Basin In New Mexico Research Articles

Communities of identity, communities of practice: Understanding Santa Fe black-on-white pottery in the Española Basin of new Mexico

The research presented here focuses on Santa Fe Black-on-white pottery produced during the Late Coalition/Early Classic Transition (AD 1250–1350) in the northern Rio Grande region, New Mexico. We combine design data with compositional analyses to gain a greater understanding of ceramic production and circulation in this region and to evaluate the communities of practice and communities of identity reflected in pottery. We combine mineralogical and INAA chemical compositional datasets to argue for at least three production provenances; we further argue that nine potential petrofacies represent different resource procurement zones within the production provenances. We argue that these data, combined, represent a minimum of three different communities of practice. Despite multiple communities of practice, similar designs were being used as decoration that reflects a single community of identity. We argue that during this transitional time period examined here, producers of Santa Fe Black-on-white were intentionally practicing a form of identity maintenance across all of the villages in which it was produced.

The Shale Evolution: Zipper Fracture Takes Hold

Zipper Fractures A horizontal well completion method known as zipper fracturing has been rapidly adopted over the last couple of years by companies in the Eagle Ford shale of south Texas. Instead of drilling and hydraulically fracturing one well at a time, the zipper method involves drilling multiple wells from a pad site and then hydraulically fracturing a stage in one well, while getting ready for the next, as wireline and perforation operations take place in another. The multiwell completion method earns its name from the zipper-like configuration of the fracture stages from wells drilled with relatively tight spacing. This shaves days off the time it takes to complete a multiwell pad. Many companies in south Texas are now using the completion method on almost every new pad site they drill into, saving tens of millions of dollars per year while accelerating the development of their well inventories. But the big prize may be that zipper fractures are increasing initial production and estimated ultimate recovery rates when designed so that the fractures stimulate the most reservoir volume possible. Tulsa-based WPX Energy, an independent operator of 160,000 acres in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, told investors this summer that when the company switched to zipper fracturing, it averaged 420 B/D of oil production compared with 388 B/D from single-well completions. While not entirely sure if zipper fracturing is the direct cause of improved production, WPX said it expects that is the case. Mukul Sharma, a professor and chair in the petroleum department at the University of Texas at Austin (UT), said field data from Eagle Ford wells make it clear to him that zipper fractures are indeed improving initial production rates and the estimated ultimate recovery. Sharma said operators in south Texas have reported improved initial production rates ranging from 20% to 40% using the zipper method. “I would say that this is definitely the way people are going to be doing a lot of their fractures in the future,” he said. “What I think we need to do is understand better how it works— why it works. Once we understand that, we can apply it much more efficiently.”

New Specimens of the Rare Taeniodont Wortmania (Mammalia: Eutheria) from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and Comments on the Phylogeny and Functional Morphology of “Archaic” Mammals

BackgroundTaeniodonta is a clade of Late Cretaceous – Paleogene mammals remarkable for their relatively extreme cranial, dental, and postcranial adaptations and notable for being among the first mammals to achieve relatively large size following the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction. Previous workers have hypothesized that taeniodonts can be divided into two clades: Conoryctidae, a group of small-bodied taeniodonts with supposedly “generalized” postcranial skeletons, and Stylinodontidae, a group of large-bodied, robust animals with massive forelimbs and claws adapted for scratch-digging. However, many taeniodont taxa are poorly known and few are represented by postcranial material, leaving many details about their anatomy, biology, and evolution ambiguous.Methodology/Principal FindingsIn this paper, we describe three new specimens of the rare taxon Wortmaniaotariidens from the early Paleocene (Puercan) of New Mexico. Among these specimens is one that includes remarkably complete cranial and dental material, including associated upper and lower teeth, and another that consists of partial forelimbs. These specimens allow for an updated anatomical description of this unusual taxon, supply new data for phylogenetic analyses, and enable a more constrained discussion of taeniodont biology and functional morphology.Conclusions/SignificanceThe new specimen of Wortmania that includes associated upper and lower teeth indicates that previous interpretations of the upper dentition of this taxon were not accurate and the taxon Robertschochiasullivani is a junior synonym of W . otariidens . New specimens that include partial forelimbs indicate that Wortmania is very similar to later, large-bodied taeniodonts, with marked and distinctive adaptations for scratch-digging. Comparisons with other taeniodont taxa that include postcranial material suggest that all taeniodonts may have had scratch-digging adaptations. A phylogenetic analysis shows that Schowalteria and Onychodectes are basal taeniodonts, Stylinodontidae (including Wortmania) is monophyletic, and a monophyletic Conoryctidae (but not including Onychodectes) is only recovered when certain characters are ordered.

