Evaluation of Reforestation in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley

Only about 2.8 million ha of an estimated original 10 million ha of bottomland hardwood forests still exist in the Lower Mississippi River Alluvial Valley (LMAV) of the United States. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and state agencies initiated reforestation efforts in the late 1980s to improve wildlife habitat. We surveyed restorationists responsible for reforestation in the LMAV to determine the magnitude of past and future efforts and to identify major limiting factors. Over the past 10 years, 77,698 ha have been reforested by the agencies represented in our survey and an additional 89,009 ha are targeted in the next 5 years. Oaks are the most commonly planted species and bare-root seedlings are the most commonly used planting stock. Problems with seedling availability may increase the diversity of plantings in the future. Reforestation in the LMAV is based upon principles of landscape ecology; however, local problems such as herbivory, drought, and flooding often limit success. Broad-scale hydrologic restoration is needed to fully restore the structural and functional attributes of these systems, but because of drastic and widespread hydrologic alterations and socioeconomic constraints, this goal is generally not realistic. Local hydrologic restoration and creation of specific habitat features needed by some wildlife and fish species warrant attention. More extensive analyses of plantings are needed to evaluate functional success. The Wetland Reserve Program is a positive development, but policies that provide additional financial incentives to landowners for reforestation efforts should be seriously considered.     

Habitat Use by Female Mallards in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley

ABSTRACT Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) populations in the lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley (LMAV), USA, historically averaged 1.6 million and represented the largest concentrations of wintering mallards in North America. Effective management of this wintering population requires current information on use of habitats. Accordingly, we employed radiotelemetry techniques to assess proportional use of habitats by female mallards during winters 2004–2005 and 2005–2006. We divided winters into 4 time periods defined by hunting seasons (FIRST, SPLIT, SECOND, and POST) and recorded diurnal and nocturnal locations. We examined variations in proportional use of habitats and use of areas closed to hunting due to effects of age (immature or ad), winter (2004–2005 or 2005–2006), time period (SECOND or POST), individual female, and all potential interactions of these effects, using locations recorded during the latter 2 time periods. We found that diurnal and nocturnal proportional use of habitats varied inconsistently among time periods and winters. Mean proportional use of forested wetlands ranged from 0.475 to 0.816 and from 0.428 to 0.764 during diurnal and nocturnal sampling periods, respectively. Diurnal proportional use of areas closed to hunting varied inconsistently among time periods and winters. Mean proportional use of areas closed to hunting ranged from 0.183 to 0.423 during diurnal sampling periods. Nocturnal use of areas closed to hunting varied inconsistently among female ages and time periods and among female ages and winters. Mean proportional use of areas closed to hunting ranged from 0.211 to 0.445 during nocturnal sampling periods. Our research suggests that forested wetlands in the LMAV provide important wintering habitats for female mallards; continued restoration and establishment of these habitats should benefit female mallards.     

American Indians with African Ancestry: Differential Fertility and the Complexities of Social Identity

Interethnic marriage represents a major trend in the demographic history of American Indians. While the majority of these unions involved Indian women and Caucasian men, a sizeable number occurred between Indians and African Americans. The children of these bicultural marriages were “mixed bloods” who in turn typically married non-Indians or other mixed bloods. Using data from the 1910 Census on American Indians in the United States and Alaska, this article explores why American Indians with African ancestry enjoyed high fertility. Differential rates of fertility among American Indians in the past were due to a number of underlying genetic, cultural, and environmental factors. By identifying these factors, the paradox of why Indian women with African heritage did so well in terms of fertility largely disappears. African admixture, however, greatly complicates Indian social identity.     

Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley.

Changing Perspectives on the Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley. Michael J. O'Brien and Robert C. Dunnell. eds. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1998. 386 pp.     

Esterase D in South American Indians.

