North Florida Research Articles

Sağlık Bilimleri Fakültesi Öğrencilerinin Sağlıklı Beslenme ve Fiziksel Aktiviteyle İlgili Tutumlarının Değerlendirilmesi

Objective: The foundations of a healthy life are laid during youth. Healthy nutrition and regular physical activity beeing two key determinants of health, also the main factors decreasing age-related health risks. Universities are the ideal environments for increasing this awareness. This study aimed to evaluate the factors affecting the attitudes of the students of the Faculty of Health Sciences towards healthy nutrition and physical activity. Method: The total number of students in the Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation and Department of Nutrition and Dietetics was 467. The study aimed to reach the whole universe. Only 339 students (73%) took part. The data were collected via face-to-face surveys that covered the socio-demographic data, demographic data questions of the modified survey by the University of North Florida on Diet and Exercise and the Body Image Scale. The data were analyzed using SPSS 25.0 program. Significance level was p<0.05. Results: While the Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.91 in the original Body Image Scale, it was 0.959 in our study. In addition, while prediction point was 135 in the original scale, it was 134.5 according to our ROC analysis. 49.6% of students stated that they did not exercise; 27.1% of those associated it with “lack of time” while 17.1% cited “lack of willpower”. 54% of students considered their diets unhealthy. There was a statistically significant difference between lack of exercise and gender (p<0.05). Among students whose body image perception was below average, the number of those not exercising (n=52) was higher than those exercising (n=36), and this was statistically significant (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to results of this study, university students should be provided with awareness programs on healthy nutrition and exercise to promote healthy lifestyle behaviors.

Wireworm (Coleoptera: Elateridae) Species Composition and Management in Sweet Potato Grown in North Florida Using Chemical Insecticides and Entomopathogenic Nematodes.

Wireworms are immature stages of click beetles (Coleoptera: Elateridae) and are considered a serious threat to sweet potato production in the southern United States. The major wireworm species collected in North Florida sweet potato fields in 2017 and 2018 were Conoderus scissus, C. rudis, C. amplicollis, and C. falli. These species vary in their behavior and biology. During a 2-yr study period, we conducted two insecticide field trials using eleven insecticides belonging to organophosphates, neonicotinoids, pyrethroids, and botanical classes, and three field trials using entomopathogenic nematode (EPN) species to control wireworms. In 2017, all insecticide treatments significantly reduced new feeding holes and total holes (old + new + other) as compared to the untreated control. In 2018, the result was similar with a few variations. In both years, all insecticides showed a percentage reduction in wireworm damage holes (2017: 34.88-96.19%; 2018: 12.38-97.02%) with the highest by Regent. In the EPN field study, one application of EPN near planting significantly reduced soil insects. In a laboratory study conducted at the Tropical Research and Education Center, UF-IFAS, chlorpyrifos caused higher percentage mortality of C. rudis (55.5%) than C. scissus (22.2%). At the present experiment rates, none of the insecticides caused the mortality of C. amplicollis. Heterorhabditids strain 'FL-2122' was more susceptible to chlorpyrifos than other strains of EPN.

Eye to eye: classification of conjunctival sac polystomes (Monogenea: Polystomatidae) revisited with the description of three new genera Apaloneotrema n. g., Aussietrema n. g. and Fornixtrema n. g.

