Bluegrass Region Of Kentucky Research Articles

Quantification of bedrock structural controls of longitudinal sediment connectivity using the probability of connectivity and sediment continuity model

The structural controls of sediment connectivity are poorly understood in low-gradient watersheds and stream networks. We developed a field- and modeling-based framework to understand the timescales and thresholds associated with the structural controls of sediment connectivity and continuity in the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky, USA. Field reconnaissance was carried out to assess stream morphology and sediment connectivity, which was leveraged to derive instream sediment connectivity indices for 181 pool-riffle sequences in the low-gradient bedrock stream network. Our model framework coupled a probability-based connectivity formulation with the sediment continuity formula to assess sediment transport and connectivity in the stream network. Results indicated that the bedrock system reflects an end-member in which lithology controls longitudinal stream morphology. Specifically, we found that regional morphology controls pool-riffle length scales via bedrock outcrops, which therein controls the timescales of sediment connectivity over multiple hydrologic regimes. The pool to riffle length ratio was found to be 4.6, an order of magnitude greater than the ratio for alluvial systems. The new formulation of the sediment continuity formula coupled with the probability of connectivity framework adequately captured both short-term and long-term continuous dynamics of sediment transport, as indicated by evaluation metrics with measured sediment flux and field reconnaissance. Based on the analysis of 362 riffles and pools, we found that sediment in pools upstream of bedrock outcrop barriers are disconnected 93 % of the time whereas riffles are connected and allow full continuity 99 % of the time. Longitudinal sediment connectivity within the stream network was found to be controlled by both functional connectivity and structural connectivity, which contrasts recent findings describing the controls of sediment connectivity over lateral pathways on hillslopes.

Sediment transport investigation in a karst aquifer hypothesizes controls on internal versus external sediment origin and saturation impact on hysteresis

Karst springs serve as major drinking water sources for the global population, yet there remains uncertainty regarding how contaminants like sediment are routed through karst. We find knowledge gaps pertaining to the processes that control the timing and magnitude of sediment delivery. To close these knowledge gaps, we: (1) collected high-frequency sediment and conductivity data from three surface streams and two cave sites in the inner bluegrass region of Kentucky, USA; (2) analyzed sediment hysteresis for 51 storm events over a two year period; (3) numerically modeled sediment transport through the aquifer; and (4) contextualized our results with a meta-analysis of ten karst springs in Europe and North America. Our results showed that 80% of storm events derived their sediment from external inputs through sinking streams while the remaining 20% were characterized by only internal resuspension of previously deposited cave sediment. We found that internal sediment transport was proportional to fluid shear stress in the cave and occurred exclusively during fully saturated aquifer conditions prior to the storm event. During partially-saturated aquifer conditions, externally sourced sediment pulses were efficiently routed to the spring irrespective of shear in the conduit network. Sediment hysteresis in surface streams was clockwise whereas the cave sites experienced counter-clockwise behavior. Clockwise and counter-clockwise hysteresis typically refer to proximal and distal sourcing for streams, but our findings suggest that this interpretation is not valid for subsurface karst settings. Hysteresis patterns for karst show dependence on the antecedent water conditions in the aquifer and internal versus external sourcing. meta-analysis results show that, despite high variability, counter-clockwise patterns of sediment hysteresis are very common for karst, which contrasts sediment hysteresis in surface streams. Results suggest that external sediment loading rather than internal resuspension is the most common control of sediment load at springs, which should inform management of karst groundwater resources.

Agroecosystem Ecology of Northern Deermice (Peromyscus maniculatus bairdii) and White-Footed Deermice (P. leucopus noveboracensis) in the Inner Bluegrass of Kentucky

Peromyscus leucopus (White-Footed Deermouse) and Peromyscus maniculatus (North American Deermouse) are 2 widespread rodent species in North America, with North American Deermice more ecologically diverse and widely distributed than White-footed Deermice. Commonly, White-Footed Deermice are ecological generalists, and North American Deermice are ecological specialists. In the Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, these 2 species are sympatric in agroecosystems habitats, including the University of Kentucky North Farm. This farm was the most trapped location in central Kentucky from 1950 to 1968, with results indicating the White-Footed Deermoouse was the more common of these species. Trapping from 1995 to 2015 found that North American Deermice were caught rarely. Our study examined agroecosystems habitats at the UK North Farm, including all perennial and annual habitats, to determine the relative abundance and habitat use by both these species. In our study, North American Deermice was the most commonly captured species; it was trapped rarely in perennial habitats but much more frequently in annual crops. Perennial clover fields and Medicago sativa (Alfalfa) were the 2 exceptions; however, these are short crops with exposed soil between rows. Essentially, North American Deermice were observed in the agricultural equivalent of early successional habitat. In contrast, White-Footed Deermice were captured in both perennial and annual habitats, but more commonly in perennial habitats, the exception being annual Salvia hispanica (Chia) fields where dense, green plants produced a thick canopy. Overall, the best predictor of habitat for North American Deermice was bare, exposed soil, whereas the best predictor for White-Footed Deermice was dense growth and overhead cover.

