Statewide land-cover change detection analysis provides a useful tool for conservation planning and environmental monitoring and addresses issues of habitat fragmentation and urban sprawl. Furthermore, land-cover data offer a historical and recent perspective on landscape dynamics. To this end, the first alliance level land-cover map of Kansas (Kansas Vegetation Map) recently completed by the KARS Program was compared to Küchler's Potential Natural Vegetation map and the 1993 Kansas Land Cover Patterns map. The post-classification change detection technique was used along with co-occurrence matrices to identify areas and directions of land-cover change.

Comparisons showed that the land cover of Kansas has changed drastically since European settlement. Over 48% of the land is now cultivated and native vegetation types such as tallgrass and shortgrass prairie have been reduced dramatically in area. There are, however, millions of ha of these vegetation types remaining in Kansas. Comparisons between the two recent land-cover maps reveal that over 80% of the land in Kansas has remained unchanged in the five years between map development. Recent land-cover changes include conversion of grassland to cropland, cropland to grassland, and grassland to woodland. Many areas changing from cropland to grassland have been identified as land being enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Post-classification change detection analysis also shows that forest and woodland types have increased over the five-year period and over 1 million ha of grassland have been converted to cropland. The magnitude of increases in woodland and forest is questionable, however, and may be due to registration errors and classification methodologies used to generate the land-cover maps.

The alderflies occurring in Kansas are summarized and figured. A key for the identification of adult males and females of the five species of Sialis occurring in the area is provided. County records are reviewed for each species, with Sialis infumata Newman newly recorded for Bourbon County.

Although more vertebrate species have been reported from the Fairport Chalk Member (Middle Turonian) than from the overlying Blue Hill Shale and Codell Sandstone members (upper Middle Turonian) of the Carlile Shale in Kansas, the number is relatively small compared to that from the deeper water fauna of the Smoky Hill Chalk Member (Upper Coniacian to Lower Campanian) of the Niobrara Chalk. Ptychodontids are poorly represented in the Fairport Chalk, both in number of specimens and species. Here we report the first occurrence of Ptychodus mammillaris from a single tooth collected in the Fairport Chalk of Ellis County. This specimen adds new data concerning the faunal diversity of the Western Interior Sea during the Middle Turonian.

We describe the first occurrence of the Late Cretaceous lamniform shark, Johnlongia sp. (Elasmobranchii: Odontaspididae), from the Smoky Hill Chalk Member of the Niobrara Chalk in Trego County, Kansas. The specimen, a small isolated tooth, is morphologically unique and may represent a new taxon within the genus. The tooth is from the Upper Coniacian portion of the Smoky Hill Chalk, and represents the stratigraphically youngest Johnlongia specimen in the world. The addition of Johnlongia sp. increases the total number of lamniform species reported from the Smoky Hill Chalk to eight.

Anthropogenic disturbances to streams have been shown to cause channel instability resulting in increased sedimentation and altered substrate composition. I studied effects of two such disturbances (logging and bridge construction) on habitat among three phases (pre-, during-, and post-disturbance) for two southern Jefferson County (Kansas) intermittent streams. From autumn 2001 to spring 2004, I seasonally sampled six habitat variables (thalweg depth, bank full width, percent bank exposed, riparian thickness, geometic mean, and substrate compaction) along 100 m benchmarks upstream from, at the site of, and downstream from disturbance locations. Using repeated-measure analysis of variance with a sequential Bonferroni correction of a = 0.05 and Tukey's studentized range test for pairwise comparisons, all six variables differed significantly at both the logging location and the bridge construction location among phases, whereas no variables differed significantly upstream from or downstream from either disturbance among the three phases. Results show that both logging and bridge construction can have adverse effects on stream habitat characteristics, and for intermittent streams, the disturbances might be localized due to lack of flow.

Agroforestry is an age-old land-use system found around the world, which combines trees with crops and/or animals to increase overall productivity of the land. Brazil, one of the largest countries in the world, has vast acreages of industrial Eucalyptus plantings. Growing resistance to this large monoculture effort has prompted consideration of incorporating forestry tree species with agricultural plant combinations. Agroforestry is varied in central Brazil. Large industrial plantings are being installed. Many practices being evaluated are listed in this paper.

Garlic is known to have numerous beneficial effects for human health, yet not much work has been done previously to explore its use as a natural food preservative. This study was designed to evaluate if garlic can be used as a natural preservative to prevent meat spoilage due to bacterial growth during storage. Skinless chicken legs and non-pathogenic strains of Salmonella and E. coli were used as test models. Two-thirds of the chicken legs were experimentally contaminated with Salmonella and E. coli by dipping them in a bacterial suspension. Half of the contaminated chicken legs was then dipped in garlic extract for 10 minutes, and the other half was kept as the untreated control. Both treated and untreated legs were packed with clear plastic and stored at 4°C. All legs were swabbed individually at 0, 5 and 15 days of storage and tested for the presence of bacteria using nutrient agar plates. The experiment was done three times. The results of this experiment proved that garlic could be used as an effective meat preservative to prevent spoilage of meat due to bacterial growth. Garlic kept on killing bacteria when Salmonella and E. coli contaminated chicken legs were stored at 4°C up to 15 days. While the number of bacteria in the non-treated meat continued to increase upon storage, in the garlic treated meat bacterial growth was significantly reduced. The finding of this research would be helpful in making safe and healthy food products, eventually leading to maintaining better health.

Leaching from nitrogen based fertilizers causes eutrophication of aquatic environments, which ultimately leads to hypoxia. For example, the surface area of such oxygen-starved regions in the Gulf of Mexico is rapidly increasing and greatly affects the marine ecosystem and development of the Gulf coast fishing industry. The purpose of this research is to: 1) develop an alternative to conventional fertilizer by incorporating a commercial fertilizer into a sodium alginate base to help retain the nitrogen at the site of application, 2) test the effectiveness of this new fertilizer for the prevention of nitrogen leaching after simulated rainfalls, and 3) apply the fertilizer during the growth of grasses to determine if the sodium alginate has additional benefits to plant growth (i.e. could also provide nutrients and help retain moisture in the soil). In a simulation, the fertilizer was incorporated into sand, which served as the “soil” medium, then subjected to numerous “1-inch rainfalls,” with the leachate being tested for ammonia concentration after each application for a significantly longer time thus considerably reducing the rate of nitrogen leaching. Moisture was also retained in the simulated soil for a longer period of time, which could prove to be an additional benefit.

This experiment tested the effect gender had on the ability to identify the difference of pitch between two tones. First, background information concerning pitch was found, and then the experimental and control groups (based on students' musical experience) were gathered. During the experiment, a tape was played in which several starting tones were followed by a second tone that was higher, lower or the same as the previous tone. Students were asked to identify the relationship between the first and second tone. The resulting data indicate that males correctly identified the difference of pitch between two tones five percent more often than females.

A one-month pitfall trap survey in early summer of 2000 in the vicinity of prairie dog towns in the shortgrass prairie of western Kansas revealed the presence of seven species of spiders not previously recorded in Kansas. These species (Xysticus robinsoni, Castianeira alteranda, Schizocosa mimula, Cesonia sincera, Drassyllus mumai, Gnaphosa clara, and Steatoda albomaculata) occur predominantly in arid habitats in the southwestern United States. The discovery of seven new state records during this brief survey emphasizes the need for further field work in the shortgrass prairie biome.