Plant Species Effects on Diversity and Weed Invasion Resistance in Restored Grasslands

Native grasslands provide a multitude of benefits to society including forage production, wildlife habitat, and nutrient and CO2 sequestration. There has been continuing interest in restoring grasslands to maximize these multiple benefits within the conservation community. There are presently many ongoing prairie restoration projects, and many more are being started throughout Iowa. Warm-season grasses such as big bluestem, indian grass, switchgrass, little bluestem, or side-oats grama often dominate prairies. In western Iowa, all five of these species are dominant, at least in some patches of grassland. Diversity is what most people are most concerned with when they restore or reconstruct prairie. However, species diversity in prairies is mainly from various forbs. Most prairie restorations become heavily dominated by one or a few grass species without a wide diversity of legumes and forbs. We suggest that understanding how dominant warm-season grasses suppress total plant diversity and prevent weed invasions is a key issue for developing better restoration plans

A Critique of the Historiographical Construal of America as a Christian Nation

The Christian America thesis has grown in popularity over the past thirty years. This essay will critique the Christian America thesis, and instead offer the assertion that America was founded as a nation with religious liberty. Six lines of critique of the Christian America thesis will be presented, and the essay will attempt to show the significance of religious freedom in the founding. America‘s history points to a mixture of sacred and secular ideas. The nation is defined more realistically by religious freedom rather than a Christian identity. Evangelicals can approach those who do not share their faith commitment in peace and respect, knowing that the culture will be conformed to Christ when religious freedom is enjoyed equally by all

Absorption of atmospheric ozone in the .3 micron region at Fort Collins

February, 1964.Includes bibliographic references

Personal Food System Mapping

Personal food system mapping is a practical means to engage community participants and educators in individualized and shared learning about food systems, decisions, and behaviors. Moreover, it is a useful approach for introducing the food system concept, which is somewhat abstract. We developed the approach to capture diversity of personal food systems within a community food system and to better understand how it might inform program development. We found mapping to be a useful tool with beneficial applications outside our intended domain. Aggregated map data also provided a useful approximation of the community food system

Guiding Local Tourism Entrepreneurs Interested in Ecotourism: A Tool for Extension Facilitators

Tourism can stimulate economies, promote cultural preservation, and incentivize environmental conservation. The tourism assessment and planning process described in this article is a tool for facilitating tourism development at the community level by helping entrepreneurs assess the products and services they currently offer, align their current tourism products with best practices for improving their businesses\u27 sustainability, and coordinate efforts to harness the full benefits of sustainable nature-based tourism or ecotourism. Extension educators can use this tool to educate and coordinate tourism entrepreneurs and to encourage them to adopt practices that maximize the cultural, social, economic, and environmental benefits of local tourism by minimizing potential negative impacts

America as the City upon a Hill: An Historical, Philosophical, and Theological Critique of the Historiographical Construal of America as a Christian Nation