Using machine learning to identify karst sinkholes from LiDAR-derived topographic depressions in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky

Information about the distribution and characteristics of existing sinkholes is critical for understanding karst aquifer systems and evaluating sinkhole hazards. LiDAR provides accurate and high-resolution topographic information and has been used to improve delineation of sinkholes in many karst regions. LiDAR data also reveal many topographic depressions, however, and identifying sinkholes from these depressions through manual visual inspection can be slow and laborious. To improve the efficiency of the identification process, we applied six machine learning methods (logistic regression, naive Bayes, neural network, random forests, RUSBoost, and support vector machine) to a dataset of morphometric characteristics of LiDAR-derived topographic depressions. Sinkhole data from Bourbon, Woodford, and Jessamine Counties in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky were used to derive the dataset for training and testing the machine learning methods. The dataset consisted of 22,884 records with 10 variables for each record. For each method, a random subset of 80% of the records was used for training and the remaining 20% was used for testing. The test receiver operating characteristic curves showed that all six methods were applicable to the dataset, as demonstrated by all area under the curves (AUCs) being greater than 0.87. Neural network emerged as the method that performed best, with an AUC of 0.95 and a testing average accuracy of 0.85. To further improve the sinkhole mapping process, we subsequently developed a two-step process that combined the trained neural network classifier and manual visual inspection and applied the process to Scott County, also in the Bluegrass region. We were able to locate 97% of the sinkholes in the county by manually inspecting only 27% of the topographic depressions the neural network classified as having relatively high probabilities of being sinkholes. This study showed that machine learning is a promising method for improving sinkhole identification efficiency in karst areas in which high-resolution topographic information is available.

Under Siege: Kentucky and the Transformation of American Thoroughbred Racing, 1865–1936

Under Siege: Kentucky and the Transformation of American Thoroughbred Racing, 1865–1936 Gary A. O’Dell (bio) Cycles in Thoroughbred Racing For many Americans, the sport of Thoroughbred racing must seem a quaint relic of a bygone era that only surfaces into public awareness once per year in May with the running of the Kentucky Derby in Louisville. Nevertheless, the breeding and racing of these horses is a multi-billion-dollar international industry. Kentucky has a long and globally recognized association with the sport that extends back to the earliest days of settlement, and which today constitutes a major segment of the regional economy. While many other locations, including Marion County, Florida; Newmarket, England; Chantilly, France; and the state of Texas, may with some justification compete for the title of “Horse Capital of the World,” there is little doubt that the Bluegrass region of Kentucky is the heart of the modern Thor-oughbred industry. This has not always been the case.1 The sport has long experienced cycles of decline and resurgence in vitality and popularity, driven by changes in the social, political, and economic fabric of the nation, and by the upheaval of war. In association with these root causes, the geographic centers for breeding [End Page 389] and racing Thoroughbred horses have periodically shifted back and forth from east to west, south to north, with Kentucky sometimes in the dominant position, and sometimes not. Thoroughbred racing was the first mass spectator sport in America, which, like baseball, was adapted from English precursors to suit American needs and tastes. First established in the colonies as an elite gentlemen’s sport, Thoroughbred racing reached the point of extinction during the Civil War. Yet, racing rebounded strongly afterward and during the remainder of the nineteenth century experienced a profound transformation in virtually all aspects of the sport. Racing became increasingly democratic and commercialized, and whereas overt gambling was once prohibited from tracks, wagering on races became the most important revenue stream and a driving force in the post-war expansion of the developing industry. As the nineteenth century ended, the sport was roiled by competing internal factions and assaulted by Progressive anti-gambling social reformers who nearly succeeded in eliminating Thoroughbred racing. Because a preoccupation with horse racing has been nearly constant in Kentucky from the pioneer era to the present day, the history of the sport within the Commonwealth provides an appropriate lens to focus upon the broader picture of national developments in Thoroughbred racing and breeding.2 American Racing Before the Civil War The first Thoroughbreds arrived in the American colonies near the middle of the eighteenth century, imported from England by wealthy southern planters who wished to emulate the aristocratic lifestyles of the mother country. Breeding and racing these horses became firmly rooted in colonial New York and in the southern states, particularly the Tidewater region of Virginia, Maryland, and South Carolina. During the Revolutionary War, destruction of infrastructure by the British invaders along with confiscation and deliberate slaughter [End Page 390] of bloodstock devastated the lowland racing establishment and promoted the westward shift of Thoroughbred racing and breeding into Kentucky and Tennessee. The central areas of these states, both known collectively as “the Bluegrass region” prior to the Civil War, were the first trans-Appalachian areas to be settled, and the hardy pioneers brought livestock with them to help tame the new land. Racing horses of ordinary breeds otherwise used for transportation and cultivation became a common form of recreation for Bluegrass residents, usually informal matches between a pair of horses down a straight path cleared for the purpose, or through the streets of a community.3 The Tidewater gentry who came to the western frontier imported Thoroughbred horses and brought order to the sport, laying out oval courses of measured length, establishing jockey clubs, and promulgating rules and regulations to govern the conduct of race meetings in the British tradition. Thoroughbred racing was essentially a gentlemen’s sport, indulged in by wealthy elites who had the means to acquire and maintain these expensive animals. The racing associations were exclusive clubs for the benefit of members who raced their horses against those of other members, with prizes...

