Physiological effects of flooding might be interpretable through measures of photosynthesis and respiration in plants. Photosynthesis and respiration processes were measured in Phalaris arundinacea L. (reed canarygrass), Phaseolus vulgaris L. (common bean). Pisum sativum L. (pea), Vicia faba L. (broad bean), and Zea mays L. (maize) following three days of flooding. From this, we propose a model of physiological flooding tolerance regarding photosynthetic and respiratory metabolism. Tolerance to flooding results from an ability to maintain photosynthesis and high stomatal conductance when flooded, and to avoid oxygen shortage in roots. The most flooding-tolerant attributes were observed in the wetland grass Phalaris arundinacea. Oxygen was not limiting for root respiration when flooded, and photosynthetic rates and stomatal conductance increased in the flooding treatment. The flooding tolerant Zea mays and the broad bean Vicia faba were the next most flooding tolerant, as indicated by increased photosynthesis rates and stomatal conductance with flooding, but both displayed signs of oxygen stress from three days of flooding. The flooding-sensitive Phaseolus vulgaris and Pisum sativum were the most impacted by flooding, particularly P. vulgaris. Roots of P. vulgaris and P. sativum experienced oxygen stress in flooded treatments. Photosynthesis and stomatal conductance decreased in flooding treatments, and there was evidence of increased photoprotection with flooding in P. vulgaris. An ability to allocate light energy to photochemistry during flooding also appeared to be related to flooding tolerance. Plant flooding tolerance is mainly determined by an ability to maintain respiratory processes in affected tissues.

Milnesium eurysionmm Maucci 1991 is an infrequently reported species. It has been found primarily in Greenland and is characterized by an extremely wide buccal tube, The genus is carnivorous, and it is not unusual to find the mastexes of rotifers or the buccal structures of other tardigrades within their stomachs. This is the first report and image of a Milnesium eurystomum consuming an amoeba.

A colonial monospecific cluster of rudist bivalves from the lowermost Bridge Creek Limestone Member, Greenhorn Limestone (Upper Cenomanian) are attributable to Durania cf. D. cornupastoris. This discovery marks only the eighth recorded pre-Coniacian occurrence of rudist bivalves in the Cretaceous Western Interior and the only Cenomanian record of rudist Durania in North America. Discovered in 2011, the specimen was unearthed by historic aerial bombing during World War II. The appearance of rudist bivalves at mid-latitudes coincident with marked change in marine sediments likely represents the onset of mid-Cretaceous global warming.

A new green chlorococcoid alga, Echinocoleum flocculosum sp. nov., is described. It was collected from Stoney Lake. Kalamazoo County, and Miller's Marsh, Charlevoix County, Michigan, and in Kansas from a residual streambed pool near Fall River, Greenwood County, and a pond in an old oxbow depression at Lawrence, Douglas County. It is characterized by being a free floating single celled or immobile aggregate colony. Individual cells are spherical and contain a cup-shaped chloroplast with a single pyrenoid. All cells bear characteristic mucilage protuberances giving the cell an overall starshaped appearance.

Alexander von Humboldt's fundamental principle ‘…it is impossible to grasp the present and master the future without understanding historical development.' (Hein, 1987, p. 33)