http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28797 http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/35938 Ancient Mounds, Modern Meanings SWEENEY, MARK E. Students at the University of Wisconsin and other residents of Madison encounter effigy mounds on an almost daily basis as they move throughout campus and the city. Mounds can be found on Observatory Hill (see Figure 1), near the Lakeshore path, in Elmside Park, and throughout the city, Dane County, and the rest of Southern Wisconsin. But what do these mounds mean? Archaeologists can offer some explanations as to the motivation of the mounds' builders, but they cannot explain what the mounds mean today or how the function in our society. This honors thesis begins to answer this question. I examine two effigy mound landscapes, Effigy Mounds National Monument (EMNM), and Bear Mound Park. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/35930 RESPONSE OF TURTLE CREEK Hirschboeck, Katherine Manls impact on the environment has been observed and'analyzed to a great extent in recent years. The response of a landscape, vegetal community, or stream to inputs of settlement, cultivation, urbanization, or industrialization is varied and depends for the most part on first, the type of land use input, and second, the type of region being acted upon -- defined essentially by climatic and physiographic parameters. River systems and streams are particularly sensitive to land use changes and in addition, tend to be unique in their response, under a certain combination of climatic and physiographic conditions. For example, under similar precipitation and temperature regimes, a difference in physiography between two drainage basins, such as one flowing on bedrock topography and the other on young glacial drift, will instigate unique channel geometries, flow characteristics, and stream patterns in each basin. Thus it is hypothesized that a change in land use imposed on two basins with varying physiographies will result in two different river responses. This study will investigate the effects of land use changes stemming from manls initial settlement in an uncultivated glacial drift drainage basin and contrast them with the results of a similar impact on a bedrock environment basin. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/35928 The Contribution of Global Transport on Ehlers, Susanna Carbon monoxide, CO, is produced by natural and anthropogenic processes including biomass burning and fossil fuel usage and affects atmospheric chemistry through its roles as a sink for the hydroxyl radical (OH) and as a precursor to ozone. As the primary atmospheric sink for OH, which is responsible for chemically destroying numerous air pollutants, CO concentrations impact the concentrations of other such pollutants. Here we use CO as a tracer for polluted air masses by examining the transport of CO both to and from North America. CO is an ideal tracer for atmospheric and climate modeling because it is well understood and well captured due to its simple chemistry and long lifespan. By employing MOZART, a numerical global tropospheric chemistry model, we seek to address the nature of air pollutant transport and establish the role of transport on regional North American CO concentrations. We find that the greatest intercontinental transported CO occurs on days when the overall carbon monoxide concentrations are low to moderate. In addition, carbon monoxide concentrations increase eastward, reflecting the different regional impacts of emissions. We also define three main transport pathways of CO over North America and identify specific episodic flux events by comparing model results to INTEX-NA flight observations taken the summer of 2004 in cooperation with NASA, NOAA, and the ICARn campaign. The main pathways of CO transport over North America are eastward, aloft import from Asia; northward, surface import from Africa, attributed to heavy biomass burning in the summer; and eastward export from North America, at the surface and aloft. Understanding these pathways for CO transport and the regional impacts is a key step towards understanding how polluted air masses evolve and can provide insight into the extent to which local air quality is influenced by intercontinental transport. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28894 A late Pleistocene/early Holocene fire record from Appleman Lake, Indiana: The use of charcoal analysis in investigating landscape change Lininger, Katherine Charcoal analysis was conducted on a sediment core from Appleman Lake, Indiana. Appleman Lake is a kettle lake that was formed as the Laurentide Ice Sheet retreated during the last deglaciation. Macroscopic charcoal (particles >125m) indicates local fires. Charcoal analysis was connected to other proxies, such as pollen analysis (a proxy for vegetation), the presence of Sporormiella spores (a proxy for megafaunal abundance), and magnetic susceptibility (a proxy for erosion), to understand long-term landscape change. The late Pleistocene/early Holocene time period was the focus of the study. During this period, rapid climate change occurred, many megafaunal species became extinct, no-analogue vegetation assemblages were present, and humans arrived. Charcoal concentrations (particles/cm3) were transferred into charcoal accumulation rate (CHAR, expressed as particles/cm2/yr) by dividing the charcoal concentrations by the sedimentation rate for the core. Using Charster, a program developed by Dan Gavin, the charcoal record was decomposed into a background component (slowly varying) and a peaks component (used to infer fire events). A threshold value was applied to the peaks component to separate noise from inferred fire events. In the Appleman Lake charcoal record, there are three inferred time periods displaying different fire characteristics. During the late glacial period, from 17,600 to 15,900 cal yr BP, there are few charcoal particles and zero inferred fire events. Picea is the dominant vegetation, indicating a cold climate, and megafaunal abundance is high. In the transitional period, from 15,900 to 10,800 cal yr BP, the fire return interval is 1.55/1000yr with 8 inferred fire events. During the transitional period, a fire peak occurs almost simultaneously with the inferred extinction of many megafaunal species, possibly indicating that as megafauna became extinct, fuel load increased and a major fire event occurred. A fire peak occurs contemporaneously with the onset of the Younger Dryas climatic event at 12,900 cal yr BP, supporting the hypothesis of an extraterrestrial impact at that time. In the early Holocene time period, from 10,800 to 7,100 cal yr BP, the background level of CHAR increases significantly, alongside increases in Quercus and other deciduous taxa. The fire return interval in the early Holocene is 3.24/1000yr, with 12 inferred fire events. Increased fire activity and more deciduous taxa indicate a warmer climate in the early Holocene. Charcoal analysis and other proxies provide a long-term history of landscape change in northern Indiana during the late Pleistocene/early Holocene time period. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28892 The Media, Groundwater, and Development: Scientific Input in the Arizona Daily Star, 2006 Christopher, David In 2006, the Arizona Daily Star, a newspaper based in Tucson, Arizona, paid significant attention to groundwater issues. Authors at the Star discussed groundwater and its connections to commercial, residential, and industrial development, highlighting the tensions between scientists and developers. Based on a wide body of literature about the media’s use of science and public perceptions of science, the newspaper validated the mass media’s tendency to construct arguments that are more attuned to generating resonance with the readership than they are to discussing scientific facts. By skewing expertise, offering limited explanations of scientific terms and processes, and portraying science as uncertain and conflictual, authors at the Star reaffirm common perceptions about the necessity of growth for political and economic reasons. http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1793/28890 Influence of Land Use Change on Grant River Hydrology, Grant County, Wisconsin Greene, Samantha Over the past two centuries, widespread agriculture has been significantly altering the landscape. It is known that agriculture can significantly alter hydrologic processes and increase soil erosion. While corn is the most common crop in the United States, soybean agriculture increased rapidly in the late 20th century. However, in Grant County, WI the increase began in the 1990s (USDA). Soybeans are associated with soil degradation, resulting in increased surface runoff and soil erosion. Even though soybean cropping is becoming increasingly more popular, a paucity of research has been conducted to identify the potential significance that increased surface runoff and soil erosion will have on hydrologic processes. This thesis examines potential impacts of shifts to increased soybean planting in the SW Wisconsin’s Grant River watershed where instrument records for water and sediment yields span pre- and post-1990 years of cropping practices. Overall, it was found that soybean agriculture has yet to have noticeable effects on the Grant River hydrology. This is most likely because of land use management practices that were introduced around the same time as soybean agriculture became popular in the Grant River watershed. Included in these new conservation practices are various tillage techniques and USDA programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), and Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). Additionally, cattle grazing intensity in the watershed has been reduced. In order to fully conclude the impacts of soybean agriculture on the landscape, agricultural plots should be studied as well as hydrological changes in a smaller watershed than the Grant River.