South Amherst Research Articles

Review: Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South, by William E. O'Brien and What Can and Can't Be Said: Race, Uplift, and Monument Building in the Contemporary South, by Dell Upton

William E. O'Brien Landscapes of Exclusion: State Parks and Jim Crow in the American South Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2016, 208 pp., 50 b/w illus. $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 9781625341556 Dell Upton What Can and Can't Be Said: Race, Uplift, and Monument Building in the Contemporary South New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2015, 280 pp., 59 b/w illus. $35 (cloth), ISBN 9780300211757 In late July 2018, someone shot at a historic marker commemorating the place along Mississippi's Tallahatchie River where Emmett Till's mutilated, bullet-riddled corpse was found. Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy, was abducted and viciously murdered by two white vigilantes in the summer of 1955. Vandals stole the site's first sign and then shot up a second one. A third marker had been erected and dedicated only five weeks before the 2018 incident by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, located in the nearby Sumner, Mississippi, courthouse where Till's murderers were put on trial. A similar spate of vandalism befell a marker sponsored by the Mississippi Freedom Trail, a historical initiative dedicated to marking important sites of civil rights struggles in the state. That marker is located at the former site of Bryant's Grocery in Money, Mississippi, where Carolyn Jones, a white woman, falsely claimed that Till made sexually explicit gestures toward her while he was visiting the store to purchase candy. Incensed by the child's alleged behavior, which transgressed the code of racial apartheid that kept black residents in fear and poverty—and, more important, separate and in their place—Bryant's husband and brother-in-law kidnapped Till, who was in the area visiting family while on holiday from his Chicago home. The two men beat and shot the teenager, then threw his weighted-down body into the river. Till's killing made national headlines when his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, requested an open casket at his funeral to expose the barbaric treatment of her son. The haunting photographs of Till and his grieving mother stunned the nation. Equally incomprehensible were the acquittals of his murderers four months later by an all-white, all-male jury following a five-day trial. These events proved that racial violence had not abated since the Civil War and the end of slavery, …

In Memoriam: Samuel Charles Kendeigh

Ornithology lost an eminent scientist with the passing of Dr. S. Charles Kendeigh, professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Illinois, at Urbana, Illinois, on 13 November 1986. Burial was in South Amherst, Ohio. Dr. Kendeigh was born on 18 December 1904 at South Amherst, Ohio. He attended Oberlin College, where he received B.A. (1926) and M.A. (1927) degrees, and the University of Illinois, where he received a doctorate (1930). He taught at Western Reserve University from 1930 to 1936, when he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. From 1925 to 1939 he was a research associate for the Baldwin Bird Research Laboratory at Gates Mills, Ohio. He retired from the University of Illinois in 1973. Dr. Kendeigh received the A.O.U. Brewster Award in 1951 and the Ecological Society of America's Eminent Ecologist Award in 1978. He wrote the classic Physiology of the Temperature of and edited Shelford's Ecology of North America. The most recent of Dr. Kendeigh's 90+ publications (1979, Illinois Biol. Monogr. No. 50; 1982, Illinois Biol. Monogr. No. 52) were extensive summaries and analyses of 50 years of data from three Illinois natural areas. He was compiler from 1941 to 1973 of the Champaign Co., Illinois, Christmas Bird Count. His research interests included bird populations in relation to habitat, avian life histories, and physiological responses of birds to various seasonal and climatic regimes. He co-edited the book Productivity, Population Dynamics, and Systematics of Granivorous Birds, which was the proceedings of the First General Meeting of the Working Group on Granivorous Birds of the International Biological Program (1973, Warsaw, Polish Acad. Sci.). He cooperated with

CONTINUING STUDIES ON THE SOUTH AMHERST DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER NATURAL POPULATION DURING THE 1970'S AND 1980'S.