Polystomes (Monogenea: Polystomatidae) of freshwater turtles are currently represented by five genera, namely Neopolystoma, Polystomoides, Polystomoidella, Uropolystomoides and Uteropolystomoides. These parasites can infect the urinary, oral and/or the conjunctival sac systems of their hosts, showing strict site specificity. A recent phylogenetic study showed that the two most diverse genera within chelonian polystomes, i.e. Neopolystoma and Polystomoides, are not monophyletic. Furthermore, polystomes infecting the conjunctival sacs of their host, except for one species, formed a robust lineage. A fusiform egg shape has been reported for conjunctival sac polystomes and it was assumed that this characteristic could be a good character for the systematics of polystomes. Our objective in the present work was, therefore, to study more in depth the morphology of polystomes collected from the conjunctival sacs of chelonians to find characters defining a putative new genus. To achieve this objective, more specimens were collected in 2018 and 2019 from turtles sampled in North Carolina and Florida (USA) to extend taxon sampling for the phylogenetic analysis. Morphological characters of relevant polystome specimens were re-examined from several collections from Asia, Australia, Europe, South Africa, South America and North America. Based on a Bayesian tree inferred from the analysis of four concatenated genes, namely 12S, 18S, 28S and COI, polystomes found in the conjunctival sacs were grouped in three distinct lineages, the first one including a single species infecting an Australian pleurodire turtle; the second one including eleven species infecting cryptodire turtles of South America, North America and Asia; and the last one including a single species infecting a softshell cryptodire turtle of North America. Based on observations of live specimens by Dr. Sylvie Pichelin and our morphological analysis, the conjunctival sac polystomes from Australian turtles are small, cannot extend their body significantly, have a spherical ovary and egg, have a large genital bulb and possess latero-ventral vaginae at the level of the testis. Based on observations of live specimens and morphological analysis of whole mounted specimens, polystomes of the second lineage share the following morphological characteristics: the ability to stretch out and double their length, a long oval ovary, a separate egg-cell-maturation-chamber, fusiform to diamond-shaped eggs with acute tips, small genital bulb and vaginae peripheral on the side of the body at the level of the testis. The polystome species of the third lineage occupies a basal position, has the ability to stretch out and possess an elongated ovary, a large fusiform egg with rounded tips, a small genital bulb and small latero-ventral vaginae at the level of the ovary. These three distinct conjunctival sac polystome lineages are herein described as separate new genera, Aussietrema, Fornixtrema and Apaloneotrema, respectively.

Wildland fire as an atmospheric source of viable microbial aerosols and biological ice nucleating particles.

The environmental sources of microbial aerosols and processes by which they are emitted into the atmosphere are not well characterized. In this study we analyzed microbial cells and biological ice nucleating particles (INPs) in smoke emitted from eight prescribed wildland fires in North Florida. When compared to air sampled prior to ignition, samples of the air-smoke mixtures contained fivefold higher concentrations of microbial cells (6.7 ± 1.3 × 104 cells m-3) and biological INPs (2.4 ± 0.91 × 103 INPs m-3 active at temperatures ≥ -15 °C), and these data significantly positively correlated with PM10. Various bacteria could be cultured from the smoke samples, and the nearest neighbors of many of the isolates are plant epi- and endophytes, suggesting vegetation was a source. Controlled laboratory combustion experiments indicated that smoke emitted from dead vegetation contained significantly higher numbers of cells, INPs, and culturable bacteria relative to the green shrubs tested. Microbial viability of smoke aerosols based on formazan production and epifluorescent microscopy revealed no significant difference in the viable fraction (~80%) when compared to samples of ambient air. From these data, we estimate each fire aerosolized an average of 7 ± 4 × 109 cells and 2 ± 1 × 108 biological INPs per m2 burned and conclude that emissions from wildland fire are sources of viable microbial aerosols to the atmosphere.

Luis Jerónimo de Oré OFM — Symbolo Catholico Indiano (1598)

Brother Luis Jerónimo de Oré’s Symbolo Catholico Indiano was the most important and authorized sixteenth century treatise for the evangelization of the native Andean peoples. In its pages we find a vivid image of Andean reality immediately after the Conquest and a fervent exposition of the Catholic faith inspired in the recent Councils of Trent and Lima. The treatise also presents the missioning methods that served the Franciscans and other priests of the Viceroyalty for the evangelization of the indigenous peoples. Above all, in this text we find an admirable exposition of the theological doctrine and catechetical practice in the anthropological perspective that forms its starting point, which is the Andean man or woman who had never heard a message of salvation and dignity for the human person.
 Brother Luis Jerónimo de Oré Rojas OFM was born in Huamanga in 1554 (now the geographi- cal Department of Ayacucho in Perú). He was a zealous missionary who travelled throughout the colonizers’ territory, from the extreme north of Florida to the extreme south of Chile. As an intelli- gent linguist he was the author of important rituals and catechisms in Quechua and Aymara. He was one of the first bishops born on the American soil, and the first to be incorporated into the Native Indian Council and the Vatican hierarchy; as a bishop he stood out for his protection of aboriginal groups and his energetic defense of the cultural integrity of Native Indian nations.