Mylagaulid Rodents (Mammalia: Rodentia: Mylagaulidae) from the Middle Miocene (Barstovian) of New Mexico

Four species of mylagaulid rodents are described from the Tesuque Formation, Espanola Basin of New Mexico: Alphagaulus vetus (Matthew, 1924), Ceratogaulus robustus, new species, Notogaulus minor, new genus and species, and Notogauhis major, new species. Ceratogaulus robustus is distinguished from other species of the genus by its much heavier dentary and relatively wider premolar. Notogaulus is separable from other mylagaulines in its unique features of its cranium (ovate rugose areas on the nasals; shape, thickness, and porosity of bone on the postorbital processes), and relatively primitive dental morphology (no preferred separation of the branches of the parafossette on P4). The recognition of a distinct genus of mylagaulid from New Mexico demonstrates that by the middle Miocene (Barstovian) derived mylagaulines had evolved regionally into distinct genera.

Forecasting atmospheric stability transitions over a high-elevation desert in the southwestern United States

Forecasting the precise time of the morning and evening stability transition is important to both civilian and military meteorologists. In the civilian community this information can be used to initialize prognostic convective models. Other applications include enhancing (1) infrared sensor simulations and (2) high-energy laser propagation projects. The observed stability transition duration over a mid-latitude desert has ranged from less than 1 min to more than 20 min. This article presents desert stability transition parameters, the Stability Transition Forecast Model (STFM) development, two scenarios for modeling the transition, and an empirically derived equation quantifying the monthly (seasonal) effects for forecasting the morning and evening stability transitions over the Tularosa Basin in New Mexico. Explanations for the general seasonal curve shape are proposed, and possible reasons for why the solar cycle component is the greatest contributor to the ideal STFM algorithm are discussed.

Modelling Vegetation Patterns in Semiarid Environments

The aim of this work is to deepen our understanding on the mutual relationship between climate, vegetation and soil water budget within an ecohydrological framework. To this end a coupled hydrological/ecological model is adopted to describe simultaneously soil water budget and vegetation pattern evolution in a semiarid river basin in New Mexico (USA). This basin represents an ideal area to study the properties of water-controlled ecosystems. Analyses have been carried out using a recently formulated framework for the water balance at the daily level linked with a vegetation model for the description of the spatial organization of vegetation. Using this approach, we identified the dynamic water stress of vegetation during the growing season, taking into account effects of morphology on the spatial distribution of solar radiation and the initial soil moisture condition at the beginning of the growing season. Several different variants of the vegetation model have been tested with the aim to identify the main drivers for the spatial organization of the vegetation. Results clearly show that the observed vegetation patterns emerge from the minimization of water stress and the maximization of water use.

Direct U-Pb dating of Cretaceous and Paleocene dinosaur bones, San Juan Basin, New Mexico: COMMENT

Based on U-Pb dating of two dinosaur bones from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico (United States), [Fassett et al. (2011)][1] claim to provide the first successful direct dating of fossil bones and to establish the presence of Paleocene dinosaurs. Fassett et al. ignore previously published work that

Direct U-Pb dating of Cretaceous and Paleocene dinosaur bones, San Juan Basin, New Mexico: COMMENT

[Fassett et al. (2011][1], herein) analyzed fossil bone fragments from the San Juan Basin of New Mexico and claim to have achieved the “first successful direct dating of fossil vertebrate bone” (p. 159). This claim is asserted to establish the survival of dinosaurs into the Paleogene, thus

