003) and short low-density paths observed by FUSE (Moos et al. 2002). Sight lines of higher mean density exhibit an average O/H value of log_10 (O/H) = -3.55+/-0.02 (284+/-12 ppm). The datapoints for low-density paths are scattered more widely than those for denser sight lines, due to O/H ratios for paths shorter than 800 pc that are generally about 0.10 dex lower than the values for longer ones.Comment: 33 pages, including 8 figures and 4 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ, tentatively in Oct 200