Central Minnesota Research Articles

A Method of Hazard-Rating White Spruce Plantations For Yellowheaded Spruce Sawfly Defoliation

Abstract A hazard-rating model for defoliation by the yellowheaded spruce sawfly was developed and validated using 25 white spruce plantations in north central Minnesota. The dependent variable was degree of defoliation, and the independent variables, as measured from small-format aerial photographs, were steepness and slope aspect. The site characteristics and defoliation were correlated using a maximum likelihood logistic regression. The final model determined that steep, south-facing slopes had the highest probability of sawfly-caused defoliation. Identification of high-hazard sites should be a major component of a management plan for this pest. North. J. Appl. For. 3:104-105, Sept. 1986.

A Numerical Analysis of Holocene Forest and Prairie Vegetation in Central Minnesota

Fossil-pollen samples from Billy's Lake in central Minnesota are compared with 105 presettlement pollen samples from Minnesota and adjacent states by ordinating both sets of data with detrended correspondence analysis. The pollen record from Billy's Lake reveals that the vegetation changed from pine forest (10 000-8020 BP), to prairie (8020-3400 BP), to deciduous forest (3400- 1000 BP), and finally back to pine forest (1000 BP-present). The numerical comparison indicates that most of the fossil samples have analogs in the presettlement pollen assemblages from Minnesota. Fossil samples from the early Holocene pine forest/prairie transition have no analogs because a belt of deciduous forest presently occurs between pine forests and prairie. The early prairie also has no analogs in Minnesota because of abundant Artemisia, which today is characteristic of prairie farther west. This Artemisia-rich prairie may indicate that the climatic gradient across the region was steeper in the early Holocene than at present. The rate of palynological change is assessed by smoothing the Billy's Lake pollen curve through the ordination. Change is continual throughout the last 10 000 yr, but is most rapid in the early and late Holocene and least rapid 7000-6000 BP, when prairie occurred in the region. Inasmuch as pollen-assemblage change reveals vegetational change, these results show that, in central Minnesota, vegetational constancy has been low for at least 9000 of the past 10 000 yr.

Nature and Provenance of Red Pipestone from the Wittrock Site (130B4), Northwest Iowa

Five pipestone specimens from the Wittrock Mill Creek culture site were evaluated by x-ray powder diffraction analysis. While their mineral compositions were very similar to one another, they are not among the varieties of “catlinite” pipestone types occurring at Pipestone National Monument, a commonly assumed source of all pipestone. Pipestone types like the Wittrock specimens were found in outcrop and cores from south central Minnesota. Because several pipestone samples from abandoned river-terrace gravel quarries and gravel bars immediately adjacent to the site produced the same kaolinite-rich quartzose variety of pipestone materials recovered archaeologically, the conclusion is that the Wittrock Village inhabitants obtained pipestone raw materials locally. These results are discussed with respect to resolution of archaeological problems not the least being when prehistoric groups abandoned the use of local source materials in favor of “catlinite” materials now exposed at Pipestone National Monument.

Conflict and Community: A Case Study of the Immigrant Church in the United States

Conflict within the immigrant church was oftentimes a central feature in the development of ethnic communities and their conceptions of peoplehood and religious identification. This case study examines a schism that tore apart various Norwegian-American settlements in the late nineteenth century. Known as the Election Controversy, churches within the Norwegian Synod were forced to determine the extent to which election was based solely on God's grace. Households in the Crow River settlement in central Minnesota could not agree on a single position and the schism eventually resulted in the division of the church. The lines of conflict were drawn according to subcommunities based on regional background and a chain migration to the settlement that juxtaposed people of different cultural backgrounds in a single community. While those from many sub-communities remained within the church, the new church consisted of those from the Gausdal sub-community, a group that carried a very distinct cultural pattern from Norway. Yet the conflict was exacerbated by the incongruous symbols of the developing church. Ironically, the church in a more democratic environment had shifted theologically toward a less egalitarian stance in regard to salvation, an important shift especially to those who were culturally distinct and felt deprived of power in the congregation. The conjunction of a community structure rife with socioeconomic cleavages and a theology with inherent ambiguities and contradictions, then, created a synergy that resulted in tumultuous conflict in Crow River. In spite of the schism, however, the election controversy was an example of conflict, but not cultural disintegration. On the Synod level, the new church bodies formed out of the conflict played a large role in unifying the Norwegian-American church. And locally the schism did result in smaller congregations, but the new churches were more culturally cohesive than in the past.