Incorporating Groundwater‐Surface Water Interaction into River Management Models

Accurate representation of groundwater-surface water interactions is critical to modeling low river flows in the semi-arid southwestern United States. Although a number of groundwater-surface water models exist, they are seldom integrated with river operation/management models. A link between the object-oriented river and reservoir operations model, RiverWare, and the groundwater model, MODFLOW, was developed to incorporate groundwater-surface water interaction processes, such as river seepage/gains, riparian evapotranspiration, and irrigation return flows, into a rule-based water allocations model. An explicit approach is used in which the two models run in tandem, exchanging data once in each computational time step. Because the MODFLOW grid is typically at a finer resolution than RiverWare objects, the linked model employs spatial interpolation and summation for compatible communication of exchanged variables. The performance of the linked model is illustrated through two applications in the Middle Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico where overappropriation impacts endangered species habitats. In one application, the linked model results are compared with historical data; the other illustrates use of the linked model for determining management strategies needed to attain an in-stream flow target. The flows predicted by the linked model at gauge locations are reasonably accurate except during a few very low flow periods when discrepancies may be attributable to stream gaging uncertainties or inaccurate documentation of diversions. The linked model accounted for complex diversions, releases, groundwater pumpage, irrigation return flows, and seepage between the groundwater system and canals/drains to achieve a schedule of releases that satisfied the in-stream target flow.

Turbidity as an Indicator of Water Quality in Diverse Watersheds of the Upper Pecos River Basin

Microbial concentrations, total suspended solids (TSS) and turbidity vary with stream hydrology and land use. Turbidity, TSS, and microbial concentrations, loads and yields from four watersheds were assessed: an unburned montane forest, a catastrophically burned montane forest, urban land use and rangeland prairie. Concentrations and loads for most water quality variables were greatest during storm events. Turbidity was an effective indicator of TSS, E. coli and Enterococci spp. The greatest threat to public health from microbial contamination occurs during storm runoff events. Efforts to manage surface runoff and erosion would likely improve water quality of the upper Pecos River basin in New Mexico, USA.

Using ASTER satellite data to calculate riparian evapotranspiration in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico

Riparian evapotranspiration (ET) in the Rio Grande Basin in New Mexico, USA is a major component of the hydrological system. Over a period of several years, ET has been measured in selected locations of dense saltcedar and cottonwood vegetation. Riparian vegetation varies in density, species and soil moisture availability, and to obtain accurate measurements, multiple sampling points are needed, making the process costly and impractical. An alternative solution involves using remotely sensed data to estimate ET over large areas. In this study, daily ET values were measured using eddy covariance flux towers installed in areas of saltcedar and cottonwood vegetation. At these sites, remotely sensed satellite data from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Terra Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) were used to calculate the albedo, normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and surface temperature. A surface energy balance model was used to calculate ET values from the ASTER data, which were available for 7 days in the year. Comparison between the daily ET values of saltcedar and cottonwood measured from the flux towers and calculated from remote sensing resulted in a mean square error (MSE) of 0.16 and 0.37 mm day−1, respectively. The regional map of ET generated from the remote sensing data demonstrated considerable variation in ET, ranging from 0 to 9.8 mm day−1, with a mean of 5.5 mm day−1 and standard deviation of 1.85 mm day−1 (n = 427481 pixels) excluding open water. This was due to variations in plant variety and density, soil type and moisture availability, and the depth to water table.

Measuring Time, Population, and Residential Mobility from the Surface at San Marcos Pueblo, North Central New Mexico

To understand the effects of European contact on the organization, size, and mobility of Pueblo populations in the Southwest requires detailed knowledge of the occupational histories of the aggregated settlements that typify the late prehistoric and early historic record. Unfortunately, such understanding is generally lacking because the methods used to document occupational histories of settlements tend to either obscure fine-grained temporal distinctions or necessitate costly, and politically objectionable, large-scale excavations. To overcome these difficulties, we use surface expressions to analyze the occupational and population history of San Marcos Pueblo (LA98), an aggregated, late prehistoric site in the Galisteo Basin of New Mexico that persisted to the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. Field methods include detailed mapping of the settlement and systematic surface collections of middens. Frequency seriation, correspondence analysis, and mean ceramic dates of decorated ceramic rims comprise our principal analytic methods and demonstrate that the pueblo was abandoned four times before 1680. Causes of abandonment are discussed. Relative scale measures of population show demographic fluctuations with maximum aggregation during the fifteenth century. Despite demographic pulses, the pueblo remained vital until the terminal abandonment.