A New Species of Scorpionfly from the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky (Mecoptera: Panorpidae)

A new species of scorpionfly, similar to Panorpa helena and Panorpa insolens, but lacking 2–4 long, stout, black setae on the male basistyles apices and possessing long barbs on the apices of the male ventral parameres, is described from the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky.

Self-limited biogeomorphic ecosystem engineering in epikarst soils

Tree roots have biogeomorphic engineering effects on epikarst weathering and soil deepening. This is investigated using a system model describing the interactions among biogeomorphic effects of roots, weathering, and soil-epikarst development. The model shows that the system is dynamically unstable when roots are limited by subsurface accommodation space and water availability, and weathering is moisture limited. Instability indicates relatively rapid, unstable growth of epikarst cavities and soil, driven by positive feedbacks. However, when belowground rooting space and moisture are no longer limiting, and weathering is reaction-limited, the system is dynamically stable, indicating steady state or slow growth of epikarst and soils. Results suggest an important role for biogeomorphic ecosystem engineering (BEE) by tree roots in soil and epikarst development, but that BEE is self-limiting. When moisture storage and supply for both plants and dissolution are adequate and sufficient root space is available, BEE effects become negligible. Supportive data and field observations from the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky indicate that BEE effects of trees can produce favorable conditions for tree growth, with these effects becoming negligible as soil thickness increases sufficiently.

Integrated surface geophysical approach to locate a karst conduit: a case study from Royal Spring Basin, Kentucky, USA

Groundwater flow in karst terrains is difficult to map because it can be concentrated through conduits that do not necessarily coincide with the surface features. We applied electrical resistivity (ER) and self-potential (SP) techniques at three sites to locate an inferred trunk conduit feeding a major spring in the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky (USA). Royal Spring is the primary water supply for the city of Georgetown; the upper part of its basin coincides with the Cane Run watershed. ER profiles (972 m total length) were measured using a dipole–dipole electrode configuration with 2- to 3-m spacing. SP measurements were taken along those ER lines and an additional test profile (230 m) using one stationary reference electrode and another roving electrode at a fixed interval. The SP technique has been used by many researchers to detect the electro kinetic potential generated by groundwater flow. The low resistivity of water in the conduit, as compared to the high background resistivity of limestone bedrock, was the ER exploration target. A negative SP anomaly corresponded to a low ER anomaly for most of the profiles, but a few are not comparable. Although SP data collected over multiple days along the test profile differed significantly, they showed similar trends. Field drift in SP data was found to be highly sensitive to temperature changes during the time of measurement. Although the overall trends of the final SP profiles for different dates were similar, the SP magnitudes varied with the amount of precipitation and the average soil temperature. The low-resistivity anomalies in the 2D inverted sections and corresponding negative SP anomalies at two sites (Berea Road and Kentucky Horse Park) encountered water-filled conduits, although mudfilled voids encountered during drilling at University of Kentucky Agricultural Research Farm sites suggest that these may be tributary conduits rather than the trunk conduit.