Crustal origin of the West Florida Terrane, and detrital zircon provenance and development of accommodation during initial rifting of the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and western Bahamas

Abstract Well and seismic data were combined with existing radiometric data and 1328 new laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U–Pb zircon ages from igneous, sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks in three wells to determine the origin and evolution of key crustal terranes, and the timing of initial rifting and synrift deposition in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico and western Bahamas. These data reveal that several southeastern Gulf of Mexico crustal terranes, distinguished by their zircon age distributions and geochemistries, were amalgamated into a single terrane of mixed Pan-African and Amazonian crustal affinity (the newly named West Florida Terrane) during the formation of Pangaea. Sinistral offset along the Florida Transfer Zone (FTZ) during the Late Triassic–Middle Jurassic was likely to have been facilitated by crustal heterogeneity at the boundary between the West Florida and Suwannee terranes, a prime area for reactivation during the break-up of Pangaea. Initial extension, igneous activity and synrift deposition in the region began during the Middle Triassic in the western Bahamas and offshore North Florida, and rapidly expanded into the South Florida Basin by the Early Jurassic. Peak igneous activity and accommodation in the region was diachronous from north to south, beginning in the north during the Early Jurassic (Sinemurian–Pliensbachian) before ending in the south in the Early–Middle Jurassic (Sinemurian–Aalenian/early Bajocian). Detrital zircons in sedimentary and volcaniclastic rocks were primarily derived from local erosion of pre-existing crustal terranes. Long-distance transport was likely for pre-Neoproterozoic and post-Cambrian Paleozoic zircons. Middle Jurassic detrital zircons in volcaniclastic rocks of the western Bahamas may have been deposited during ash-fall events from hotspot activity in the southeastern Bahamas.

Mitigating rural WWTP impacts: System dynamics modeling of downstream nutrient outputs

A system dynamics modeling approach was used to assess the potential impact of intentional struvite crystallization recovery on wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) allocation of N and P in effluent and biosolids outputs. Struvite crystallization has been used to recover wastewater N and P and produce valuable fertilizer. However, it is often overlooked whether additional benefits may be realized by diverting N and P from other fates. A system dynamics model was used with operational data from three activated-sludge WWTPs in North Florida. Incorporating struvite crystallization reduced the effluent P load by 37 to 100%, dependent upon the WWTP. This may translate into substantial savings for systems facing severe restrictions in effluent P release outside the plant. Additionally, biosolids P load reductions ranged from 17 to 46%. The model also predicted a 37% average increase in the biosolids N:P ratio. Increasing the N:P ratio may allow for greater biosolids land-application rates where P fertilizer restrictions exist. In comparison, the N load reductions were much less dramatic, i.e. below 10% reduction from the effluent and 14% from the biosolids. Most N inputs into an activated-sludge type WWTP are likely lost through denitrification during wastewater processing and struvite does not appear to be a significant means of recovering N from small WWTPs. However, incorporating struvite recovery into even the simplest WWTPs reduces effluent post-treatment needs and results in a more useful biosolids product.

The effect of irrigation strategies and nitrogen fertilizer rates on maize growth and grain yield

In North Florida, increasing nitrogen loads and water quality declines have become a major concern, in part as result of anthropogenic non-point source activities such as agriculture. The main objective of this study was to investigate the effect of irrigation strategies and nitrogen (N) fertility rates on maize biomass, yield and water productivity in sandy soils. The field experiment was conducted 2015–2017 in Live Oak, Florida using a randomized complete block with a split plot design and four replicates. Treatments evaluated five irrigation strategies: (i) GROW, mimicking grower irrigation practices in the region, (ii) SWB, using a soil water balance to schedule irrigation; (iii) SMS, using soil moisture sensors to schedule irrigation; (iv) RED, applying 60% of the GROW treatment; and (v) NON, non-irrigated, and three N fertility rates: (i) low (157 kg N/ha), (ii) medium (247 kg N/ha), and (iii) high (336 kg N/ha). In comparison to GROW, the SWB, SMS and RED irrigation treatments showed no differences in final biomass, N uptake nor grain yield; however, these treatments achieved on average 41, 47, and 36% irrigation reduction, respectively, without impacts on yield during the three maize seasons evaluated. For most of the variables, statistical differences were found between the low and the high N rates, but no differences compared to the medium N rate. A 26% reduction of N fertilizer was achieved using the medium N rate without negative impact on N uptake, biomass nor yield in comparison to the high N fertilization rate. During this experiment, maize N uptake reached a plateau; thus, potential N losses resulted from applications exceeding recommended rates. Furthermore, the implementation of these more efficient irrigation and N fertilizer management strategies reduced irrigation and N fertilizer applications without negative impacts in yield. Thus, these practices may prevent potential N leaching to waterbodies while improving profits.