Genetic and community similarities are correlated in endemic‐rich springs of the northern Chihuahuan Desert

ABSTRACTAim Species diversity and genetic diversity within a taxon are intrinsic parts of global biodiversity. These two levels of biodiversity can show strong correlation due to a variety of reasons (i.e. parallel processes affecting both communities and populations, genotypes of a numerically or functionally dominant species affecting community composition, a species assemblage selecting for a particular genotype by affecting its selection regime). We examined correlations between species and genetic biodiversity in four isolated endemic‐rich spring systems in a hot desert and their potential link to environmental variables and physical isolation.Location Chihuahuan Desert spring systems in the Pecos River basin of New Mexico and Texas, USA.Methods We compared species richness of fish and benthic macroinvertebrate communities to within‐population allelic richness of amphipods (monophyletic Gammarus spp.) and Pecos gambusia (Gambusia nobilis) using Mantel tests. We also compared pairwise community similarities with pairwise genetic identities of populations among the same groups. We tested correlations among diversity, similarity and environmental variables after controlling for the effects of spatial distances using partial Mantel tests. We partitioned genetic and species diversity into three spatial scales (i.e. individual springs, individual spring systems, the entire region) using AMOVA and partition.Results We found strong correlations between invertebrate species richness and mosquitofish allelic richness. We found even stronger correlations of amphipod and gambusia genetic identities with fish and invertebrate community similarities; these were best explained by geographic distance rather than abiotic environmental factors. Most of the taxa and communities exhibited the largest proportion of diversity at the regional level.Main conclusions Our results suggest that drift and migration are the mechanisms that best explain our observations, and although α‐diversity among genes and species may not be strongly correlated, the pattern of species and allelic complementarity among these groups seems to be concordant at the regional level.

Multiscale Bayesian neural networks for soil water content estimation

Artificial neural networks (ANN) have been used for some time now to estimate soil hydraulic parameters from other available or more easily measurable soil properties. However, most such uses of ANNs as pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have been at matching spatial scales (1:1) of inputs and outputs. This approach assumes that the outputs are only required at the same scale as the input data. Unfortunately, this is rarely true. Different hydrologic, hydroclimatic, and contaminant transport models require soil hydraulic parameter data at different spatial scales, depending upon their grid sizes. While conventional (deterministic) ANNs have been traditionally used in these studies, the use of Bayesian training of ANNs is a more recent development. In this paper, we develop a Bayesian framework to derive soil water retention function including its uncertainty at the point or local scale using PTFs trained with coarser‐scale Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO)‐based soil data. The approach includes an ANN trained with Bayesian techniques as a PTF tool with training and validation data collected across spatial extents (scales) in two different regions in the United States. The two study areas include the Las Cruces Trench site in the Rio Grande basin of New Mexico, and the Southern Great Plains 1997 (SGP97) hydrology experimental region in Oklahoma. Each region‐specific Bayesian ANN is trained using soil texture and bulk density data from the SSURGO database (scale 1:24,000), and predictions of the soil water contents at different pressure heads with point scale data (1:1) inputs are made. The resulting outputs are corrected for bias using both linear and nonlinear correction techniques. The results show good agreement between the soil water content values measured at the point scale and those predicted by the Bayesian ANN‐based PTFs for both the study sites. Overall, Bayesian ANNs coupled with nonlinear bias correction are found to be very suitable tools for deriving soil hydraulic parameters at the local/fine scale from soil physical properties at coarser‐scale and across different spatial extents. This approach could potentially be used for soil hydraulic properties estimation and downscaling.