“A Blood Stained Sin”: Slavery, Freedom, and Guerrilla Warfare in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, 1863–65

“A Blood Stained Sin”: Slavery, Freedom, and Guerrilla Warfare in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky, 1863–65 J. Michael Rhyne (bio) In early September 1867, the outgoing Kentucky governor, Union Democrat Thomas Bramlette, delivered a farewell address in which he patted himself on the back a bit, but also issued a sharp rebuke to Republicans throughout the United States, particularly those who, like William G. “Parson” Brownlow of Tennessee, now held high office in former Confederate states. He proclaimed such Republicans to be men who would subordinate every interest, mental, moral, and physical, public, private, and social, to their own base and inordinate thirst [to hold] office. This party, led on by these demagogues, propose to ‘reconstruct’ the governments of the Southern States, so as to enfranchise the negro and disfranchise the white men not of their party in those States. They hope thereby to build up a negro party in the South, which will perpetuate political power in their hands. Such a party, Bramlette postulated, would create political competition [End Page 553] that would eventually “force a conflict of races,” which could only lead to the extermination of the “weaker” race. Finally, he accused these “demagogues” of pretending that “it is only their purpose to ‘punish treason and protect loyalty,’” while “they make war upon our Constitutional Union more ruthlessly, but with less manly courage, than did those whom they would punish.” He concluded this passage by openly proclaiming that “We can respect the manhood of those who, though erring in purpose and in judgment, struck boldly and bravely for separating the Southern States into an independent government,” but “we have no respect for those who pervert the powers of a free government” in order to accomplish “the destruction of the rights and the liberties of the Southern white men.”1 This speech was from the mouth of the unconditional Unionist governor of the commonwealth who served during the last two years of the Civil War. Like the nation as a whole, Bramlette’s Kentucky tried, but failed, to avoid a civil war. As secession turned into civil war, leaders in the commonwealth, including states’ rights governor Beriah Magoffin, sought a position of neutrality. In the end, war came to Kentucky as both the Union and the Confederacy moved to secure this vital state, or at least part of it, within their lines. Although the Kentucky legislature refused to call a secession convention, the state produced a number of Confederates, including at least twenty-five thousand regular soldiers, along with prominent leaders such as John C. Breckinridge. Yet politically and militarily, the commonwealth proved to be a far more significant supporter of the Union war effort. By most estimates, nearly twice as many white Kentuckians served in the ranks of the Union army as joined the Confederacy, along with approximately twenty-four-thousand African American soldiers.2 The [End Page 554] commonwealth also made a very significant contribution to the Union in terms of numerous military and civilian leaders, as well as large amounts of food (particularly corn, beef, pork, and animal fodder), cloth and clothing, manufactured goods, oxen, mules, and horses. Why, then, would the outgoing governor be so hard on Republicans? Simply put, Thomas Bramlette had been a proslavery loyalist, like most of his constituents. Federal abolition of slavery in Kentucky, both through wartime policy and the Thirteenth Amendment, which Kentucky refused to ratify, infuriated such men, and now they were being asked to face the unthinkable: black equality.3 For many white residents of the Bluegrass region of central Kentucky, the war they hoped to observe from a distance instead became very personal, beginning in earnest with the Confederate invasion of 1862, massive Union mobilization efforts thereafter, Confederate raiding in the commonwealth, and, by the autumn of 1863, the imposition of martial law. Still, these factors paled in comparison to what began in 1864: the recruitment of Kentucky slaves for the ranks of the United States Colored Troops (USCT). As recruitment escalated, so too did guerrilla warfare, much of which had little or no direct connection to the Confederate war effort. Many guerrillas evinced intense hatred of both black recruits and unconditional Unionists who remained loyal...

Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri by Aaron Astor (review)

Reviewed by: Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri by Aaron Astor Matthew C. Hulbert Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri. Aaron Astor. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2012. ISBN 978-0-8071-4298-1, 360 pp., cloth, 47.95. Despite the fact that Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware all remained, somewhat miraculously, within the grasp of the Union, these states were likely the most bitterly divided of the American Civil War—gray spaces where irregular violence and political dissent were endemic. As a result, military historians of the era have long maintained an uneasy relationship with the so-called borderlands; their influence (if any) on the overall outcome of the war has been the subject of constant debate and has consumed the vast majority of attention paid to them. Fortunately, though, a string of increasingly perceptive studies of border-state slavery, memory, and identity have emerged from the last decade with due acclaim. Historians like Brian McKnight, Amy Murrell Taylor, Christopher Phillips, and especially Anne Marshall have decisively underscored the importance of the war(s) on the border(s) to a broader national epic of rebellion, death, and rebirth. And for intricately chronicling the downfall of conservative unionism and the retroactive rise of Confederate ideology in the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky and the riverine stretch of Missouri known as Little Dixie, Aaron Astor’s Rebels on the Border is a well-written—though sometimes belaboring—addition to this new wave. According to Astor, Kentucky and Missouri, as illustrated by his Bluegrass and Little Dixie case samples, combined to represent the last great stronghold of conservative unionists. These white Missourians and Kentuckians—many of them farmers and small-scale slaveholders—scoffed at southern fire-eaters and northern radicals with equal vigor. As Astor observes, they were determined to preserve the institution of slavery and the racial hierarchy it pillared, but believed that loyalty to the Union was the surest means to that end. This “moderate” position rapidly became untenable as Lincoln sought to coerce the Confederate states back into the Union; as the guerrilla war in both states, but especially in Missouri, spiraled out of control; and, perhaps most important, as enslaved African Americans accelerated their plans for resistance and increasingly ran away to freedom. As conservative unionists had chosen not to secede from the Union to protect slavery, Astor rightfully contends that they were horrified by the linkage of unionism and emancipation both during and after the war. For small-scale slaveholders and even for white Missourians and Kentuckians who owned no slaves at all, the [End Page 545] institution of slavery had functioned as a tool for social engineering that kept black laborers manacled to their inferior stations in life. Thus, the more former unionists perceived that the Civil War was being transformed into a northern crusade for emancipation and black equality, the more that Missourians and Kentuckians saw the superiority of their whiteness in jeopardy and turned to the white supremacist mythology of the Lost Cause to rehabilitate and redeem it, argues Astor. On the level of constructing this cause-and-effect dynamic, Astor is quite successful. The book provides a durable explanation for postwar political and cultural developments in Kentucky and Missouri rooted in their antebellum ideologies. Moreover, Rebels on the Border also infuses a much-needed African American perspective into the story of the more westerly border states. These successes withstanding, Rebels on the Border is also bedeviled by fundamental methodological questions. From the outset, Astor diligently notes the antebellum social, economic, and genealogical bonds from which he later extrapolates when, how, and why Kentucky and Missouri each abandoned conservative unionism in favor of a Confederate identity in the postwar period. But in the process of highlighting these pre- and postwar likenesses, the book also curtails much of what made the wartime experiences of Kentuckians and Missourians very different. This is especially problematic when considering the degree to which residents of Little Dixie and the Bluegrass Region were touched by variant brands of guerrilla warfare and interactions with neighboring states. Combined with issues of broader representativeness stemming from...

Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri (review)