Private vs public economics of prairie wetland allocation

This paper examines the nature of the divergence between private and social net benefits of wetland drainage. To the extent wetlands have social value not considered by landowners, the private development of wetland for use as cropland exceeds the optimum unless the transactions cost of overcoming the externality exceeds social value. For a three-county area in north central Minnesota, data on the private incentive to drain prairie potholes are presented based upon estimates of the private costs and returns to wetland development. A survey provides data on landowner attitudes toward wetland preservation and their willingness to participate in fee simple and easement incentive programs.

A Study of Compaction and Crop Yields in Loamy Sand Soil After Seven Years of Reduced Tillage

ABSTRACT Atillage study was conducted on a Hubbard loamy sand soil in central Minnesota. Tillage regimens included moldboard plowing followed by a furrow press type packer, chisel plowing, no-till or direct planting and ridge planting. All operations were conducted in the spring for corn and soybeans grown in rotation on irrigated 47 m by 15 m plots. A compacted layer, mean cone index 2200 kPa, exists at a depth of 24 cm for the moldboard plow, no-till and ridge regimens, possibly as a result of the previous years' moldboard plowing. Yield differences were not attributed to the compacted layer measured in the wheel track spaces between rows.

Space charge drift from a +/- 400-kV direct current transmission line.

The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board completed a 3-year study of the space charge plume outside the right of way of a bipolar (+/- 400 kV) direct current transmission line in rural west central Minnesota. The purpose of the study was to determine the levels of DC potential gradient and small airs ions in the downwind plume to which humans and animals may be exposed. Potential gradient measurements show that a space charge plume is detectable downwind at least 1600 m from the transmission line. Plume relaxation rates indicate that under certain conditions one could detect the plume at twice that distance or more. Net charge in the plume assumes the polarity of the downwind energized transmission line conductor. The bipolar DC line thus electrically bisects the land through which it passes; on one side of the line there is a net positive space charge, on the other side a net negative space charge. Electric charge in the plume resides on aerosols and small air ions. Polar conductivity data substantiate the fact that small air ions of one polarity in the plume are elevated while those of opposite polarity are suppressed compared to background concentrations found in the rural environment. The resulting charge imbalance persists downwind at least 1600 m, though the median small air ion concentrations of plume polarity have adjusted to within the background range by that time with perpendicular wind speed components between 1 and 6 m/sec.

Mate and Nutrient Limitation of Egg‐laying in a Polyandrous Shorebird

Spotted Sandpipers are unusual among animals in that a female's annual reproductive effort is regulated primarily by her ability to obtain mates. Males provide most of the parental care in this species. We recorded data on the abundance of food, and on the timing, number, and size of eggs laid by marked females over a 9—yr period on an island in central Minnesota, USA. The onset of egg—laying varied from year to year in association with the abundance of flying insects early in the season. After laying began, there was no relationship between food abundance and the number of size of eggs laid, the time taken to produce a clutch, or the intervals between clutches. The rate of egg—laying per female was affected, however, by rates of nest predation and by the operational sex ratio, which became increasingly female—biased over the season. Females ceased laying eggs in early July, even in years when food and mates were still available. We conclude that nutrient availability acts as a proximate factor in determining the onset of breeding, and that it may have been ultimate factor causing cessation of egg—laying. Within the season, however, the reproductive rate of individual females is primarily determined by competitive interactions with other females for males. Thus both intra and intersexual selection have important effects on fitness in this species.