Continuing investigations on the South Amherst Drosophila melanogaster natural population following the significant decline and recovery of lethal (le) and semilethal (sle) frequencies in the late 1960's (Ives, 1970) show that the population has been remarkably stable although it contains MR (male recombination) and/or P DNA elements (Kidwell et al., 1977a; Green, 1980). A 13-year study affirms that the lethals present are nonrandomly distributed along the second chromosome and deficient on the right; they differ significantly in distribution from spontaneous (Ives, 1973) and δ-induced lethals (Minamori and Ito, 1971). Between 1970 and 1977, a total of 4,083 second chromosomes from the Markert subpopulation were analyzed; 28.9% of the chromosomes were lethal and 7.25% were semilethal in homozygous condition. Frequencies are similar for early summer and late fall collections although the rate of allelism among lethals is significantly higher in early summer than in late fall. For the large fall (1970-1979) Porch site population, 2,519 second chromosomes were analyzed; 29.5% were lethal and 8.0% were sublethal as homozygotes; the rate of allelism among lethals was 1.50%. At Hockanum, 1977-1983, lethal and semilethal frequencies were lower; the rate of allelism among lethals was 1.43%. The chromosome map distribution of lethals does not change between summer and late fall at Markert. The overall distributions of lethals at the Markert and Hockanum sites are similar. In tests for male recombination (MR) activity in the population over a 6-year period, a total of 0.47% recombinants were observed; these were uniformly distributed along the second chromosome. Comparisons are made with other long studied D. melanogaster populations.

Continuing Studies on the South Amherst Drosophila melanogaster Natural Population During the 1970's and 1980's

Continuing Studies on the South Amherst Drosophila melanogaster Natural Population During the 1970's and 1980's

Spontaneous non-reciprocal mutation and sterility in strain crosses of Drosophila melanogaster

Summary Large reciprocal differences in spontaneous frequencies of recessive sex-linked lethals and female sterility were observed in the progeny of crosses between Cranston and Basc strains but lethal induction in non-hybrid parents was not markedly elevated above the normal spontaneous level. The results of complementary experiments with a South Amherst strain were consistent with those from the Cranston strain. Lethality and sterility were closely correlated with the previously recorded pattern of male recombination associated with the same strains. High lethal frequencies occurred in both males and females in dysgenic crosses and in all X chromosomes tested, irrespective of their strain derivation. Lethal mutations induced in the South Amherst tests were broadly distributed throughout the X chromosome.

A survey of isozyme polymorphism in a Drosophila melanogaster natural population.

A survey of biochemical polymorphism among glucose- and non-glucose-metabolizing enzymes was carried out on the June 1973 collection from the South Amherst, Mass. Drosophila melanogaster natural population. Polymorphic levels are among the highest recorded for this species; polymorphism among glucose-metabolizing enzymes did not differ significantly from that among non-glucose-metabolizing enzymes. Two loci, G6Pd on the X and Est-6 on the 3rd chromosome, displayed significant excesses of heterozygotes. Adh on the 2nd and Idh, Odh and Ao on the 3rd chromosome showed significant heterozygote deficiencies. Idh is ten map units to the left of Est-6, Odh twelve map units to the right and Ao is seven units beyond Odh. Temperatures in the two-week June period prior to collection were exceedingly variable. Daily high/low ranged between 76 degrees/40 degrees and 97 degrees/65 degrees F. These results support the findings of Frydenberg and Simonsen (1973) that in some populations glucose-metabolizing enzymes tend to be as polymorphic as non-glucose-metabolizing ones. They also add to the evidence obtained from other plant and animal populations that increased biochemical polymorphism is associated with more variable and/or colder climates. The increase may in part be due to increased polymorphism among glucose-metabolizing enzymes. Comparisons utilizing published data on other D. melanogaster populations and on D. robusta indicate a clinal increase in heterozygosity among glucose-metabolizing enzymes as one moves northward.