Significant variation in the frequency of Esterase D isoenzymes was found in 1,070 individuals belonging to eight South American Indian tribes. The Es D1 allele shows frequencies varying from .36 to 1. A region of low prevalence of this allele seems to exist in northern Brazil, involving the Parakanan, Gorotire, and Krahó. The intratribal variation observed in eight Yanomama villages located in Brazil was not exceptional.     

Microbial Manganese Oxidation in the Lower Mississippi River: Methods and Evidence

Abstract

Recent work has led to the suggestion that biologically-mediated redox processes might be important in the regulation of dissolved trace element concentrations in rivers, especially with regard to manganese. Here, we focus on the removal of dissolved Mn from lower Mississippi River water. Experiments indicate that dissolved Mn can be rapidly removed from lower Mississippi River water on a timescale of days or less and that Mn oxides are formed. However, demonstrating a biological origin for this removal is problematic. Experiments reveal that commonly used microbial controls, including NaN₃ mixtures, HgCl₂, heat sterilization, and sonification all affect fluvial particulate Mn through dissolution, disaggregation, interference with adsorption, or particle ageing. Thus, these microbial controls may affect abiotic as well as biological processes. Evidence supporting microbial removal of dissolved Mn from lower Mississippi River water includes a temperature optimum for the process (～30°C), a lower activation energy than reported for heterogeneous inorganic Mn oxidation, and a faster rate than reported for autocatalytic inorganic Mn oxidation. This rapid Mn oxidation process occurs at essentially the same rate in the dark as well as the light. Observation of Mn removal at similar rates in a blackwater river in addition to the lower Mississippi, suggests that this is a common phenomenon in fluvial systems. If, as has been shown by other lab studies, the freshly biologically precipitated Mn oxides have a high specific surface area, then our observations provide a potential link between microbial activity, Mn cycling, and the cycling of other particle-reactive trace elements in rivers. Our results also indicate that unfiltered river water samples for dissolved Mn analysis should be filtered as soon as possible or at least stored cold if immediate filtration is not possible.     

Genetic diversity,effective population size,and structure among black bear populations in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley,USA

Multiple small populations of American black bears Ursus americanus, including the recently delisted Louisiana black bear subspecies U. a. luteolus, occupy a fragmented landscape in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, USA (LMAV). Populations include bears native to the LMAV, bears translocated from Minnesota during the 1960s, and recently reintroduced and colonizing populations sourced from within the LMAV. We estimated population structure, gene flow, and genetic parameters important to conservation of small populations using genotypes at 23 microsatellite markers for 265 bears from seven populations. We inferred five genetic clusters corresponding to the following populations: White River and western Mississippi, Tensas River and Three Rivers, Upper Atchafalaya, Lower Atchafalaya, and Minnesota. Upper Atchafalaya was suggested as the product of Minnesota-sourced translocations, but those populations have since diverged, likely because of a founder effect followed by genetic drift and isolation. An admixture zone recently developed in northeastern Louisiana and western Mississippi between migrants from White River and Tensas River, resulting in a Wahlund effect. However, gene flow among most populations has been limited and considerable genetic differentiation accumulated (global F_ST?=?0.22), particularly among the three Louisiana black bear populations that existed when federal listing occurred. Consistent with previous bottlenecks, founder effects, and persisting isolation, all LMAV bear populations had low genetic diversity (A_R?=?2.08–4.81; H_E?=?0.36–0.63) or small effective population size (N_E?=?3–49). Translocating bears among populations as part of a regional genetic restoration program may help improve genetic diversity and increase effective population sizes.     