Monitoring Damage by Yellowheaded Spruce Sawflies 1 with Sawfly and Parasitoid 2 Pheromones

Sex pheromone traps for the yellowheaded spruce sawfly, Pikonema alaskensis (Rohwer), and its ichneumonid parasitoid, Syndipnus rubiginosus Walley, were placed in white spruce, Picea glauca (Moench) Voss, plantations in north central Minnesota. The objective was to study the relationship between catches of the sawfly and its parasitoid and subsequent sawfly-caused defoliation. A significant linear relation was obtained when catches of both the sawfly and parasitoid were included in the model. The best-fit model was log( I ) = 1.36 − 0.17 log( S ) − 0.25 log( P ) + 0.13 log( S·P ) − 0.3 log( Ht ), where I is a trend index calculated using I = N (t)/ N (t-1), N is amount of defoliation during year t, S is sawfly catch, P is parasitoid catch, S·P is the interaction between the two, and Ht is tree height. Pheromone trap surveys of a host and parasitoid may provide information of the extent on natural control of the pest.

Effect of Preplant Wheel Traffic on Soil Compaction, Water Use, and Growth of Spring Wheat

AbstractThe effects of wheel traffic on small grain emergence and early growth is commonly observed in production fields. However, the plant response is not consistent, but appears dependent on soil and climatic conditions. The objective of this study was to measure the effects of preplanting wheel traffic on soil compaction and ‘Era’ spring wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) growth in field plots in West Central Minnesota under a range of growing season conditions. The 1975 and 1977 growing season were slightly wetter than normal while the 1976 growing season was significantly drier. Treatment comparisons were wheat planted in soil compacted by wheel traffic during spring field operations and wheat planted in soil that had not been wheel trafficked. Normal field‐sized equipment (tractor weight ranged from 4000 to 7000 kg) was used to perform spring fertilizer application, spring tillage, and seeding. The controlled wheel traffic concept was used. In 1975, wheat emergence in the wheel‐tracked soil was delayed by about 10 d because of poor seed‐soil contact, and grain yield was 27% lower than in the nontracked soil. Shortly after planting in 1976, the nontracked soil lost excessive amounts of water by evaporation from the loose 0‐ to 0.15‐m layer. As a result, wheat growth in the wheel‐tracked soil was better than in the nontracked soil, and yield was increased by 53%. In both 1975 and 1976, there was slightly more water used from the wheel‐tracked treatment than from the nontracked treatment, resulting in differences in water use efficiency. Effects of wheel traffic on wheat growth and yield were closely related to growing season precipitation and illustrate the need to consider probable climatic conditions when developing management systems for controlling field vehicular wheel traffic.

Comparative Precambrian Stratigraphy Along Mid-Continent Rift Trend: ABSTRACT

In 1983, leasing agents representing several major exploration corporations appeared in the Lake Superior district of northern Wisconsin, an area best known for its exposures of Duluth gabbro and Mellen black granite, and not for its hydrocarbon potential. The geologic column of interest is the 7,620 + m (25,000 + ft) thick sequence termed the Keweenawan Supergroup (Precambrian), a basal shale that has been Rb-Sr-age dated at 1,075 ± 50 billion years. Within the past decade, this sequence has been recognized as having been deposited in response to tensional processes resulting in the development of a rift system. This Mid-Continent rift is best outlined by gravity and can be traced from the Keweenawan Peninsula of Michigan across northern Wisconsin, Minneso a, Iowa, and Nebraska into northeastern Kansas, a distance of 1,290 km (800 mi). An organic-rich shale source unit is known in the Lake Superior area, where it creates intermittent subsurface oil seeps in the White Pine copper mine of Michigan. To the southwest along the trend of the rift, the extent of Keweenawan-equivalent sediments are masked by Paleozoic and younger sediments, increasing from a feather edge in central Minnesota to a reported 1,524 m (5,000 ft) in southwestern Iowa. In the mid-1960s, a natural-gas-storage drilling program centered on Dakota County, Minnesota, cored extensive thicknesses of Precambrian clastics, subsequently named the Solor Church Formation. This subsurface unit, together with surface exposures of the younger Hinckley Sandstone and Fond du Lac Formation, constitutes the Keweenawan section of Minnesota. Less is known of the Kewee awan-equivalent lithology of Iowa, where the Minnesota terminology is being used in geophysical studies of the Mid-Continent gravity high. Here, a late Precambrian red clastic sequence is known, apparently similar to that termed the Rice Formation in Kansas--a carbonate subordinate sequence of sandy shales and feldspathic sandstones. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1317------------