A Potential Hazard: Explosive Production of Mutations by Induction of Mutators

Research ArticleOpen AccessA potential hazard: explosive production of mutations by induction of mutators. K Morgan, P J Hastings, and R C von Borstel K Morgan Search for more papers by this author , P J Hastings Search for more papers by this author , and R C von Borstel Search for more papers by this author Published:1 December 1973https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7306207Cited by:2AboutSectionsPDF ToolsDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail FiguresReferencesRelatedDetailsCited By Ives P and Band H (2017) CONTINUING STUDIES ON THE SOUTH AMHERST DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER NATURAL POPULATION DURING THE 1970'S AND 1980'S , Evolution, 10.1111/j.1558-5646.1986.tb05752.x, 40:6, (1289-1302), Online publication date: 1-Nov-1986. Falk H (2018) Editorial: Considerations of risks versus benefits., Environmental Health Perspectives, 11, (1-5), Online publication date: 1-Jun-1975. Vol. 6December 1973Metrics About Article Metrics Publication History Originally published1 December 1973Published in print1 December 1973 Financial disclosuresPDF download License information EHP is an open-access journal published with support from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health. All content is public domain unless otherwise noted. Note to readers with disabilities EHP strives to ensure that all journal content is accessible to all readers. However, some figures and Supplemental Material published in EHP articles may not conform to 508 standards due to the complexity of the information being presented. If you need assistance accessing journal content, please contact [email protected]. Our staff will work with you to assess and meet your accessibility needs within 3 working days.

FURTHER EVIDENCE OF GENETIC AND INCREASED DEVELOPMENTAL HOMEOSTASIS IN A DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER NATURAL POPULATION DURING A MINOR CLIMATIC SHIFT.

Populations or species inhabiting more variable climates possess greater developmental homeostasis than those in more equable conditions (Tantawy and Mallah, 1961; Dawson, 1968). Experiments have also shown that populations maintained in fluctuating temperatures develop greater homeostasis than those in constant temperatures although all populations were initiated by the same founders (Beardmore and Levine, 1963). A population in an area undergoing a shift to a more adverse climate may likewise be expected to develop greater developmental homeostasis. Band (1964) found that the South Amherst, Mass. Drosophila melanogaster natural population seemed to possess such increased homeostasis in 1962 in comparison with the level expressed in 1960 or 1961. At that time the onset of a minor climatic shift in the area was unknown. A more adverse climate should also favor a reduction in lethal and semilethal (le + sle) frequencies in the population. However, the frequencies of these recessive drastic genetic variants in the population remained unchanged from their 1947-1961 average of 33.7%, suggesting the operation of genetic homeostasis. Genetic homeostasis, according to Lerner (1954), is the tendency of a Mendelian population to retain its genetic composition arrived at in its evolutionary past and may arise from selection for developmental homeostasis if the latter leads to the retention of heterozygosity. It may also contribute to a delay in gene frequency shifts.

Minor Climatic Shifts and Genetic Changes in a Natural Populations of Drosophila melanogaster

Genetic changes in the South Amherst. Massachusetts, Drosophila melanogaster natural population have been found to have occurred at times of minor but significant climatic shifts in the area. These involve rainfall and average daily temperature range, May-October; the two variables appear inversely related. The time period spans the breeding season for the species in Amherst. Lethal and semilethal frequencies among samples of second chromosomes from the population were known to be negatively correlated with average daily temperature range of the week prior to collection; the frequencies in the first fall collections are positively associated with summer rainfall. Heterozygous classes have been shown to be differentially responsive to wide and narrow ranges between daily minimax temperatures, as predicted. Multiple prolonged shifts in both climatic variables were observed in the 1960s; the period 1961/62-1965/66 was the most severe of the past 40 years. Population response to these climatic shifts suggests a genetic structure dependent upon an interplay between stabilizing and disruptive selection, both acting at the heterozygote level. Developmental homeostasis appears to be maintained by stabilizing selection, while lethal and semilethal frequencies seem to be maintained by disruptive selection. Both appear subject to directional selection also acting at the heterozygote level. An adaptive role for lethals and semilethals is proposed, and consequences for the population are discussed. Similar climatic changes in rainfall and temperature range can also be identified in data from Lansing, Michigan.