Overwinter survival, age, and growth of juvenile tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) in a shallow, tidally-restricted habitat in South Carolina

Early life stage tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) have been collected in the western Atlantic Ocean north of Florida where it has been assumed that individuals migrate from estuarine areas at the onset of winter because water temperature during winter is too low for survival. However, there is anecdotal evidence of juvenile tarpon present during winter in this region. We conducted a tag-recapture study to examine potential overwinter survival in a tidally-restricted, upland pond in coastal South Carolina where tarpon have been observed during winter months. We also estimated the age structure of tarpon in this location to determine if age-0 fish were temporarily using this pond or if there were older individuals present, indicating the pond may be occupied for extended periods of time. We recaptured 29 of the 95 individuals tagged and released during January 2016 through October 2018. Of those 29 recaptured individuals, 13 survived one winter and two survived over two winters. Water temperature during winter in a nearby tidal creek was lower than in the pond, which appeared to provide a thermal refuge for tarpon. Estimated ages for 36 individuals ranged from 0 to 3 years (n = 10, 20, 5, 1, respectively). To our knowledge this is the northernmost documented overwintering of juvenile tarpon. Determining the extent of this type of habitat in the region and examining the population dynamics of tarpon in these locations could ultimately help determine how this region contributes to the productivity of adult tarpon populations.

The Legal Nexus of Consumer Protection and Dietetics Practice

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and its members have long been committed to improving Americans’ health through effective nutrition care services and by helping people avoid or reduce the dangers of unscientific, medically unnecessary treatment. Yet in the past 8 years alone, special interest groups have sued to overturn constitutionally enacted nutrition and dietetics licensure laws in North Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi. In just the past year, these same special interest groups have hired Washington, DC–based lobbyists to introduce legislation or advocate for laws in more than a dozen states to eviscerate or deny basic public protections against real, demonstrable harm caused by unqualified or incompetent providers.

Geographical Influence of Mobile Clinics in the Southern United States

To develop a mobile clinic influence index, which could allow mobile clinic managers to prioritize geographic regions and allocate resources systematically. The mobile clinic primary care service index was constructed taking into account miles traveled by the mobile clinic, the speed of the mobile clinic, number of primary care providers available in a primary care service area (PCSA), the total population in a PCSA, and the number of primary care providers per mobile clinic program. To illustrate the application of the mobile clinic influence index, we use the case of selected primary care mobile clinic programs operating in North Carolina and Florida. A survey of selected mobile clinic programs from Texas, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina, in rural and urban zip codes. PCSAs in various counties in North Carolina and Florida experienced varying degrees of additive effects of having mobile clinic providers service these areas. The mobile clinics in these counties were therefore influential in delivering critical primary healthcare services to at-risk populations. The index provides a valuable unit of measure to enable program managers of primary care mobile clinics to allocate resources as needed.

Collaboration and Integration

The University of North Florida (UNF) transitioned to Canvas as its Learning Management System (LMS) in summer 2017. This implementation brought on opportunities that allowed for a more user-friendly learning environment for students. Working with students in courses which were in-person, hybrid, or online, brought about the need for the library to have a place in the Canvas LMS. Students needed to remember how to access and locate library resources and services outside of Canvas. During this time, the Thomas G. Carpenter Library’s online presence was enhanced, yet still not visible in Canvas. It became apparent that the library needed to be integrated into Canvas courses. This would enable students to easily transition between their coursework and finding resources and services to support their studies. In addition, librarians who worked with students, looked for ways for students to easily find library resources and services online. After much discussion, it became clear to the Online Learning Librarian (OLL) and the Director of Technical Services and Library Systems (Library Director) that the library needed to explore ways to integrate more with Canvas.

