Misc. Pub. 85-4

Paper copies in Archives, Acc #:2013-0059Soils have been surveyed in various parts of Alaska to meet resource -development needs since territorial days. These surveys have been conducted and published by the National Cooperative Soil Survey since 1952 and are a joint effort of the United States Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service and the Alaska Agricultural Experiment Station. Initially, government agencies were the major users of such soil surveys because land ownership was controlled almost entirely by government agencies. However, the demand for soils and geographic information increased substantially as population increased and urban areas grew following the discovery of oil on the Kenai Peninsula during the 1950s and on the North Slope in the late 1960s. Interest also heightened when the state gained titles to a large portion of land following statehood in 1959. The National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) published many soil surveys for areas of intensive land use or potential land development. These soil surveys often are underutilized or misused. This publication, "Soil Survey and Its Use in Alaska," was developed over three years based on my field reviews of NCSS activities in Alaska as well as on my discussions with users of soil surveys regarding questions and problems arising from using the reports. In this publication, soil surveys and their use in Alaska are reviewed and discussed.Preface -- Introduction: What is Soil? Early Works, Current Status, Table 1: Status of National Cooperative Soil Survey (NCSS) in Alaska (Dec. 1984), National Cooperative Soil Survey -- How Soil Surveys are Made -- How Soils are Classified and Named: Soil Classification, Map Units -- The Use of Soil Survey: Soil: A Valuable Resources, General Resource Planning, Regional Land-Use or Watershed Planning, Community Planning, Agricultural Development, Engineering Interpretation, Environmental Protection, Recreation and Wildlife Management, Other Potential Uses in Alaska -- Problems and Questions About Soil Surveys: Map Scale and Order of Survey, Map Unit Inclusion, Table 2: General guidelines for identifying intensity of soil surveys, Land Capability Classification, Misuse of Soil Surveys, Over-Interpretation of Soil Surveys, Automated Data-Processing in Soil Survey, Taxonomic Unit vx. Map Unit, Soil Survey Report Format, Soil Mapping on the Arctic Slope -- Future Challenges of NCSS in Alaska -- Conclusions -- Reference

Characteristics and Fertility Status of Soils and Minesoils in Selected Areas of Usibelli Coal Mine, Healy, Alaska

Alaska has been proven to contain not only bountiful oil and gas reserves. but also vast coal fields occurring from the southcentral coastline to the Interior and the Arctic zone to the north. Because of concerns for stable sources of energy, particularly by the energy-short, industrial nations of the Orient, more exploration and stripmining for coal can be expected in the near future. Therefore, it is important to know the consequences of large-area soil disturbances tn the subarctic and bow the effects of man's reclamation efforts and natural processes combine in reestablishing vegetative community. The culmination or synthesis of these processes is soil development and is of great importance in successful stripmine reclamation. The Usibelli Coal Mine Company in the Healy coal field, located in Interior Alaska. commenced stripmining in 1943. Its operation has been continuous, moving from area to area, for the last 40 years. Stripmining requires the excavation of overburden and subsequent redeposition, therefore the Healy operation has exposed minespoils from different strata on various topography. In 1972, the Usibelli Coal Mine company initiated a reclamation program and, over the ensuing l0 years, has seeded and fertilized over 2000 acres. Nevertheless, there remain barren areas and areas undergoing natural revegetation. Additionally, experimental trials in seeding and fertilization were started in 1980. Large areas of intact native plant communities adjoin the mined areas. The company property provides opportunities to study the processes of soil formation under different sets of conditions. The objectives of this study were to (1) characterize the soils on the mine lease area for baseline data, (2) to characterize the mine soils with various history, (3) to study the process of soil formation under different sets of conditions, and (4) to evaluate the nutrient levels of both soil and minesoils to form a basis for establishing soil-handling requirements to promote reclamation practices.This study was supported by funds from the U.S. Department of Energy (AM06-76RL02229) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Hatch project. Our appreciation to Drs. W.M. Mitchell. G.A. Mitchell. and F. Wooding of the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station. and Mr. J.P. Moore of USDA Son Conservation Service for reviewing the manuscript and offering many useful suggestions. Our appreciation also to Dr. Milton A. Wiltse of Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys. Department of Natural Resources for access to the X-ray diffractometer and technical advice. Special thanks to the Usibelli Coal Mine Inc. for logistic and technical assistance tn carrying out this study

Circular 66

Phosphorus (P) along with nitrogen (N) and potassium (K) comprise the three macronutrients most frequently added as fertilizer for growing plants. In Alaska soils, P is often the second most limiting nutrient after N. A proper supply of plant-available P is important for root development and plant growth. To supply P to growing crops, the soil not only must contain enough P, but it must be in a form which is available for utilization by the plant. The status of P in the soil has an important influence on fertilization practices. Agricultural soils of Alaska vary considerably, not only in their total content of P and its distribution (form it occurs in), but also in the characteristics for sorption or fixation of P (Ping and Michaelson, 1986). Forms of P in the soil will affect its availability. The P-sorption character of soils will affect P fertilizer reactions in the soil and thus influence the amount of P fertilizer necessary and carry-over effects of applied P. It is essential that P soil tests and their interpretation be tailored for soils with similar P reactions. A useful P soil test must be based on both correlation of test values to plant growth and to field calibration of soil test values with yield

Quantum Phase Imaging using Spatial Entanglement

Entangled photons have the remarkable ability to be more sensitive to signal and less sensitive to noise than classical light. Joint photons can sample an object collectively, resulting in faster phase accumulation and higher spatial resolution, while common components of noise can be subtracted. Even more, they can accomplish this while physically separate, due to the nonlocal properties of quantum mechanics. Indeed, nearly all quantum optics experiments rely on this separation, using individual point detectors that are scanned to measure coincidence counts and correlations. Scanning, however, is tedious, time consuming, and ill-suited for imaging. Moreover, the separation of beam paths adds complexity to the system while reducing the number of photons available for sampling, and the multiplicity of detectors does not scale well for greater numbers of photons and higher orders of entanglement. We bypass all of these problems here by directly imaging collinear photon pairs with an electron-multiplying CCD camera. We show explicitly the benefits of quantum nonlocality by engineering the spatial entanglement of the illuminating photons and introduce a new method of correlation measurement by converting time-domain coincidence counting into spatial-domain detection of selected pixels. We show that classical transport-of-intensity methods are applicable in the quantum domain and experimentally demonstrate nearly optimal (Heisenberg-limited) phase measurement for the given quantum illumination. The methods show the power of direct imaging and hold much potential for more general types of quantum information processing and control

An Assessment of Intensive/Weekend Teaching Format of Aviation Education: A Case of Aviation Law

Although most universities in the United States (U.S.) have launched off-campus education for working adults, the quality of such an educational format remains skeptical to many educators who exchange knowledge mainly via on-campus lecture means (Elliott et al, 1978; Swenson, 2003 Spring). In order to further examine academic performance based on such a non-traditional channel, the rigor and integrity of off-campus education should be investigated (Karwin, 1973). This study sought to evaluate the learning outcome of off-campus aviation education currently using intensive/weekend seminar format. Meanwhile, the main goals of this study also include the discovery of possible pedagogical gaps to continuously enhance off-campus teaching. Focus group was utilized as the research methodology. Purposive sampling was applied containing two groups of students, one on-campus and off-campus for another, recruited from aviation law class. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed. The result showed flexibility of class study and convenient location of classroom were the two most attractive factors adult learners consider. In addition to opposing to a fully Internet-based aviation education, off-campus students\u27 comments helped the researcher reveal specific pedagogical deficiencies that need to be reviewed for validating future educational service