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As part of the Exploration Science and Technology Initiative (EXTECH) program a detailed infill lake-sediment and water survey was undertaken in the Snow Lake area during the fall of 1991. This involved the collection of 346 lake sediment grab samples and concomitant waters. In 1993, additional work was undertaken involving...

Carbonate platforms in the Las Negras area (southeastern Spain) evolved from onlapping ramps to fringing reef complexes later draped by cyclic shallow marine strata. Although sea-level history and paleoclimate had an effect on platform evolution, substrate topography played a dominant role. The strata are divided into five depositional sequences of...

We compared avian behavior and mortality associated with two 115-kV transmission lines on the central South Carolina coast during 3,392 hours of observation from May 1991 through May 1994. One line was marked with 30-cm-diameter yellow aviation markers. The second line was unmarked, but was similar in most other aspects....

The Cierco Pb-Zn-Ag vein deposits, located in the central Pyrenees of Spain, crosscut Paleozoic metasedimentary rocks and are in close proximity to Hercynian granodiorite dikes and plutons. Galena and sphalerite in the deposits have average delta 34 S values of - 4.3 and - 0.8 per mil (CDT), respectively. Coexisting mineral pairs...

Recent advances in electron microprobe technology including development of layered synthetic microstructures, more stable electronics and better matrix-correction programs facilitated routine microanalysis of the light elements in coal. Utilizing an appropriately equipped electron microprobe with suitable standards, it is now possible to analyze directly the light elements (C, O and...

[No abstract available]...

We examined clinging ability, subdigital pad area and body mass in 14 pad-bearing lizard species from three families to test three predictions: (1) clinging ability and pad area should be tightly correlated among species; (2) pad area and clinging ability should scale similarly to body mass among 14 species; and...

Trace element contents of tourmalines from massive sulfide deposits and tourmalinites have been determined in situ by proton microprobe; >390 analyses were acquired from 32 polished thin sections. Concentrations of trace elements in the tourmalines vary widely, from <40 to 3,770 ppm Mn, <4 to 1,800 ppm Ni, <2 to...

Few studies to date have investigated factors, other than mast crop size, that influence the dynamics of Curculio populations.W e examined the effects of varying levels of soil moisture (0.35, 0.4 and 0.5 g water/g soil) and temperature (8, 14 and 20 C) on over wintering survival of Curculio larvae...

Illite polytype quantification allows the differentiation of diagenetic and detrital illite components. In Paleozoic shales from the Illinois Basin, we observe 3 polytypes: 1Md, 1M and 2M1. 1Md and 1M are of diagenetic origin and 2M1 is of detrital origin. In this paper, we compare experimental X-ray diffraction (XRD) traces...

Cryptocrystalline tourmalinites that occur discontinuously for ???30 km along basement-cover de??collements of the Orohic Alps (Italy) formed by the metasomatism of aluminous cataclasites derived from Permian conglomerates and/or feldspathic sandstones. Using Al as an immobile element monitor, calculations show that the majority of tourmalinites in the region formed through the...

We used restriction-enzyme analysis of polymerase-chain reaction-amplified, mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to assess genetic differentiation of subspecies and populations of sea otters, Enhydra lutris, throughout the range of the species. There were several haplotypes of mtDNA in each subspecies and geographically separate populations. MtDNA sequence divergence of haplotypes of sea otters was...

No abstract available....

Loess of late Quaternary age mantles most of Nebraska south of the Platte River Valley. At least five late Quaternary loesses are recognized: from oldest to youngest, one or more undifferentiated pre-Illinoian loesses, the Loveland Loess, the Gilman Canyon Loess, which exhibits...

Recent surveys of recovery plans indicate that criteria, such as population sizes, for delisting species from the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA) are often unrealistically low by scientific standards. We describe the delisting criterion for the threatened southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) developed by the Southern Sea Otter Recovery Team. A...

Parasites that are transmitted from prey to predator are often associated with altered prey behavior. Although many concur that behavior modification is a parasite strategy that facilitates transmission by making parasitized prey easier for predators to capture, there is little evidence from field experiments. We observed that conspicuous behaviors exhibited...

Declines in amphibian populations are rarely reported on the community or ecosystem level. We combined broad-scale field sampling with historical analyses of museum records to quantify amphibian declines in California’s Great Central Valley. Overall, amphibians showed an unambiguous pattern of decline, although the intensity of decline varied both geographically and...

The recent introduction of the European green crab, Carcinus maenas, to the west coast of the U.S. has provided an opportunity for host transfer of the symbiotic nemertean egg predator, Carcinonemertes epialti, from its native shore crab host, Hemigrapsus oregonensis to the exotic C. maenas. Two surveys of C. maenas...

CyanobacteriaMichen soil crusts can be a dominant source of nitrogen for cold-desert ecosystems. Effects of surface disturbance from footprints, bike and vehicle tracks on the nitrogenase activity in these crusts was investigated. Surface disturbances reduced nitrogenase activity by 30-100%. Crusts dominated by the cyanobacterium Microcoleus vaginatus on sandy soils were the most susceptible to disruption; crusts on...

The aquifer of an alluvial plain between the Tanana and Chena Rivers near Fairbanks, Alaska, generally consists of highly transmissive sands and gravels under water-table conditions. During 1986-88, the U.S. Geological Survey studied the distribution of ground-water levels in the alluvial plain between Moose Creek Dam and the confluence of...