Legal Help Search Audit: Are Search Engines Effective Brokers of Legal Information?

Online search engines are key providers of civic and legal information. Their response to people’s search queries can influence whether and how people make use of the legal system to deal with problems like evictions, domestic violence, debt collection, and natural disasters. This article proposes an audit protocol of how to evaluate how search engines respond to legal help queries. It summarizes the results of a preliminary audit of Google Search’s results for hundreds of people’s common queries around eviction, domestic violence, post-disaster scams, and debt collection lawsuits. This semi-automated analysis provides a quantitative understanding of how search engines provide information to people seeking legal help online. It also provides the data for robust qualitative analysis of the authority and quality of the results. Our initial audit finds that search engines are providing websites that offer generic information about a given legal problem, but often in ways that are not jurisdiction-relevant, nor with specific and actionable local information about how to make use of the legal aid or court system. The most common domains for legal help searches result in links to national commercial sites that offer short, high level articles about the problem area. Commercial, national websites consistently place higher than government, court, and legal aid websites. There are exceptions, particularly for domestic violence-related queries (which result in more national nonprofit and government websites) and for eviction-related queries that include specific reference to the person’s state or city (which result in more state-specific, nonprofit legal help websites). Of particular concern is the search engine’s apparent disregard for the importance of local jurisdictions for legal help information. In many instances, searches from North Florida and Hawaii about legal problems resulted in sites that offered local information from Maine, Oregon, Iowa, and California -- or from Australia, New Zealand, or the UK. Search engines have already addressed similar problems in civic information quality in other areas -- particularly in providing authoritative voting and public health information. Similar strategies may improve the current dysfunctions of legal help searches, to connect people with local, public, authoritative information that can help them resolve their issues around housing, domestic violence, natural disasters, debt, and beyond.

Registration of ‘CP 11‐2248’ sugarcane for Florida organic soils

Abstract‘CP 11‐2248’ (Reg. no. CV‐193, PI 692134) sugarcane (a complex hybrid of Saccharum spp.) was developed by the USDA–ARS, the University of Florida, and the Florida Sugar Cane League, Inc., and released to Florida growers for organic (muck) soils in June 2018. CP 11‐2248 was developed from a polycross made at Canal Point, FL, on 16 Dec. 2009, with a breeding line CP 06‐2664 as the female parent. The male parent was unknown and could be any one of the clones used in the polycross. CP 11‐2248 was released for commercial use as an improved sugarcane cultivar because of its acceptable levels of resistance or tolerance to brown rust, orange rust, smut, leaf scald, and mosaic. CP 11‐2248 was moderately susceptible to ratoon stunting disease and Sugarcane yellow leaf virus in Florida. Based on the results of 19 harvests of three crops (plant cane, first ratoon, and second ratoon) in the final‐stage (i.e., Stage 4) replicated yield trials carried out at seven locations with muck soils in Florida, CP 11‐2248 had equivalent or slightly higher sucrose yield than check cultivars CP 96‐1252 and CP 00‐1101. CP 11‐2248 may be poor in response to freezing temperatures based on the field tests in north Florida for temporal sucrose deterioration.

Spatial Patterns in Relative Abundance and Habitat Use of Adult Gray Snapper off the Southeastern Coast of the United States

AbstractGray Snapper Lutjanus griseus is an economically and ecologically important species in the estuarine and coastal environments of the southeastern United States. Previous research has focused primarily on juvenile Gray Snapper due to their accessible inshore distribution and ecological importance, while adults, which often occur offshore and are the main focus of fishing pressure, remain poorly understood. Seven years of baited underwater video data (2011–2017; N = 8,379 videos; ~14,000 h of video) were collected along the continental shelf between North Carolina and Florida (~100,000 km2) to better understand the ways in which the relative abundance of Gray Snapper varied by space, time, habitats, and environmental conditions. Adult Gray Snapper were observed on 6.9% of the videos overall, but they were much more commonly observed in Florida (16.9% of the videos) compared with the states that are north of Florida (1.4% of the videos). We used delta‐generalized additive models to determine that adult Gray Snapper primarily occurred in high‐relief hardbottom sites south of St. Augustine, Florida, in warm water less than 50 m deep, after accounting for imperfect detection on video. Temporal variability was relatively minor despite relatively high precision (the mean annual coefficient of variation = 24%). Fifteen large aggregations of Gray Snapper (i.e., >20 individuals counted on a single frame) were observed on video, but it is unclear whether these aggregations indicated potential spawning aggregation sites. This work provides greater insight into the ecology of Gray Snapper during their important coastal‐ocean adult life stage, which will improve their management and conservation.

