FARMERS' DECISION PROCESSES AND ADOPTION OF CONSERVATION TILLAGE

In a transect survey of crop residue levels in 1995 and 1996, two Minnesota counties had very different percentages of cropland with desired residue cover even though the soil types were similar. To gain a better understanding of the reasons behind this difference, the farmers in these two counties were surveyed about their use or lack of use of conservation tillage practices. A statistical logit analysis of survey responses showed farmers are more apt to adopt conservation tillage if they are larger; are more concerned about erosion on their land; have made a recent major investment in the farm; use other producers for tillage information; have the management skill for conservation tillage; and believe conservation tillage will fit with their production goals and the physical setting of their farm. Two counterintuitive findings are the negative effects of the ease of finding information and the degree of control of the adoption decision. The costs and labor requirements of conservation tillage were important but not as statistically significant as those factors just listed. Some variables, that are often listed as potentially important factors, were not found to be important in this survey. These included the long-term viability of the farm; the age, education, and experience of the farmer; the debt level of the farm; whether a family member wanted to continue farming; the proportion of land rented; the use of other sources for tillage information; the complexity of conservation tillage practices; the producer's planning horizon; the risk of negative returns; the availability of support for conservation tillage systems; and the quality of conservation tillage information.Crop Production/Industries,

ENVIRO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PHOSPHORUS NONPOINT POLLUTION

The state of Minnesota seeks to reduce phosphorus loading to the Minnesota River by 40% from current levels. The state agency charged with achieving this reduction has indicated each watershed should reduce its current phosphorus loading by 40%. We hypothesized that policies targeting specific practices or regions would have a smaller negative impact on farm income than policies requiring every nonpoint polluter to reduce its contribution by 40%. Using a stylized version of one major watershed in the river basin as an example, we analyzed the cost-effectiveness of various nonpoint pollution reduction policies. We simulated current and alternative farming systems (designed to reduce phosphorus loading by changing tillage or fertilizer practices) in distinct regions within the watershed using a biophysical process model. For each system, estimates of phosphorus loading from biophysical simulation were combined with production cost and return estimates to create an enviro-economic model of the watershed. Additionally, risk premiums were estimated and included with cost estimates for each alternative system. We used a positive math-programming (PMP) version of the enviro-economic model to analyze nonpoint pollution reduction policies (pollution standard, phosphorus effluent tax, conventional tillage tax, and phosphorus fertilizer tax). When regions and practices within the watershed could be targeted for achieving the pollution reduction standard, 13,500 fewer hectares (6% reduction from the baseline cropland level) were farmed. When the same standard was uniformly applied to all regions (not targeted), cropland decline by 40,500 hectares (20%). Under either scenario, cropland was removed from production, implying some producers may exit farming. Cropland reductions resulted in farmers losing $2.8 million (5$11.4 million (21%). This finding illustrates how difficulty it is to reduce nonpoint pollution if one does not focus on specific regions. An effluent tax of $74 per kilogram of phosphorus reaching the river was needed to reduce phosphorus loading by 40$14 million (25% reduction from the baseline income level), $11 million of which were revenues from the effluent tax. Neither the conventional tillage tax nor the phosphorus fertilizer tax achieved a 40% reduction in phosphorus loading. This finding illustrates the difficulty of reducing nonpoint pollution by focusing only on one practice. Under a pollution-reduction standard, our results indicated it is more cost effective to reduce nonpoint pollution by targeting particular regions or practices in a watershed compared to not targeting. Specifically, producers farming on cropland susceptible to erosion in close proximity to water who switch from conventional tillage to conservation tillage and reduce phosphorus fertilization levels to those recommended by the state extension service will appreciably reduce phosphorus nonpoint pollution loading potential. Efforts to target those producers could minimize potential losses in farm income in the watersheds and the river basin.Environmental Economics and Policy,

