Understanding the effects of varying average annual precipitation on organic carbon in loess-derived soils can assist the reconstruction of paleoclimates from buried paleosol sequences as well as ...facilitate the prediction of soil organic carbon (SOC) change in response to future climate forcings. The goal of this study was to examine trends in SOC and its relationships to particle-size distribution (PSD) and soil aggregation in surface loess along a precipitation gradient in the Central Great Plains of the United States. Soil cores were collected from undisturbed portions of seven pioneer cemeteries to a depth of 50cm across a transect spanning northwest Kansas into western Missouri. Pioneer cemeteries were selected to minimize any effect from land use and disturbance. Soil cores were cut into 2.5-cm segments, which were prepared and analyzed for bulk density, SOC, and aggregated and disaggregated PSD from laser diffraction. Annual precipitation, depth, and PSD were used in the multivariate analyses to explain the distribution of SOC and complexed organic carbon (COC)—an indicator of soil physical quality—as well as bulk density. Precipitation was the variable that most explained SOC, COC, and bulk density. A proxy for microaggregation, geometric mean shift (GMS), was developed for this study and defined as the difference between the geometric mean of the aggregated and disaggregated PSDs. Microaggregation occurred below an OC:clay ratio of 0.163 in the upper 50cm of the loess-derived soils analyzed. Among the variables considered, COC had the highest coefficient of determination (R2=0.871). Our findings indicate that future climate forcings resulting in precipitation changes may have an effect on COC and, thus, soil physical quality of loess-derived soils.
•Soil properties were analyzed across a precipitation gradient.•Geometric mean shift proxy for soil aggregation was developed.•Soil organic carbon:clay ratio threshold was derived for loess soils.•Complexed soil organic carbon shows a strong relationship to precipitation.•Pedotransfer functions were derived based on texture, depth, and precipitation.
Creating the Suburban School Advantage explains how American suburban school districts gained a competitive edge over their urban counterparts. John L. Rury provides a national overview of the ...process, focusing on the period between 1950 and 1980, and presents a detailed study of metropolitan Kansas City, a region representative of trends elsewhere. While big-city districts once were widely seen as superior and attracted families seeking the best educational opportunities for their children, suburban school systems grew rapidly in the post–World War II era as middle- class and more affluent families moved to those communities. As Rury relates, at the same time, economically dislocated African Americans migrated from the South to center-city neighborhoods, testing the capacity of urban institutions. As demographic trends drove this urban-suburban divide, a suburban ethos of localism contributed to the socioeconomic exclusion that became a hallmark of outlying school systems. School districts located wholly or partly within the municipal boundaries of Kansas City, Missouri, make for revealing cases that illuminate our understanding of these national patterns. As Rury demonstrates, struggles to achieve greater educational equity and desegregation in urban centers contributed to so-called white flight and what Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan considered to be a crisis of urban education in 1965. Despite the often valiant efforts made to serve inner city children and bolster urban school districts, this exodus, Rury cogently argues, created a new metropolitan educational hierarchy—a mirror image of the urban-centric model that had prevailed before World War II. The stubborn perception that suburban schools are superior, based on test scores and budgets, has persisted into the twenty-first century and instantiates today's metropolitan landscape of social, economic, and educational inequality.
Part memoir, part investigative report, My Grandfather's Prison recounts longtime journalist Serrano's search to discover whether his drunkard grandfather was murdered in solitary confinement. ...Serrano delves deep into Kansas City's ignoble past, showing us real-life characters who broaden our understanding of the city's history, such as sheriffs, political bosses, and the denizens of skid row. As Serrano gradually comes to terms with the darker side of his family history, he traces a parallel reconciliation of the city with its own sordid past.
Longitudinal connectivity is a fundamental characteristic of rivers that can be disrupted by natural and anthropogenic processes. Dams are significant disruptions to streams. Over 2,000,000 low-head ...dams (<7.6 m high) fragment United States rivers. Despite potential adverse impacts of these ubiquitous disturbances, the spatial impacts of low-head dams on geomorphology and ecology are largely untested. Progress for research and conservation is impaired by not knowing the magnitude of low-head dam impacts. Based on the geomorphic literature, we refined a methodology that allowed us to quantify the spatial extent of low-head dam impacts (herein dam footprint), assessed variation in dam footprints across low-head dams within a river network, and identified select aspects of the context of this variation. Wetted width, depth, and substrate size distributions upstream and downstream of six low-head dams within the Upper Neosho River, Kansas, United States of America were measured. Total dam footprints averaged 7.9 km (3.0-15.3 km) or 287 wetted widths (136-437 wetted widths). Estimates included both upstream (mean: 6.7 km or 243 wetted widths) and downstream footprints (mean: 1.2 km or 44 wetted widths). Altogether the six low-head dams impacted 47.3 km (about 17%) of the mainstem in the river network. Despite differences in age, size, location, and primary function, the sizes of geomorphic footprints of individual low-head dams in the Upper Neosho river network were relatively similar. The number of upstream dams and distance to upstream dams, but not dam height, affected the spatial extent of dam footprints. In summary, ubiquitous low-head dams individually and cumulatively altered lotic ecosystems. Both characteristics of individual dams and the context of neighboring dams affected low-head dam impacts within the river network. For these reasons, low-head dams require a different, more integrative, approach for research and management than the individualistic approach that has been applied to larger dams.