Multiscale Pedotransfer Functions for Soil Water Retention

Parametric soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity functions are often used for predicting soil hydrologic behavior using hydrologic, hydroclimatic, and contaminant transport models. The prediction accuracy of any such model is critically dependent on the quality of the input parameters. Limited availability of (detailed) soil hydraulic data for large‐scale hydroclimatic models (with grids ranging from several kilometers to several hundred kilometers) is a major challenge. To address this need, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) have been used to estimate the required soil hydraulic parameters from other available or easily measurable soil properties. While most previous studies derive and adopt these parameters at matching spatial scales (1:1) of input and output data, we have developed a methodology to derive soil water retention functions at the point or local scale using the PTFs trained with coarser scale input data. This study was a novel application of an artificial neural network (ANN)‐based PTF scheme across two spatial support scales within the Rio Grande basin in New Mexico. The ANN was trained using soil texture and bulk density data from the SSURGO database (scale 1:24,000) and then used for predicting soil water contents at different pressure heads with point‐scale data (1:1) inputs. The resulting outputs were corrected for bias before constructing the soil water characteristic curve using the van Genuchten equation. A hierarchical approach with training data derived from multiple clustered subwatersheds (with varying spatial extent) was used to study the effect of the increase in spatial extent. The results show good agreement between the soil water retention curves constructed from the ANN‐based PTFs and field observations at the local scale near Las Cruces, NM. The robustness of the multiscale PTF methodology was further tested with a separate data set from the Little Washita watershed region in Oklahoma. Overall, ANN coupled with bias correction was found to be a suitable approach for deriving soil hydraulic parameters at a finer scale from soil physical properties at coarser scales and across different spatial extents. The approach could potentially be used for downscaling soil hydraulic properties.

The use of curvature in potential-field interpretation

Potential-field anomalies can be transformed into special functions that form peaks and ridges over isolated sources. All special functions have a common mathematical form over an isolated source, which leads to a common equation for estimating the source depth from the peak value and the curvature at the peak. Model-specific special functions, usually calculated from a transformed version of a potential field, are used to estimate the locations of very specific source types. Model-independent special functions calculated from an observed or transformed potential field can be used to estimate the locations of a variety of source types. Vertical integration is a particularly useful transformation for reducing the effects of noise and increasing the coherency of solutions from model-independent special functions. For gridded data, the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of the curvature matrix associated with a quadratic surface that is fitted to a special function within 3 × 3 windows can be used to locate the sources and estimate their depths and strikes. Discrete source locations estimated in this manner can be connected into lines that follow contacts, faults, and other mappable features based on distance and azimuth criteria. These concepts are demonstrated on aeromagnetic data from the Albuquerque basin of New Mexico, USA.

Investigating a floodplain scaling relation using a hydrogeomorphic delineation method

Floodplains are critical landscape features that are highly distinguished from neighboring uplands in terms of their hydrologic, geomorphologic, biogeochemical, and ecological processes. Thus an essential step in floodplain studies is the determination of the lateral floodplain extent and its variability within a basin. Recent advances in topographic mapping and GIS‐based analysis provide a means for developing automated techniques to determine floodplain extent. In this study, we propose a hydrogeomorphic floodplain delineation which links a simplified inundation algorithm with the river basin properties. We utilize the method to investigate the physical controls on floodplain formation, as captured by scaling relations between floodplain width and contributing area. Our hypothesis is that an efficient delineation grounded in hydrogeomorphic theory can improve our understanding of floodplain geometry across a range of conditions. We test the method for two distinct watersheds, a humid catchment in Italy and an ephemeral basin in New Mexico, and note the existence of power law scaling of the floodplain width after averaging over stream orders. An analysis of the algorithm parameters is conducted to identify possible limitations. Further systematic tests are needed to establish the generality of the floodplain scaling and its control on floodplain processes.

Characterization of shrub distribution using high spatial resolution remote sensing: Ecosystem implications for a former Chihuahuan Desert grassland

Patchiness is often considered a defining quality of ecosystems in arid and semiarid regions. The spatial distribution of vegetation patches and soil nutrients coupled with wind and water erosion as well as biotic processes are believed to have an influence on land degradation. A geostatistical measure of spatial “connectivity” is presented to directly measure the size of patches in the landscape from a raster data set. Connectivity is defined as the probability that adjacent pixels belong to the same type of patch. Connectivity allows the size distribution of erodible patches to be quantified from a remote sensing image or field measurement, or specified for the purposes of modeling. Applied to high-resolution remote sensing imagery in the Jornada del Muerto Basin in New Mexico, the spatial distribution of plants indicates the current state of grassland-to-shrubland transition in addition to processes of degradation in this former grassland. Shrub encroachment is clearly evident from decreased intershrub patch size in coppice dunes of 27.8 m relative to shrublands of 65.2 m and grassland spacing of 118.9 m. Shrub patches remain a consistent 2–4 m diameter regardless of the development of bush encroachment. A strong SW–NE duneland orientation correlates with the prevailing wind direction and suggests a strong aeolian control of surface geomorphology. With appropriate data sets and classification, potential applications of the connectivity method extend beyond vegetation dynamics, including mineralogy mapping, preserve planning, habitat fragmentation, pore spacing in surface hydrology, and microbial community dynamics.