Silurian-Permian palaeocontinental reconstructions and circum-Atlantic tectonics

On the basis of the palaeomagnetic record, supplemented by constraints provided by faunal and tectonic information, reconstructions involving Laurentia, Baltica, Gondwana and numerous continent-like fragments and terranes within the circum-Atlantic Palaeozoic orogenic belts are made for three critical time intervals, late Silurian, early Carboniferous and late Carboniferous-early Permian, all of which bracket important phases of tectonic activity. The late Caledonian-Scandian-Acadian-Ligerian orogenies are due to the predominantly E-W final closure of Iapetus. This phase was followed in mid-Devonian times by a major sinistral megashear along the orogen which eliminated latitudinal separations and resulted in a Pangea-like assembly by the latest Devonian. The final phase involved a rotation of Gondwana with respect to the assembled Euramerican landmass, expressed as late Variscan-Hercynian dextral shear from central Europe to northeastern N America and culminating in the late Carboniferous-Permian Alleghanian orogeny in the Appalachians from New England S and in the Mauritanides

Redbeds and thermoviscous magnetization theory

Thermal demagnetization characteristics of a Brunhes“age viscous overprint in Appalachian redbeds and a thermoviscous component acquired in the laboratory at moderate temperature agree well with relaxation time“blocking temperature relations for hematite proposed by Pullaiah et al. [1975]. Supporting evidence was obtained from redbeds associated with an igneous dike intrusion although the interpretation of these data are complicated by magnetochemical alterations. Paradoxically, experimental data for magnetite in some limestones were shown to agree more closely with an alternative theory of Walton [1980]. The hematite in redbeds is predominantly singledomain (SD) whereas magnetite in the limestones studied extends well into the multidomain (MD) range. Thus experiment and theory could be reconciled if it is assumed that Pullaiah et al. applies strictly to SD material whereas Walton's theory somehow describes thermoviscous effects dominated by larger MD grains

Paleomagnetism of the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation from the southern limb of the Pennsylvania Salient: Possible evidence of oroclinal rotation

Multiple components of magnetization were isolated in the natural remanent magnetization of samples of the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation red beds taken from the southern limb of the Pennsylvania Salient. The dominant, thermally distributed component (SF), previously thought to predate folding, is demonstrably synfolding in origin. The mean direction for SF based on data from the current study and a previous study is Declination/Inclination = 161.6°/7.9°, a95 = 3.9° (pole position 127.3°E, 43.1°N, A95 = 3.1°, N = 14 sites). Although the remagnetization is clearly synfolding in most areas, the relative ages of folding and remagnetization vary locally. A subordinate high unblocking temperature component (HT) has a mean tilt corrected direction of 160°/36°, a95 = 16° (pole position 123.5°E, 26.1°N, A95 = 15.4°, n = 7 samples). Comparison of HT with the prefolding magnetization isolated in the northern limb of the salient suggests that the paleolatitude of this part of North America was about 16°S and that part of the curvature of the salient was acquired during orogenesis

Regional trends in the timing of Alleghanian remagnetization in the Appalachians

Pole positions related to remagnetized components isolated in Appalachian limestone and redbed rock units range over about 60 m.y. of the Permian-Carboniferous apparent polar wander path for North America. Apparent ages of remagnetization are older in the southern Appalachians and younger to the north. If the remagnetizations are associated with fluids expelled during the Alleghany orogeny, then the apparent remagnetization age trend could describe the timing of thrust-sheet emplacement

Paleomagnetism of the Devonian Catskill Red Beds: Evidence for Motion of the Coastal New England-Canadian Maritime Region Relative to Cratonic North America