Mosasaurs were widespread predators of the vast Cretaceous seas, and it is debated whether these extinct marine reptiles migrated to coastal environments to feed or reproduce. Here we investigate the ...potential for migration of mosasaurs through novel high-resolution sclerochronology that samples incremental growth lines in fossil mosasaur teeth and extracts oxygen isotopes from pristine enamel. Oxygen isotope trends of consecutive teeth are spliced to reconstruct one to seven month-long life histories of Platecarpus tympaniticus and Clidastes propython mosasaurs, respectively, collected from time-equivalent chalk deposits of the Western Interior Seaway and Mississippi Embayment of North America. The records of all individuals—two adults and one juvenile—are characterized by semi-regular depletions in oxygen isotope values, indicating travel from marine to freshwater coastal environments. Weekly to bi-weekly consumption of freshwater by two genera at diverse life stages implies that mosasaur osmoregulatory function was similar to their living sea snake relatives that drink freshwater periodically.
•We reconstruct palaeoecology of mosasaurs from coeval Kansas and Alabama chalk.•Oxygen isotopes in pristine fossil tooth enamel record changing aquatic habitats.•Two adults and one juvenile show a pattern of bi-weekly migration to freshwater.•Freshwater consumption suggests osmoregulation similar to living sea snakes.
Soils in the Kansas Cherokee Prairies have formed in various parent materials and exhibit differences in the degree of expression of vertic properties. Despite large clay contents, few soils meet the ...criteria for a Vertisol. In an effort to investigate the cause of these differences, pedogenic processes, primarily clay illuviation and shrink–swell processes, were evaluated in eight pedons. Relatively high coefficient of linear extensibility (COLE) values were found in all soils. The clay mineralogy of four sites was dominated by smectite, but only two of those sites classified as Vertisols. In the other four sites, smectite was the most common clay mineral, yet there were several other clay minerals present in significant quantities. Disruption of illuvial clay features by shrink–swell movement was evident in the thin sections of all soils. Striated b‐fabrics dominated except in surface soils that exhibited a small COLE value and occurred above an argillic horizon. Linear planes lined with stress‐oriented clay and representing zones of shear failure were observed, along with argillans that had been distorted and embedded within the matrix by swelling pressure and soil movement. In conclusion, when present, a nonexpansive silty surface layer acts as a buffer and may limit shrink–swell by allowing expansive subsoils to dry more slowly.
Many Americans know the story of the United States Colored Troops, who broke racial barriers in Civil War combat, and of the "buffalo soldiers," who served in the West after that conflict, but ...African Americans also served in segregated militia units in twenty-three states. This book tells the story of that experience in Kansas. In addition to black regulars, hundreds of other black militiamen and volunteers from Kansas provided military service from the Civil War until the dawn of the twentieth century. More than a military history, this account records the quest of black men, many of them former slaves, for inclusion in American society. Many came from the bottom of the socioeconomic order and found that as militiamen they could gain respect within their communities.
Dead End Kids exposes both the depravity and the humanity in gang life through the eyes of a teenaged girl named Cara, a member of a Kansas City gang. In this shocking yet compassionate account, Mark ...Fleisher shows how gang girls’ lives are shaped by poverty, family disorganization, and parental neglect.
•Water content reflectometers and buried rain gauges showed the progress of clogging.•For every 6 mm of rain, clogging advanced 1 mm across the surface.•Results showed the clogging progresses from ...the upgradient to the downgradient edge.•The size of drainage area and rainfall were effective on rate and progression of clogging.
Permeable pavement is a stormwater control measure commonly selected in both new and retrofit applications. However, there is limited information about the clogging mechanism of these systems that effects the infiltration. A permeable pavement site located at the Seitz Elementary School, on Fort Riley, Kansas was selected for this study. An 80-space parking lot was built behind the school as part of an EPA collaboration with the U.S. Army. The parking lot design includes a permeable interlocking concrete pavement section along the downgradient edge. This study monitored the clogging progress of the pavement section using twelve water content reflectometers and three buried tipping bucket rain gauges. This clogging dynamic investigation was divided into three stages namely pre-clogged, transitional, and clogged. Recorded initial relative water content of all three stages were significantly and negatively correlated to antecedent dry weather periods with stronger correlations during clogged conditions. The peak relative water content correlation with peak rainfall 10-min intensity was significant for the water content reflectometers located on the western edge away from the eastern edge; this correlation was strongest during transition stage. Once clogged, rainfall measurements no longer correlated with the buried tipping bucket rain gauges. Both water content reflectometers and buried tipping bucket rain gauges showed the progress of surface clogging. For every 6 mm of rain, clogging advanced 1 mm across the surface. The results generally support the hypothesis that the clogging progresses from the upgradient to the downgradient edge. The magnitude of the contributing drainage area and rainfall characteristics are effective factors on rate and progression of clogging.
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