Recent Variations in Temperature, Precipitation, and Streamflow in the Rio Grande and Pecos River Basins of New Mexico and Colorado

Trends in climatic and hydrologic data from the Rio Grande and Pecos River basin are analyzed over an approximately 40-year period (1960 to 2000). Mann-Whitney tests for changes between halves of the record and between more recent decades, and Mann-Kendall tests for trend over the 40 years of record, are applied to monthly averages from 35 temperature stations and 63 precipitation stations. Similarly, the 15 hydrometric stations meeting the criteria of the Hydro-Climatic Data Network are examined using Mann-Whitney and Mann-Kendall tests to 5-day averages of daily mean streamflow. To distinguish regions that exhibit similar patterns of climatic variation, temperature and precipitation results from the Mann-Kendall test are used as inputs to a cluster analysis. Climatic variations in the region are consistent neither through time nor across space. Some areas have demonstrated recent increases in temperature or precipitation while others have displayed decreases in these same elements. In addition, many areas reveal climatic shifts in specific periods of the year that are in marked contrast with the trends observed in other periods and other places. Hydrologic variations are also not spatially homogeneous, but generally indicate higher streamflow, earlier onset to freshet, and generally larger freshet volumes in more recent decades.

Preface: Conservation and Management of Aquatic Resources in Arid Lands

Water is clearly one of the most important natural resources in the western United States and drought is a major issue in states like New Mexico. Regulation of river flows and land uses in riparian zones and areas linked to them impair aquatic ecosystems and endanger the native biota in regions everywhere. The pervasive effects of humans on aquatic ecosystems reach their greatest magnitude in highly variable ecosystems situated in arid landscapes. The precious value of water, to humans and, in fact, to all life forms on Earth, demands that we look carefully at the changes we inflict on the landscape and seek an understanding of how we might inadvertently be affecting our own future existence. This issue contains articles contributed to a conference on “Aquatic Resources in Arid Lands” that was held in Las Cruces, New Mexico on April 30–May 2, 2003. We organized this conference to bring together prominent aquatic scientists, natural resource agency personnel, and water users to consider issues associated with management of aquatic resources. Invited experts spoke on paleoclimatology, terrestrial-aquatic linkages, ecology, invasive species, decision-support modeling, river restoration, and conservation genetics. The 2-day conference concluded with a half-day facilitated workshop on “Sound Science and Effective Policy for Managing Aquatic Resources.” This issue presents conference research papers on aquatic resources in five categories: climate, hydrology, endangered species, river restoration, and water policy. Climatic uncertainty is the major challenge in managing aquatic ecosystems in arid lands. The first article by Lioubimtseva and Cole addresses the global concern of climate change. Compelling evidence for global warming continues to accrue, although the potential consequence for arid lands is uncertain. Lioubimtseva and Cole argue that the extreme variability of deserts contributes to this uncertainty and they raise the possibility that local and regional human impacts, such as large-scale irrigation projects, may have a greater effect on regional climate than global climate change. In a second article on climate, Hall et al. examine a 40-year climatic record for the upper Rio Grande Basin of New Mexico and Colorado. They report that there is little consistency in time or space in climatic variations across the region. Local regions have climatic shifts in specific periods of the year that appear unrelated to trends in other periods and places. Hydrologic variations in the basin generally indicate trends for elevated river discharge and earlier onset of freshet in recent decades. Understanding hydrologic interactions between surface and groundwaters would enhance water resource management in many ways, especially in regions with most or all of the surface water appropriated for human uses. For the Alcalde Ditch in northern New Mexico, Fernald and Guldan have found that at least 5% of the total ditch flow seeps out