Species diversity of chydorid fossil communities in the Mississippi Valley

Summary The species diversity and equitability component were calculated for the fossil chydorid community recovered from 45 lakes in the Mississippi Valley. The lakes fall into three groups, natural lakes, artificial lakes, and oxbow lakes. Where the diversity and equitability component were low it was discovered that in nearly all cases this was due to the superabundance of Chydorus sphaericus. While the number of species present tended to be greater in the north, the species diversity was significantly greater in the southern part of the transect. The chydorid fossil populations were correlated to neither conservative parameters of the lake water nor parameters of the sediments. However, the populations recovered were significantly greater for the natural lake group compared to the other two lake groups. Species diversity was negatively correlated to population size for the natural lakes, while the opposite positive significant correlation was found for the other two lake groups. It is suggested that the correlations found between species diversity and sedimentary parameters could be caused by turbidity being high in the artificial and oxbow lakes. This could retard the cultural eutrophication of these lakes. This factor is absent in the natural lakes and has resulted in rapid eutrophication causing loss of diversity and instability in the chydorid communities in these lakes.

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Zusammenfassung Die Verschiedenheit- and die Gleichwertigkeitskomponente der Arten wurden fur die Chydoriden Gemeinschaft berechnet, die aus 45 Seen in dem Mississippi-Flussgebiet erhalten war. Die Seen gehören zu drei Gruppen: natürliche Seen, künstliche Seen and in Flussbiegungen entstandene (Oxbowlakes).Dort wo die Verschiedenheit- und Gleichwertigkeitskomponente niedrig waren, wurde festgestellt, dass dies meistenteils auf eine Überfülle von Chydorus sphaericus zurückgeführt werden kann. Während im Norden die Zahl der vorhandenen Arten meistens grösser zu sein scheint, war in dem südlichen Teil des Querschnitts die Artverschiedenheit signifikant grösser. Die fossilen Chydoriden Besiedlungen standen weder mit üblichen Seewasserparametern in Wechselbeziehung noch mit Sediment-Parametern. Jedoch waren im Vergleich mit den beiden anderen Seengruppen die erhaltenen Besiedlungen in der Gruppe der natürlichen Seen bedeutend grösser. In natürlichen Seen stand die Artverschiedenheit in einer negativer Wechselbeziehung mit der Besiedlungsgrösse, während die entgegengesetzte positive signifikante Wechselbeziehung in den beiden anderen Seengruppen gefunden wurde. Es wird darauf hingewiesen, dass die zwischen der Artverschiedenheit und sedimentären Parametern gefundenen Wechselbeziehungen durch eine hone Schlammigkeit in künstlichen und Oxbowseen verursacht werden könnten. In natürlichen Seen ist dieser Faktor abwesend was eine schnelle Eutrophisierung zur Folge hat, die einen Verschiedenheitsverlust und Unbeständigkeit in den Chydoriden-Gemeinschaften dieser Seen verursachte.

     

Stand development on reforested bottomlands in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley

Reforestation of bottomland hardwood sites in the southeastern United States has markedly increased in recent years due, in part, to financial incentives provided by conservation programs. Currently >250,000 ha of marginal farmland have been returned to hardwood forests. I observed establishment of trees and shrubs on 205 reforested bottomlands: 133 sites were planted primarily with oak species (Quercus spp.), 60 sites were planted with pulpwood producing species (Populus deltoides, Liquidambar styraciflua, or Platanus occidentalis), and 12 sites were not planted (i.e., passive regeneration). Although oak sites were planted with more species, sites planted with pulpwood species were more rapidly colonized by additional species. The density of naturally colonizing species exceeded that of planted species but density of invaders decreased rapidly with distance from forest edge. Trees were shorter in height on sites planted with oaks than on sites planted with pulpwood species but within a site, planted trees attained greater heights than did colonizing species. Thus, planted trees dominated the canopy of reforested sites as they matured. Planted species acted in concert with natural invasion to influence the current condition of woody vegetation on reforested sites. Cluster analysis of species importance values distinguished three woody vegetation conditions: (1) Populus deltoides stands (2) oak stands with little natural invasion by other tree species, and (3) stands dominated by planted or naturally invading species other than oaks. Increased diversity on reforested sites would likely result from (a) greater diversity of planted species, particularly when sites are far from existing forest edges and (b) thinning of planted trees as they attain closed canopies.