Platinum group element enrichments and possible chondritic Ru:Ir across the Frasnian-Famennian boundary, western New York State

The Frasnian-Famennian boundary is recognized as the culmination of a global mass extinction in the Late Devonian. In western New York State the boundary is a distinct horizon within a pyritic black shale bed of the upper Hanover Shale defined by the first occurrence of Palmatolepis triangularis in the absence of Frasnian conodonts. The boundary is characterized by a minor disconformity marked by a lag concentration of conodonts. Iridium at the boundary is 0.11-0.24 ng/g, two to five times background levels of <0.05 ng/g; other Ir enrichments of 0.38 ng/g and 0.49 ng/g occur within 50 cm of the conodont-constrained boundary. Numerous Ir enrichments in the boundary interval suggest extraterrestrial accretion and platinum group element (PGE) concentration at disconformities, or mobilization and concentration in organic-rich/pyritic-rich laminations from cosmic or terrestrial sources. PGE ratios of Pt/Pd and Ku/Ir at the boundary horizon approximate chondritic ratios and are suggestive of an unaltered extraterrestrial source. These values do not conclusively establish a single extraterrestrial impact as the ultimate cause of the Frasnian-Famennian mass extinction, especially given the presence of similar Ir enrichments elsewhere in the section and the absence at the boundary of microtektites and shocked mineral grains.     

The ichnogenus Tremichnus in the Lower Silurian of western New York

Discovery of Tremichnus cysticus Brett on a crinoid pluricolumnal from the Willowvale Shale of western New York extends the range of this ichnogenus into the Lower Silurian. Pits attributable to Tremichnus apparently represent embedment sites of parasites or commensalistic, filter-feeding organisms of unknown affinities. Embedment of T. cysticus may have been accomplished by localized inhibition of stereom growth within the pits aided by secretion of substances that stimulated accretion of stereom by the host pelmatozoan in areas immediately surrounding the pits.     

Genetic diversity,admixture, and hatchery influence in Brook Trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) throughout western New York State

Although Brook Trout are distributed across most of eastern North America, population numbers have declined in many regions due to habitat loss, climate change, and competition with non‐native species. In New York State, Brook Trout habitat has been substantially reduced, with many areas showing complete extirpation of Brook Trout populations, predominantly in the western portion of the state. Small, fragmented populations are at risk of genetic diversity loss, inbreeding depression, and reduced fitness, leading to a greater potential for local extirpation. Genetic monitoring is a practical tool that can facilitate further conservation‐decision making regarding small populations. In this study, we used 12 microsatellite loci to examine 3,436 sampled Brook Trout, representing 75 sites from the Allegheny, Erie/Niagara, Genesee, Oswego, Lake Ontario, and Susquehanna drainage basins throughout western New York State. Three Brook Trout hatchery strains were also genetically characterized to evaluate the degree of hatchery introgression between wild populations and hatchery strains stocked in the region. Overall, estimates of genetic diversity varied widely: Allelic richness ranged from 2.23 to 7.485, and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.402 to 0.766. As observed for Brook Trout in other regions, we found a high degree of genetic differentiation among populations, with all comparisons except one showing significant F_ST values. Hatchery introgression was found to be minimal, with estimates ranging from 1.96% to 3.10% of wild individuals exhibiting membership proportions to a hatchery strain cluster exceeding 10% (q ≥ 0.10). Results from this investigation can be used to prioritize management efforts for Brook Trout in western New York State and act as a baseline to monitor future population trends.     

Forest Fragmentation and Risk of Giardiasis in New York State

In the United States, giardiasis is endemic in northern and northeastern states, but its ecology and epidemiology remain elusive. The underlying physical landscape may play a role in shaping points of contact between humans, animals, and Giardia cysts. This study examined 11 years of surveillance data in New York State to measure the relationship between forest fragmentation and the incidence of giardiasis. Adjusted Poisson models showed that increasing points of contact between forested land and developed land, as measured by their shared edges [incident rate ratio (IRR) = 1.003; P < 0.001] and by the perimeter length of forested patches (IRR = 1.31; P = 0.01), were associated with higher incidence of giardiasis cases, whereas increasing forest density was associated with a lower incidence (IRR = 0.97; P < 0.001). These associations were independent of both temperature and surface water area. While these results are only suggestive due to the county-level aggregated data, the findings do identify a potentially important signal in the landscape epidemiology of giardiasis and highlight the need for better, more targeted, field studies on individual water sources for household consumption, inter-species contact in ecotones, surface water contamination, and human giardiasis cases.     