Reviewed by: Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri Alison Clark Efford (bio) Rebels on the Border: Civil War, Emancipation, and the Reconstruction of Kentucky and Missouri. By Aaron Astor. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2012. Pp. viii, 332. $47.50 hardcover; $38.00 ebook) The rebels of Aaron Astor's title are not, in the first instance, Confederates. Secessionists do make an appearance in his important book on Civil War Kentucky and Missouri, but proslavery Unionists claim center stage. Astor maintains that the Americans who tried to preserve slavery and the Union rebelled against Abraham Lincoln's dictum that the United States could not survive half-slave and half-free. These Conservative Unionists, who initially constituted majorities in both border states, became the targets of other "rebels," Confederates, but also African Americans. [End Page 607] Rebels on the Border is as intricate and fine-grained as the explication of its title suggests. Astor astutely dissects the politics of Missouri, and especially Kentucky, between the election of Lincoln in 1860 and the implementation of black suffrage in 1870. For him, "politics" includes the construction of group identities, the "articulation" of group interests, and the promotion of group objectives (p. 9). Conceiving of his subject broadly, Astor examined a range of source material, from the records of army units and the Freedmen's Bureau to newspapers, personal letters, and memoirs. To limit his purview, he trained his eye on fifteen heavily slaveholding counties located in the Little Dixie region of central Missouri and the corresponding Bluegrass region of Kentucky. Astor's narrative traces the Conservative Unionist response to African American assertions of citizenship during and after the war. Rebels on the Border argues that most white Kentuckians and Missourians supported the North because they hoped to safeguard the white-supremacist status quo from extremists on either side. Their loyalty to the United States was rooted in their attraction to "stability, pragmatism, compromise, and tradition" (p. 15). Astor carefully explains how the same social and economic realities that underpinned white conservatism shaped how African Americans fought for change. In areas where slaveholdings were small, hiring-out was common, and agriculture was diversified; enslaved people established the networks and gained the local experience to take on their masters. Although African American agitation began long before black men joined Union ranks, Astor points out that enlistment firmly "recast the Union cause as a struggle for liberation" (p. 129). The transformation left Conservatives Unionists feeling "humiliation," "shame," and "betrayal" (p. 200). Astor cites the case of a Kentucky Unionist who fired on troops from Michigan because he saw a mulatto soldier. The mere presence of armed black men triggered violence, particularly in Kentucky. As the war was ending, many white residents in both states came to identify with the secessionists, becoming what Astor terms "belated Confederates" (p. 145). Black suffrage brought African [End Page 608] Americans only limited power, but it assured the ascendancy of reaction. Astor illuminates the experiences of black Kentuckians and Missourians, but the main contribution of Rebels on the Border centers on the white Unionists who eventually adopted aspects of Confederate identity. In his conclusion, Astor proposes that the areas under examination stand as a "microcosm" of the "nation as a whole," which "thoroughly accepted slavery in 1860" (pp. 243, 247). However insightful, this synecdoche sidelines the white opponents of slavery. Radical Unionists who lived outside the Little Dixie and Bluegrass counties do make cameos and populate the footnotes, but Astor's interpretation elides their role. This marginalization makes sense in Kentucky, but the white opponents of slavery cannot be so casually written out of the history of Missouri and the nation at large. It is difficult to argue that Radicals deserve yet more scholarly attention, but a discussion of their politics in the border states would have extended the significance of Astor's study. After all, white radicals were rebels too. Alison Clark Efford Alison Clark Efford is an assistant professor of history at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Cambridge University Press will publish her first book, German Immigrants, Race, and Citizenship in the Civil War Era, in 2013. Copyright © 2011...

Differences in pathogen indicators between proximal urban and rural karst springs, Central Kentucky, USA

Because of their architecture, karst aquifers are susceptible to contamination by fecal-derived pathogens. Previous studies have examined the behavior of bacterial indicators such as total coliforms (TC) and fecal coliforms (FC) in karst aquifers, but simple techniques for discriminating between human and non-human inputs are still needed. This study examines concentrations of TC, FC, atypical colonies (AC, which grow on the same media as TC), male-specific coliphage virus (MSP, an indicator of human feces), and nitrate at two springs in the Inner Bluegrass region of Kentucky (USA). Blue Hole Spring primarily drains the city of Versailles, whereas spring SP-2 drains pasture. Baseflow was monitored, usually biweekly, from December 2002 to March 2004, while storm flow was monitored in September 2003 and March 2004. At each spring, bacterial concentrations were highest in storm flow and lowest in “normal” baseflow (for which 72-h antecedent precipitation was negligible). Concentrations in baseflow tended to be highest during late spring and summer and lowest during autumn and winter. FC concentrations exceeded regulatory (contact) standards in storm-flow samples. For both storm flow and baseflow, AC concentrations were greater than TC, which in turn were greater than FC. Median AC and TC concentrations were greater in baseflow at Blue Hole than at SP-2. MSP was detected in most samples from Blue Hole but never at SP-2. The AC/TC ratio was typically <15 except for normal baseflow samples at Blue Hole, which is probably impacted by leakage from sanitary sewers, as suggested by MSP and nitrate results. Mobilization of sessile bacteria appears to reduce the AC/TC ratio during storm flow. Consequently, this ratio shows promise as a screening tool to identify sewage inputs in karst groundwater basins under baseflow conditions.

A Selected Land Snail Compilation of The Central Knobstone Escarpment on Furnace Mountain in Powell County Kentucky

ABSTRACT The land snail fauna of Furnace Mountain, Powell County, Kentucky is reported. Fifteen families, 35 genera, and 61 native species were documented, containing nearly all the regionally available fauna from an area encompassing 2 ha. Furnace Mountain is a diverse molluscan refugia in Kentucky, representing the most speciose locale reported in North America and is of global importance for land snail biodiversity. The land snail fauna of Furnace Mountain slightly exceeds New Zealand's Waipipi Scenic Reserve, reported as the richest land snail fauna in the world. Species richness was correlated with the area's extensive Newman limestone outcroppings, calcareous soils and its geographic position on the Central Knobstone Escarpment. Reported here as a “geophysical landscape edge”, the area is an amalgamation of the Cumberland Plateau, the Knobs, and the Outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky. The convergence of these three diverse snail eco-regions has provided a number of land snail species the opportuniti...