MO031EFFECTS OF PREDICTIVE MODELLING RISK DIRECTED INTERVENTIONS ON HOSPITALIZATION RATES IN HAEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

Abstract Background and Aims End Stage Kidney Disease (ESKD) patients have high hospitalization rates. We have developed and deployed a predictive model to identify in-centre haemodialysis (HD) patients at an increased risk for all-cause hospitalization within the next 12 months. The model was used in a pilot called Dialysis Hospitalization Reduction Program (DHRP) to identify patients predicted to be at risk of >=6 hospital admissions and provide additional interdisciplinary team intervention. We investigated the impact of the DHRP on hospitalization rates in HD patients. Method We used data from 45 clinics in South Alabama/Florida Panhandle regions of the United States who participated in DHRP pilot starting January 2016. The predictive model used more than 200 variables to stratify patients as high risk (>=6 admissions), medium high risk (>=3 admissions) and medium low risk (>=1 admission) and low risk (<1 admission). For patients identified at high risk of hospitalization, social workers assessed psychosocial barriers and offered additional psychosocial intervention to target those barriers. Dietitians utilized a high risk assessment looking at weight, nutrition, and access to food and supplements. Resident nurses assessed high risk patients focusing on anaemia, adequacy, access, blood pressure, fluid management, prior hospitalizations, glycaemic control and risk of skin ulcers and blood stream infection Data from patients at the participating clinics was collected and yearly hospital admission and day rates per patient year were calculated 2 years prior to (2014, 2015) and 3 years after (2016-2018) pilot start. Comparison clinics were chosen from neighbouring regions in South and North Florida (43 and 45 clinics respectively). Results Over the study period the number of patients ranged from 4661 to 5672 in the DHRP pilot clinics, 5416 to 5947 in South Florida control clinics, and 6087 to 7596 in North Florida control clinics. Hospitalization rates in pilot clinics during the first year of the DHRP remined similar to the rates during the two years preceding the pilot start. In the second and third years of the DHRP, pilot clinics showed reductions in hospital admission and day rates. At control clinics in both regions the hospital admissions and day rates showed increasing trends while DHRP clinics showed decreasing trends over the study period (Figures 1a and 1b). Conclusion These findings suggest predictive model risk directed interdisciplinary team interventions associate with lower hospitalization rates in HD patients, compared to controls. Further studies are needed to confirm these results.

White-tailed Deer of Florida


 
 
 
 
 
 
 The white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is the most economically important big game mammal in North America and Florida. This 12-page fact sheet written by Raoul K. Boughton, Bethany Wight, Samantha Wisely, Karen Hood, and Martin B. Main and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation provides an overview of the various subspecies of white-tailed deer with populations in Florida and describes their history, biology, and management.https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw121
 
 
 
 
 
 

Comparative metal analysis in a species assemblage of mammals from the Southeastern United States.