FURTHER GENETIC STUDIES OF THE SOUTH AMHERST POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

The genetic structure of the natural population of Dr-osophila melanogaster found in South Amherst, Massachusetts, was first outlined in a report by Ives (1945) based on studies which were initiated in 1931 and which became quantified in 1938. Changes in the structure of this population have been reported and discussed in Ives (1954) and in Band and Ives (1961, 1963, 1968). In the 1938-1946 period a high frequency of lethal chromosomes was found in early fall collections from this population together with a very low rate of allelism between the lethal chromosomes. It seemed probable then that only by selection against these recessive lethals when they were in heterozygous condition was their frequency kept from reaching substantially higher levels. At no time in the 1938-1958 period was there a high enough rate of allelism to enable one to observe if homozygosis might also act as an appreciable restraining factor in this population. In the joint studies of Band and Ives a significant correlation was found with certain weather factors and it was suggested that to some extent summer rainfall and, even more, the average daily temperature range during the week before the flies are collected have a strong influence on the frequency of lethal and semilethal chromosomes found in a given collection. Experimental studies by Band (1963) have in fact demonstrated just such a selective effect by temperature range. The continuity of the South Amherst population has been indicated by the recurrent appearance of the uncommon eye color mutant, cardinal-3. That mutant was found in the offspring of the first (1931) South Amherst collection, which was from a very large population growing on the fermenting corn silage in a silo on a small dairy farm owned by the author's father, and was reported in Plough and Ives (1934). It has appeared in a low proportion of the third chromosomes from the South Amherst population in nearly every year that second chromosomes from that population have been analysed for lethals, including 1969. These observations suggest that the fall population, which is sampled by collections from the author's porch, is a consistently large breeding unit of a continuous population. That population may, however, consist of several much smaller breeding units early in the summer when flies do not always come to the porch site in numbers sufficient for a meaningful quantitative test. Late in 1965, a search was initiated by Dr. James E. Carver, Jr., working on a N.I.H. postdoctoral fellowship, for a place in South Amherst where flies could be collected routinely in quantity early in the growing season. He found such a place at the Markert apple storage, about 5 km (3 miles) from the author's residence. Close to the storage is a large, continuous pile of rotten apples, which appears from Dr. Carver's ecological observations (to be published separately), and from the genetic data to be reported here, to be a major source of the South Amherst population. During the 1966-1969 period, collections have been made from at least the first and the last flies appearing each year in the 'Supported in part by contract number AT (30-1)2467 with the United States Atomic Energy Commission and in part by grant number GB-5680 from the National Science Foundation. 2 This paper is dedicated to Professor Th. Dobzhansky on the occasion of his 70th birthday.

Grain Orientation in a Berea Sandstone Channel at South Amherst, Ohio

ABSTRACT A particulate study of the orientation of elongate quartz sand grains in horizontal and vertical planes was performed on a well documented, sand-filled stream channel preserved in the Berea Sandstone, a protoquartzite, in Buckeye Quarry at South Amherst, northern Ohio. A mean compass orientation of 263 degrees (standard deviation = 18.8 degrees) with a mean magnitude of 17.7% was obtained for the imbricated, horizontally oriented grains. This direction is in good agreement with paleocurrent directions inferred from channel trend and crossbedding measurements. Paleocurrent studies of sandstones based on grain orientations have much broader application than those based on megascopic directional sedimentary structures.

GENETIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS. IV. SUMMER ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES AND LETHAL AND SEMILETHAL FREQUENCIES IN A NATURAL POPULATION OF DROSOPHILA MELANOGASTER.

Band and Ives (1961) have presented evidence of a significant relationship between the immediate environment and lethal and semilethal frequencies observed among second chromosomes in the natural population of D. melanogaster of South Amherst. This relationship is manifest in the negative correlation between temperature range prior to sample collections and the lethal + semilethal (le + sle) frequency recovered in the samples. The significant association has been found to persist when data for collections made in 1960 (Band and Ives, 1963) and 1961, 1962 (Band, 1964) are included with the previous observations spanning 1945 to 1959. Other investigators (Dobzhansky, 1952, 1956; Strickberger and Wills, 1966) have reported correlated changes between specific inversion frequencies and rainfall in populations of other Drosophila species. The present study was undertaken to determine if correlated changes between le + sle frequencies and rainfall also existed for the population of D. melanogaster of South Amherst. Rainfall is defined as summer rainfall, the total amount of rain during June, July and August prior to population sampling, usually in September. When samples were collected twice during the Fall, only data from the first Fall collection have been used. The possible relationship between average summer temperature and le + sle frequency recovered in the first Fall collection has also been investigated. It is also shown that temperature range prior to collection and le + sle frequency remain significantly correlated when only first Fall collections are included in the analysis. MATERIALS AND METHODS The weather data.-The data from which average summer temperature and total summer rainfall have been computed come from the weather records of the University of Massachusetts Weather Station at Amherst, Mass. When the instrument shelter site for this station was moved in December, 1960, temperatures recorded were lower than at the old site. For December, 1960, and thereafter, monthly means have been adjusted by one of us (PTI). The total temperature data provide evidence of a long-term gradual warming trend, noted especially in the increase in average summer and spring temperature. As shown from decade means in Table 1, there is an increase of over 10 F in the 70-year period from 1889 to 1955. In agreement with Dorf (1960) the latest short term warming cycle within the overall warming trend appears to end in 1955; this is especially marked in Amherst when the years after the sixth decade are subdivided into 1949-1955 and 1956-1965. For summer, July means were 70 F or higher from 1933 to 1955, 23 years in a row. It was under 70 F in 17 of the 44 years between 1889 and 1932 and in 4 years of the decade since 1955. The three hottest Julys on record were, in order, 1955, 1949 and 1952 and these were also the hottest summers from 1889 to 1966. Eleven summers had mean temperatures of 70 F or above in the period from 1933 to 1955, only two in the period from 1889 to 1933. Trend changes are less regular for the winter season. Nevertheless, the partdecade mean for the winter quarter in 1949-1955 is over 3.5 F higher than in the

GENETIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATIONS. II. VIABILITIES AND VARIANCES OF HETEROZYGOTES IN CONSTANT AND FLUCTUATING ENVIRONMENTS

Changes in frequencies of (lethal + semilethal) chromosomes can be correlated with changes in environmental variables (Band and Ives, 1961). This suggests that these constituents of the genetic load are maintained in the population in dynamic equilibrium with the natural environment. It also implies that the fitness of heterozygotes carrying drastic/ drastic (d/d), drastic/nondrastic (d/nd), and nondrastic/nondrastic (nd/nd) combinations is neither uniform in the same environment nor constant in different environments. Band and Ives (1963) have shown that the significantly negative correlation between the frequency of drastics and temperature range: (1) can be used to predict an increase or decrease in the frequency of drastics in chromosome samples; (2) indicates that heterozygotes in the same environment tend to differ in viability and to contribute to the genetic homeostasis of the population in proportion to their relative frequencies and genotypic fitness values; (3) suggests that such variants do constitute mainly a balanced load in the population. Because of the concept of a dynamic relationship between environment and genetic structure, certain environments are expected to affect the fitness of heterozygous carriers of drastic chromosomes adversely; other environments to favor them above the carriers of only nondrastic chromosomes. Notably, environments with wide temperature ranges between the daily maxima and minima should be unfavorable for heterozygotes carrying drastic chromosomes; those with narrow temperature ranges should favor such heterozygotes. The positive relationship between mean temperature, as a measure of warmth or coolness in the environment, and the d frequency maintained after 1950 (Band and Ives, 1961) indicates, however, that the selection for or against drastic chromosomes is not a simple process. To test the validity of the above working hypothesis, the same 100 chromosome combinations have been tested in three environments: a constant temperature of 770 F (250 C), a narrow range with 770 F mean, and a wide range also with 770 F mean. As there is the possibility that the environment can influence the gametic contribution to the next generation (Ives, 1945; Novitski and Hanks, 1961), chromosome rederivations were undertaken for wild-type males of le/non-lethal constitution produced in 20 crosses in each of the environments tested. Chromosomes used in this study were second chromosomes from the 1960 collection of Drosophila melanogaster at South Amherst, Mass.

Genetic Structure of Populations. I. On the Nature of the Genetic Load in the South Amherst Population of Drosophila melanogaster

Genetic Structure of Populations. I. On the Nature of the Genetic Load in the South Amherst Population of Drosophila melanogaster

Cercaria pseudoburti n. sp., a Strigeid Cercaria from Western Massachusetts

A survey of many ponds in western Massachusetts has revealed a high percentage of infection with larval trematodes. Collections are being made in some of these ponds every month to study the ecology of the cercarial fauna. Over 3,000 snails have been taken from a small pond in South Amherst, only one of which has been infected with a small species of strigeid cercaria. Since this cercaria has occurred but once, and since as far as can be determined it is specifically different from other known species, it is described here in detail as Cercaria pseudoburti n. sp.