Their grass is greener but ours is sweeter – Thoroughbred breeding and water management in the Upper Hunter region of New South Wales, Australia

The Upper Hunter region of New South Wales (NSW) around Scone is reputed to be the second most significant thoroughbred breeding region in the world after the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. This article identifies the importance and cultural constructions of grass, and hence water, in the thoroughbred breeding industry in this region. Thoroughbred stud managers attempt to produce environments attractive to potential horse purchasers and owners with mares to be mated. These environments are constructed from perceptions of how a thoroughbred stud should appear, and from the physical conditions of specific locations. One perception is that the grass should be green. There are differing opinions in the thoroughbred breeding industry about the nutritional value of irrigated grasses, the role of these grasses in horse development and the associated access to, cost of and efficacy of water used for this purpose. The paper concludes that effective water management in this industry is only possible if various cultures of nature are understood, where necessary challenged, and subsequently included in policy and planning.

Life History and Age-Specific Mortality of Eastern Tent Caterpillar (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae)

Malacosoma americanum (F.) (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) was recently implicated in early fetal losses and late-term abortions of pregnant mares in the thoroughbred and saddlebred industry centered in central Kentucky. The direct role of the caterpillars in these losses prompted the need for a more thorough understanding of life history and age-specific biology, to develop more precise management strategies and reduce future losses. During 2003 and 2004, egg masses and tents were destructively and sequentially sampled, respectively, to observe development and mortality agents. Eggs were significantly impacted by parasitization. Larval development was linear, yet asynchronous, with individual tents containing up to four instars simultaneously. Predators were the major mortality factor impacting the first three instars; parasitoids and pathogens had the greatest impact on fourth, fifth, and sixth instars. These data demonstrate that the eastern tent caterpillar is impacted by a variety of biotic mortality agents throughout the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, and the potential impacts on natural enemies must be considered when designing any direct suppression strategies targeting populations.

Subsurface transport of Cd, Cr, and Mo mediated by biosolid colloids

The potential of biosolid colloids to transport metals associated with organic-waste amendments through subsurface soil environments was investigated with leaching experiments involving undisturbed soil monoliths. The monoliths (25 cm in height and 18 cm in diameter) were carved from the upper solum of an Alfisol, a Mollisol, and an Entisol in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. Biosolid colloids were fractionated from two municipal wastes (lime-stabilized/LSB, and aerobically-digested/ADB), and a poultry-manure (PMB) organic waste and applied onto the monoliths at a rate of ∼0.7 cm/h. Eluents were monitored for soluble and sorbed Cd, Cr, and Mo concentrations over 16–24 pore volumes of leaching. Colloid-free solutions with metal concentrations similar to those of the biosolid colloids were used as controls. The results indicated significantly ( P<0.05) higher (up to 4 orders of magnitude) cationic and anionic metal elutions in association with the biosolid colloids in both, total and soluble fractions, over the control treatments. The elution of significant soluble metal loads in association with the biosolid colloids is attributed to increasing organic-metal complexation and exclusion processes, and emphasizes their importance as contaminant carriers and facilitators. Eluted metal loads varied with metal, colloid, and soil type, following the sequences Mo>Cd>Cr for the metals, and ADB>PMB>LSB (Cd and Cr) or ADB>LSB>PMB (Mo) for the colloids. Metal elution was generally enhanced by soil macroporosity and increasing OM content, while pH and Fe-Al oxides had significant, but opposite effects for the elution of cationic and anionic metal forms. Colloid and metal breakthrough curves were correlated well, being mostly asymmetrical with several maxima and minima caused by multiple clogging and flushing cycles. Soil- and colloid-metal sorption affinities were not reliable predictors of metal attenuation/elution loads, underscoring the dynamic nature of transport processes. The findings demonstrate the important role of biosolid colloids as contaminant carriers and the significant risk they pose, if unaccounted, for soil and ground water contamination in areas receiving heavy applications of biosolid waste amendments.