Metal pollution commonly occurs in many terrestrial environments and may pose a threat for the animals inhabiting such areas. Here, we present concentrations of six metals (cadmium [Cd], copper [Cu], nickel [Ni], lead [Pb], selenium [Se], and zinc [Zn]) in the liver tissues of seven species of mammals obtained from a study that examined the impact of mesopredator removal on northern bobwhite (Colinus virginianus) populations. A total of 1326 samples were collected from 2003 to 2006 at four sites in southwest Georgia and north Florida from nine-banded armadillos (Dasypus novemcinctus), bobcats (Lynx rufus), feral cats (Felis catus), coyotes (Canis latrans), grey foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus), opossums (Didelphis virginiana), and raccoons (Procyon lotor). Data from armadillos, bobcats, opossums, and raccoons were published previously to examine age, sex, spatial (between sites), and temporal (between years) variation. In this paper, we present similar comparisons for the remaining three species as well as comparisons of metal concentrations among all seven species. Concentrations of Cu and Pb exhibited strong negative relationships with body weight in coyotes, while Ni was positively correlated with weight in feral cats. Concentrations of these metals, as well as the other two tested (Cd and Zn), were not significantly correlated with one another in any of the three species. The only sex difference in liver metal concentrations was observed in female feral cats, which had higher levels of Pb than did males. Coyotes exhibited significant differences in Cu concentrations between sites and between years (2005 versus 2006). We also found significant differences between sites in Pb concentrations for both feral cats and grey foxes. There were significant differences in metal concentrations among all seven species for all metals except Cd. With the exception of Cd and Se (tested only in bobcats and opossums), a three-way ANOVA with species, year, and site as the three factors revealed significant differences among species for every metal but only a single main effect of year for Cu, and no main effects of site. In sum, our results provide an extensive survey of metal concentrations in a diverse assemblage of mammals and suggest that metal accumulation may be heavily influenced by species identity, which in turn may reflect ecological lifestyle.

Geoarchaeological investigations at the Ryan‐Harley Paleoindian site, Florida (8JE1004): Implications for human settlement of the Wacissa River Basin during the Younger Dryas

AbstractRyan‐Harley (8JE1004) in the Wacissa River of North Florida is one of few sites in the Eastern United States that contains an unfluted lanceolate point component (Suwannee) in a buried context. Extinct and extirpated faunal remains found within the Suwannee artifact layer at Ryan‐Harley have been cited as evidence of a Pleistocene faunal refugium in the Southeastern United States. In 2015, geoarchaeological excavations were undertaken to determine if the Ryan‐Harley Suwannee assemblage is culturally discrete and associated with Pleistocene fauna. Geoarchaeological data demonstrate that the archaeological component was exposed until ~8,000 calbp on a relict eolian landscape before burial. No radiocarbon ages were obtained on either extinct or extant faunal material from the site, and the excavated portion of the geologic stratum containing the artifact assemblage is devoid of other datable organics. Therefore, no unequivocal conclusion can be reached about the association of the extinct faunal material with the Suwannee artifacts. However, multiple lines of evidence fail to reject the hypothesis that the Ryan‐Harley lithic assemblage represents a single occupation of Suwannee point makers. Multiple lines of evidence suggest that the Suwannee occupation of Ryan‐Harley most likely occurred during the Younger Dryas (~12,900–11,700 calbp).

Apparent Recovery and Efficiency of Nitrogen Fertilization in Tomato Grown on Sandy Soils

Use efficiency of applied nitrogen (N) is estimated typically to be <50% in most crops. In sandy soils and warmer climates particularly, leaching and volatilization may be primary pathways for environmental loss of applied N. To determine the effect of N fertilization rate on the N use efficiency (NUE) and apparent recovery of N fertilizer (APR), a replicated field study with ‘BHN 602’ tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) grown in sandy soils under a fertigated plastic-mulched bed system was conducted using ammonium nitrate as the N source at four different rates (0, 150, 200, and 250 lb/acre). Spring tomato was followed by fall tomato in the same field, a typical cropping sequence in north Florida. Fertigation of N fertilizer was applied weekly in 13 equal doses for both seasons. The highest NUE was 12.05% (spring) and 32.38% (fall), and the highest APR was 6.11% (spring) for the lowest rate of N applied (150 lb/acre). In the fall, APR was unaffected by fertilizer N rates and ranged from 12.88% to 19.39%. Nitrogen accumulation in tomato plants were similar among the three N fertilizer rates applied (150, 200, and 250 lb/acre), though compared with no N fertilizer application, significant increases occurred. Whole plant N accumulation, NUE, and APR declined or remained similar when N rates increased above 150 lb/acre. Additionally, a regression analysis and derivative of the quadratic fresh yield data showed that yields were maximized at 162 and 233 lb/acre N in the spring and fall seasons, respectively.