The natural remanent magnetizations of reddish clay stones, siltstones, and sandstones from the nearly flat lying Middle to Upper Devonian Catskill sequence of southeastern New York were analyzed with thermal, alternating field, and chemical demagnetization techniques. After removal of a low blocking temperature component along the present geomagnetic field direction a characteristic direction of magnetization was isolated: D = 172.3°, I = 1.0°, k = 116, and α_95 = 4.7° for N = 9 sites (43 samples), giving a paleomagnetic north pole at 46.8°N, 116.7°E, dp = 2.4°, and dm = 4.7°. The combined demagnetization analyses show this to be the only stable component of magnetization present in these rocks. The derived pole position agrees well with the poles reported for some Devonian limestones in Ohio, all falling near the Permian poles for North America, but disagrees with Devonian results from eastern Maine-New Brunswick and eastern Massachusetts which give poles at lower latitudes. A similar geographical grouping with similar directions is also apparent for Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) paleomagnetic poles for North America. We interpret these and other late Paleozoic paleomagnetic data to show that the coastal Canadian Maritime-New England region was not an integral part of cratonic North America until about the Late Carboniferous. Geological considerations suggest that the Carboniferous relative motion was along transcurrent shear zones

Paleomagnetism of the Silurian-Devonian Andreas redbeds: Evidence for an Early Devonian supercontinent?

Two components of magnetization were isolated in the Silurian-Devonian Andreas redbeds of the central Appalachians of Pennsylvania (lat 40.75 degrees N, long 75.78 degrees W): a thermally distributed, synfolding B component, and a thermally discrete, pre-Alleghenian-age folding C component. The C component mean direction and associated pole position correspond to a Silurian-Devonian paleolatitude for the Andreas location of about 35 degrees S, which, in conjunction with Early Devonian results from Gondwana, is consistent with an Early Devonian supercontinent configuration

Silurian-Permian palaeocontinental reconstructions and circum-Atlantic tectonics

On the basis of the palaeomagnetic record, supplemented by constraints provided by faunal and tectonic information, reconstructions involving Laurentia, Baltica, Gondwana and numerous continent-like fragments and terranes within the circum-Atlantic Palaeozoic orogenic belts are made for three critical time intervals, late Silurian, early Carboniferous and late Carboniferous-early Permian, all of which bracket important phases of tectonic activity. The late Caledonian-Scandian-Acadian-Ligerian orogenies are due to the predominantly E-W final closure of Iapetus. This phase was followed in mid-Devonian times by a major sinistral megashear along the orogen which eliminated latitudinal separations and resulted in a Pangea-like assembly by the latest Devonian. The final phase involved a rotation of Gondwana with respect to the assembled Euramerican landmass, expressed as late Variscan-Hercynian dextral shear from central Europe to northeastern N America and culminating in the late Carboniferous-Permian Alleghanian orogeny in the Appalachians from New England S and in the Mauritanides

Synfolding and prefolding magnetizations in the Upper Devonian Catskill Formation of eastern Pennsylvania

The Upper Devonian Catskill Formation was sampled for paleomagnetic study in east-central Pennsylvania (41°N, 76°W). In one area the dominant component of magnetization (SE) is revealed over a broad spectrum of demagnetization temperatures ranging to at least 660°C. A conventional fold test is positive at the 99% confidence level. However, statistical analysis of dispersion with incremental bedding tilt correction shows a significant peak in the precision parameter after about 3/4 unfolding. The magnetization is therefore secondary, with a mean direction of D = 166.6°, I = -1.8°. The corresponding pole position (48.1°N, 124.1°E, a95 = 4.0°) is indistinguishable from paleopoles from earlier studies of the Catskill, which therefore can also be regarded as representing Permo-Carboniferous remagnetizations. A second component of magnetization (SW, pole position 32.8°N, 90.0°E, a95 = 7.2°) with discrete unblocking temperature spectra and southwesterly declination was isolated in a few samples from the first area and in most samples from a second area. A prefolding origin of this magnetization is supported by a positive fold test on five samples from the first area. If this magnetization does represent a Devonian magnetization then the true paleolatitude for east-central Pennsylvania is 16° +/- 7.2°S, which is consistent with the paleolatitude observed in many of the Upper Devonian rock units in the Acadia region, although inconsistent with others. The question of the position of Acadia relative to North America in the Upper Devonian is therefore still open