WATER QUALITY IN AGRICULTURAL, URBAN, AND MIXED LAND USE WATERSHEDS1

ABSTRACT: Water quality and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution are important issues in many areas of the world, including the Inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky where urban development is changing formerly rural watersheds into urban and mixed use watersheds. In watersheds where land use is mixed, the relative contributions of NPS pollution from rural and urban land uses can be difficult to separate. To better understand NPS pollution sources in mixed use watersheds, surface water samples were taken at three sites that varied in land use to examine the effect of land use on water quality. Within the group of three watersheds, one was predominately agriculture (Agricultural), one was predominately urban (Urban), and a third had relatively equal representation of both types of land uses (Mixed). Nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), total suspended solids (TSS), turbidity, pH, temperature, and streamflow were measured for one year. Comparisons are made among watersheds for concentration and fluxes of water quality parameters. Nitrate and orthophosphate concentrations were found to be significantly higher in the Agricultural watershed. Total suspended solids, turbidity, temperature, and pH, were found to be generally higher in the Urban and Mixed watersheds. No differences were found for streamflow (per unit area), total phosphorus, and ammonium concentrations among watersheds. Fluxes of orthophosphate were greater in the Agricultural watershed that in the Urban watershed while fluxes of TSS were greater in the Mixed watershed when compared to the Agricultural watershed. Fluxes of nitrate, ammonium, and total phosphorus did not vary among watersheds. It is apparent from the data that Agricultural land uses are generally a greater source of nutrients than the Urban land uses while Urban land uses are generally a greater source of suspended sediment.

Seasonal activity and spatial distribution of host-seeking adults of the tick Dermacentor variabilis.

The seasonal temporal and spatial distribution and emergence of overwintering and summer cohorts of host-seeking American dog tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Say) (Acari: Ixodidae), adults were examined for 5 years in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. Weekly drag cloth sampling was conducted from early March until late September 1992-1995 and early March until the end of May 1996. Overwintering adult cohorts became active in early to mid-April followed by bimodal host-seeking activity each year, with the duration and intensity of the first activity period being related to the previous year's summer cohort activity. The first activity peak extended from mid-April through late May and the second activity peak occurred in July. All host-seeking activity ceased by early August, except in 1995, when activity ended on 22 August. Laboratory survival of adults, collected weekly during 1993-1996, was used to estimate the emergence of summer adult cohorts. Summer adult cohorts became active in late May or early June and overlapped with overwintering adult host-seeking activity. The termination of host-seeking activity in overwintering adults could not be determined using the methods employed in this study and is most likely to have continued for the entire season. Host-seeking adults displayed contagious distribution patterns along trails bordering ecotone habitats, as determined by fitting a negative binomial frequency distribution to weekly sampling data. These patterns did not vary from year to year. In addition, the location of D. variabilis activity did not change from year to year, which suggests that microhabitats within apparently homogeneous environments enhance adult survival and lead to 'hot spots' of tick activity despite the ability of vertebrate hosts to disperse D. variabilis populations more widely. These data better define our understanding of D. variabilis adult seasonal and spatial host-seeking activity, estimate for the first time the intensity of summer cohort host-seeking activity, and relate summer cohort activity with spring activity the following year.

Archaeology and the invisible man: the role of slavery in the production of wealth and social class in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, 1820 to 1870

In this paper we report the analysis of the economic and social strategies employed by an illiterate farmer in early nineteenth-century Kentucky to increase his wealth and social position using wealth gained from slave labor and possibly from slave breeding. Our analysis demonstrates that the slavery system was completely integrated into the regional capitalist enterprise, and that the same kinds of economic and social factors that motivated other types of entrepreneurs also influenced Enos Hardin to participate in and promulgate slavery. The excavation of the material remains of his farmstead in central Kentucky demonstrates his involvement with the capitalist market, and shows the strategies he used to buy his way into a higher social standing in his community.

Archaeology and the invisible man: The role of slavery in the production of wealth and social class in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky, 1820 to 1870

In this paper we report the analysis of the economic and social strategies employed by an illiterate farmer in early nineteenth-century Kentucky to increase his wealth and social position using wealth gained from slave labor and possibly from slave breeding. Our analysis demonstrates that the slavery system was completely integrated into the regional capitalist enterprise, and that the same kinds of economic and social factors that motivated other types of entrepreneurs also influenced Enos Hardin to participate in and promulgate slavery. The excavation of the material remains of his farmstead in central Kentucky demonstrates his involvement with the capitalist market, and shows the strategies he used to buy his way into a higher social standing in his community.