Source areas for chemical components in Minnesota rain

Air parcel back trajectories were used to quantify the contributions of major source areas to the chemical composition of rainwater in an area of central Minnesota. Air masses arriving from the SW contributed the majority of the rain, and the rain contained the highest concentrations of the chemical components. However, rain from the SW quadrant was less acidic than rain arriving from other quadrants because it contained a disproportionate amount of alkaline cations. It was inferred from meteorological evidence that components in rain arriving at the study site from the SW quadrant may have come from eastern and southern U.S.A. sources and been transported around a high pressure system to Minnesota. Rain from the SE quadrant was the most acidic. Concentrations of substances in rain arriving from the NW were higher than expected, consistent with a possible impact from western coal development.

Growth of Stunted and Nonstunted Bluegill Sunfish in Ponds

Abstract Stunted and nonstunted bluegill sunfish (Lepomis macrochirus) were captured from two lakes in Minnesota and stocked at a 1:1 ratio in ponds in central Minnesota. Four ponds were stocked at a density of 1500 fish/ha without supplemental feeding, while three ponds were stocked at a density of 2500 fish/ha with supplemental feeding. The growth of the two fish types was compared under similar conditions in the ponds for one season. The nonstunted fish grew significantly better than the stunted fish. Fish cultured at the low stocking density (no feeding) grew significantly better than fish at the high stocking density (with feeding). These results indicate that stunting in bluegills reduces the capacity for resumed fish growth even under improved environmental conditions.

Plantation white spruce mortality: estimates based on aerial photography and analysis using a life-table format

White spruce, Piceaglauca (Moench) Voss, mortality was estimated in two 142-ha, 11- and 12-year-old plantations in north central Minnesota, using small-format color aerial photography at a scale of 1:9600 and groundplots. A double sample with regression sampling method determined mortality of trees 5 years after planting to be 3.9 ± 0.33%. Life-table analysis showed 20.7% loss during the first age interval, 0–4 years after planting. The yellow-headed spruce sawfly, Pikonemaalaskensis (Rohwer), was responsible for 65% of the mortality in the last two age intervals. Differential mortality and growth of white spruce was observed between plantations. Site preparation is suggested as a possible cause of these differences.

Predicting Direct Recharge of Surficial Aquifers

ABSTRACT A one-dimensional, physically-based computer model was developed for predicting direct groundwater recharge. The model was verified using three years of data from an instrumented site in east central Minnesota. Although the processes of infiltration and redistribution during frozen soil periods were not modeled, the model is capable of operating during both frozen and nonfrozen soil periods. The model includes submodels for evapotranspiration, soil-water extraction, snowmelt, surface depressional storage, infiltration and redistribution. The model predicts water table level and soil moisture. Water extraction may also be modeled. The model predicted both water table elevations and soil moisture levels with reasonable accuracy over the three-year period modeled.