This dissertation offers a critique of the idea that America is a Christian nation, either by virtue of its founding as such or because of a unique choice made by God for a special purpose and/or relationship. Rather than being a Christian nation, America is a nation with religious liberty. The first chapter asks and answers the question, between the founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and the enacting of the U. S. Constitution, how did conceptions of the relationship between religion and the state change? Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in 1630 as a Christian commonwealth. It was one of the first of the British North American colonies that would eventually become a state in the American Union on the basis of the Constitution. But the Constitution did not establish a Christian nation, but provided for full religious freedom in the First Amendment. Three movements of thought brought about this shift from 1630 to 1789: 1) the Great Awakening, 2) the English Enlightenment, and 3) radical Whig ideology. These dynamics, over the course of a century and a half, were central in shaping the American attitude toward the role of religion in the state—from that of defining the state‘s identity to being separate from it altogether. The second chapter addresses the Christian America thesis (CA) as it has been manifested since the publication of The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel in 1977. The publication of this work, combined with the formation of the Moral Majority and the rise of evangelical Christian influence in American political life, encouraged the development of the CA thesis over the past three decades. Thirteen historical, philosophical, and theological themes, appearing predominately in the CA literature since 1977, are surveyed in order to set the stage for the critique. These themes include: from an historical perspective, 1) the Christian faith of the founders, 2) the Christian character of the sources drawn from by the founders, 3) the Christian character of colonial documents and early state constitutions, 4) the Christian character of early colleges, and 5) the powerful Christian influence of the Great Awakening and radical Whig ideology on the revolutionary generation; from a philosophical perspective, 1) the original intent of the founders may be accurately discerned by applying the same evangelical hermeneutical method as used when interpreting Scripture, 2) the original intent of the founders was to build Christianity into the heart of the nation, and 3) the role of the Enlightenment is not as significant as the role of Christianity in the founding; and from a theological perspective, 1) a providential view of history, 2) American exceptionalism as evidence of God‘s unique blessing on the nation, 3) America as God‘s chosen nation, a new Israel, 4) liberty as a biblical notion finding its consummate application in the civic life of America, and 5) the Bible as the primary source of the founding national documents. Finally, the commonly held belief among all the CA works surveyed is that America must recover its Christian heritage from a culture that is drifting deeper into secularism. Prior to the presentation of the critique of CA, the dissertation will briefly acknowledge the role of Christian theology in the American notion of liberty. This will take place in chapter 3. It is important to recognize that the Christian religion, as an intellectual source for American revolutionary and founding ideas, played an important role alongside other intellectual sources. Primary and secondary sources are consulted in order to show that Christian theology, particularly Puritanism, was an important contributor to the idea of freedom in America. The fourth chapter presents the critique of the CA thesis as it has been articulated in the works surveyed in chapter 2. The critique follows six lines of argument: 1) the CA thesis is ambiguous on the definition of ―Christian nation,‖ 2) the CA thesis is ambiguous in defining the contours of the Enlightenment, 3) the Protestant consensus which was predominant in America from its founding until the early twentieth century is no more, 4) religious pluralism was the intent behind the First Amendment, and it dominates contemporary American culture, 5) the Bible is not the primary source of the American founding, and 6) American exceptionalism, while significant to the CA argument, is not sustainable theologically or historically. The fifth chapter offers closing arguments in critique of the CA thesis. Much of the work of evangelicals in the past thirty years has been devoted to defending the idea that America is a Christian nation, either because of its founding or because God chose it out of other nations for a special purpose. Rather than standing on the CA thesis, evangelicals can and ought defend the idea that religious freedom is central to the identity of the American nation. After the closing arguments are made, the chapter concludes by offering suggestions for further research and study

The Gwayakosijigan (Compass) Project: A food system mapping collaboration of the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and University of Minnesota Extension

In recent years, Native American communities in Minnesota have rallied around the widespread, societal health challenges of obesity, heart disease, and diabetes. Native communities recognize the rapid and alarming ascendance of these ailments -- which generally afflict Native communities at a greater proportion than the general population -- as an affront to some of the communities’ strongest cultural institutions and, in some cases, as another trauma resulting from the incursion of non-Native ways of being. Tribal nutrition programs promote healthy food knowledge and preparation; garden programs encourage and support healthy food production; and community members employ varied means to showcase traditional food practices for staple foods central to cultural identity. These and other interventions to improve nutritional knowledge, cooking skills, and access to healthy foods have met with varying degrees of success, making next steps difficult to ascertain. This study was designed improve understanding the factors that play into individual food related decisions and behaviors; its purpose to inform future community-scale interventions related to health and food systems. We led participants through a process of making personal food system maps and then followed up with those individuals to discuss their food-related actions and decisions. We learned that participants perceived that they were generally able to make decisions about food as they wished. Many participants emphasized the importance of natural, wild food sources and food procurement strategies as invaluable means to connect with nature, family, friends, and culture. Social and family networks were active when tangible or financial resources were limited. Indeed, for those who felt limited in their food decisions, financial constraints posed the greatest barrier, followed by constraints related to owned assets, such as food preparation equipment or vehicles. Moreover, grief, loss, and other life stresses often interfered with individual’s ability to strategize and adapt to financial or other limitations. Our preliminary results suggest several key directions for future inquiry and programming. This study was based on participant’s perceptions; future assessment should strive to determine whether community members’ desired food choices are, in fact, healthy. Also, relatively high availability of healthy foods in the area suggests that creation of new food access venues is unlikely to change eating habits without additional, related interventions. Finally, participant comments suggest that culturally relevant food production and procurement represent a feasible frame for food and nutrition education and that major life phase changes offer opportunities for accessing interested community members.Fond du Lac Band, University of Minnesota Extension, Masters of Development Practice (MDP) program at University of Minnesot

Diversity-dependent temporal divergence of ecosystem functioning in experimental ecosystems

The effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning generally increase over time, but the underlying processes remain unclear. Using 26 long-term grassland and forest experimental ecosystems, we demonstrate that biodiversity–ecosystem functioning relationships strengthen mainly by greater increases in functioning in high-diversity communities in grasslands and forests. In grasslands, biodiversity effects also strengthen due to decreases in functioning in low-diversity communities. Contrasting trends across grasslands are associated with differences in soil characteristics