Poleward shifts in breeding bird distributions in New York State

Like other regions of the northern hemisphere, the northeastern United States has experienced a general increase in regional temperatures over the past 20 years. Quantifying the ecological implications of these changing temperatures has been severely constrained by a lack of multispecies distributional data by which to compare long-term changes. We used the New York State Breeding Bird Atlas, a statewide survey of 5332 25 km² blocks surveyed in 1980–1985 and 2000–2005, to test several predictions that the birds of New York State are responding to climate change. Our objective was to use an information-theoretic approach to analyze changes in three geographic range characteristics, the center of occurrence, range boundaries, and states of occurrence to address several predictions that the birds of New York State are moving polewards and up in elevation. As expected, we found all bird species ( n =129) included in this analysis showed an average northward range shift in their mean latitude of 3.58 km [ Prob ( H _a|data)=0.87)]. Past studies have found that northern range boundaries are more likely to be influenced by climatic factors than southern range boundaries. Consequently, we predicted that northward shifts would be more evident in northern as opposed to southern range boundaries. We found, however, that the southern range boundaries of northerly birds moved northward by 11.4 km [ n =43, Prob ( H _a|data)=0.92], but this pattern was less evident in northern range boundaries of southerly birds. In addition, we found that bird species demonstrated a general shift downhill in their mean elevation, but demonstrated little change in their elevational boundaries. The repeated pattern of a predicted northward shift in bird ranges in various geographic regions of the world provides compelling evidence that climate change is driving range shifts.     

中国大陆的腐霉属菌物

综述了中国大陆腐霉属的研究进展,内容包括腐霉属菌物的发生、分布、分类鉴定、致病性、所致植物病害防治及腐霉的利用等方面.至今,中国已报道的腐霉属菌物有64个种,其中有13个种作为世界新种进行了描述,这13个新种分别为:顶生腐霉Pythium acrogynum,孤雌腐霉P.amasculinum,百色腐霉P.baisense,北方腐霉P.boreale,短枝腐霉P.breve,壁合腐霉P.connatum,镰雄腐霉P.falciforme,贵阳腐霉P.guiyangense,广西腐霉P.guangxiense,下雄腐霉P.hypoandrum,昆明腐霉P.kummingense,南宁腐霉尸nanningense和中国腐霉P.sinensis.瓜果腐霉Pythium aphanidermatum为优势种,在全国普遍引起多种植物严重的猝倒病和根、茎、叶、果腐烂病.其中,大多数腐霉种对植物具有致病性,44个种寄生植物,1个种:紫菜腐霉P.porphyrae寄生红藻和紫菜,2个种:卡地腐霉P.carolinianum 和贵阳腐霉P.guiyangense寄生蚊子幼虫,2个种:努氏腐霉P.nunn和寡雄腐霉P.oligandrum 是真菌的重寄生菌.相比之下,台湾报道的腐霉种有48种(其中新种1个:四季腐霉P.sukuiense),海南报道的腐霉种有28种.对中国大陆腐霉属的研究前景也进行了讨论.     

Hydrogeologic controls of surface-water chemistry in the Adirondack region of New York State

Relationships between surface-water discharge, water chemistry, and watershed geology were investigated to evaluate factors affecting the sensitivity of drainage waters in the Adirondack region of New York to acidification by atmospheric deposition. Instantaneous discharge per unit area was derived from relationships between flow and staff-gage readings at 10 drainage basins throughout the region. The average chemical composition of the waters was assessed from monthly samples collected from July 1982 through July 1984. The ratio of flow at the 50-percent exceedence level to the flow at the 95-percent exceedence level of flow duration was negatively correlated with mean values of alkalinity or acid-neutralizing capacity (ANC), sum of basic cations (SBC), and dissolved silica, for basins containing predominantly aluminosilicate minerals and little or no carbonate-bearing minerals. Low ratios are indicative of systems in which flow is predominately derived from surface- and ground-water storage, whereas high ratios are characteristic of watersheds with variable flow that is largely derived from surface runoff.In an evaluation of two representative surface-water sites, concentrations of ANC, SBC, and dissolved silica, derived primarily from soil mineral weathering reactions. decreased with increasing flow. Furthermore, the ANC was highest at low flow when the percentage of streamflow derived from ground water was maximum. As flow increased, the ANC decreased because the contribution of dilute surface runoff and lateral flow through the shallow acidic soil horizons to total flow increased. Basins having relatively high ground-water contributions to total flow, in general, have large deposits of thick till or stratified drift. A major factor controlling the sensitivity of these streams and lakes to acidification is the relative contribution of ground water to total discharge.     

Turbulence-controlled succession in Middle Devonian reefs of eastern New York State

Wolosz. T. H. 1992 07 15: Turbulence-controlled succession in Middle Devonian reefs of eastern New York State.
The Edgecliff Member ol the Middle Devonian Onondaga Formation contains numerous reefs comprised of two distinct facies. The Phaceloid Colonial Rugosan Facies consists of thickets and mounds, while the Favositid/Crinoidal Sand facies occurs as flank beds surrounding rugosan mounds and as low shield-shaped banks interbedded with thickets of the colonial rugosan facics. Three of these reefs - the North Coxsackie. Albrights and Roberts Hill reefs - have been studied in order to determine the factors that controlled their development and their preserved paleocommunity succession. Both the Roberts Hill and Albrights reefs display well-developed rugosan mounds with an internal succession of rugosan genera. The North Coxsackie reef is a crinoidal sand bank with rugosan thickets and a back-reef satellite mound. Based on the lithology of the underlying limestone in which the reefs are rooted, the North Coxsackie reef is considered to have grown in a shallow-water environment, landwards of the two other reefs. Successional sequences or partial sequences are common to the three reefs, and are found to be reversible - a response attributed to changes in sea-level. As a result, the successions preserved in these reefs are interpreted as having been controlled by degree ol water turbulence.