An Outbreak of Acute Hemorrhagic Conjunctivitis in Central Minnesota

The only confirmed outbreak of acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis in the continental United States during 1982 occurred in Brainerd, Minnesota. The disease first appeared in a 27-year-old woman during a trip to Tahiti. The patient's two daughters (8 months old and 3 years old) developed mild conjunctivitis two days later. Although the symptoms of all three had completely resolved before they arrived in Brainerd, illness compatible with acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis developed in five other individuals who shared a house with them there. Symptoms appeared within two days in four of the five and within three days in the fifth. All five had high neutralizing antibody titers to enterovirus 70 (1:128, 1:32, 1:32, 1:128, and 1:256) and one had high antibody titers to coxsackievirus A24 which may cause similar symptoms (less than 1:4 in all cases). The symptoms resolved without sequelae in all five patients within five days. These cases demonstrated that a person who is no longer symptomatic can still infect others and that an infected person can transmit enterovirus 70 for at least eight days after the onset of symptoms.

The Effects of Thirteen Years of Annual Prescribed Burning on a Quercus Ellipsoidalis Community in Minnesota

A Quercus ellipsoidalis community in central Minnesota has been prescribed burned annually since 1965 in an attempt to restore the area to its presettlement oak savanna structure and composition. By 1979 density and basal area of the overstory were significantly lower in the burned area than in an adjacent unburned area but were still higher than estimated savanna values because of the persistence of stems @>25 cm diameter at breast height (dbh). A tall—shrub/small—tree layer was totally lacking in the burned area but averaged 19% cover in the unburned area. Understory richness was significantly higher in the burned area than in the unburned area. Most of the species that showed a significant difference between the two areas peaked in the burned area; this was especially true for grasses and forbs. These results indicate that annual prescribed burning is gradually restoring the area to savanna but that the restoration is not yet complete. Complete restoration may not be possible with annual burning because such burning seems to have little effect on large—tree (@>25 cm dbh) mortality.

Habitat Selection by Snowshoe Hares in North Central Minnesota

Habitat Selection by Snowshoe Hares in North Central Minnesota

Precipitation chemistry at the marcell experimental forest in north central Minnesota

Concentration (milligrams and microequivalents per liter) values are presented for major ions occurring in rain and snow from July 1978 to July 1980. Ammonium, sodium, and calcium are the largest equivalent weight cations which are largely balanced by sulfate and nitrate anions. Hydrogen is the fourth most abundant cation; but high combined concentrations of other cations in 27% of the sample events mask positive correlations with high hydrogen concentrations. Field‐measured pH averaged 4.3, but the range (3.5 to 6.5) fluctuated with a combination of earth and air mass conditions. When high cation (and anion) data are deleted, low pH correlates well with high nitrate. Sulfate concentrations are similar to those measured in 1936 and do not correlate with pH. Calcium and, to a lesser extent, ammonium tend to increase pH values. High nitrate values also correlate positively with high excess acidity, while high sodium and calcium values correlate with high excess alkalinity.

ASPEN CLEARCUTTING INCREASES SNOWMELT AND STORM FLOW PEAKS IN NORTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA1

ABSTRACT: Clearcutting aspen from the upland portion of an upland peatland watershed in north central Minnesota caused snowmelt peak discharge to increase 11 to 143 percent. Rainfall peak discharge size increased as much as 250 percent during the first two years after clearcutting, then decreased toward precutting levels in subsequent years. Storm flow volumes from rain during the first two years increased as much as 170 percent but declined to preharvest volumes in the third year. Snowmelt volumes did not significantly change. Snowmelt peak discharge occurred about four to five days earlier after clearcutting, but the timing of storm flow from rainfall was not changed.Snowmelt peaks remained above precut size for nine years after clearcutting on an area undergoing natural regeneration to aspen saplings. Partial cutting ‐ up to approximately one‐half of the watershed ‐ reduced peak snowmelt discharge because melt was desynchronized in cleared and forested parts. Clearing more than 2/3 of the watershed caused snowmelt flood peak size to double during years with snow packs in excess of seven inches of water that remained until a day when maximum air temperatures exceeded 60d̀F.