Climate change is a critical issue that has begun to shape water management and planning on the federal and state levels. This study focuses on the potential to integrate climate change into Kansas statewide water planning and management. A survey was employed to understand the personal perspectives of Kansas water managers, planners, and decisionmakers in state agencies towards climate change and its integration into state-based water planning. Respondents were targeted at three agencies: the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the Kansas Water Office, and the Kansas Department of Agriculture — Division of Water Resources; 37 of 64 respondents finished the survey. The survey results, along with a review of key Kansas water management plans, suggest that Kansas water managers are indeed responsive to climate variability and are starting to integrate climate variability into planning efforts. To promote successful integration, helpful lessons from the climate science-policy literature are provided, such as a description of potential barriers and strategies useful for effective integration.

We captured least shrews (Cryptotis parva; n = 16) in native grassland, anthropogenic and woody habitats in north-central Kansas. Total effort was ca. 100,000 trap nights [TN] in >200 herbaceous sites and ca. 20,000 TN in >20 shrubby and woody sites. Least shrews were rare in both habitat types but slightly more abundant in herbaceous (ca. 0.15 individuals/1,000 TN) than woody sites (ca. 0.05 individuals/1,000 TN). We captured 15 least shrews in grazed native mixed grass prairie, post-harvest wheat fields and fallow wheat fields combined as well as one in a shelterbelt of deciduous trees. Body mass ranged from 2.6 g–6.0 g; body length explained ∼55% of the variation in body mass. Two pregnant females (4.9–5.0 g) were trapped; a litter size of five was observed for the one necropsied female. Finally, we document the first occurrence of the least shrew in Lincoln County, Kansas.

The southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi) has been designated a species in need of conservation in Kansas. Typically, it has been reported to use moist habitats such as those associated with artesian springs, marshes or watercourses and more recently with wet roadside ditches and fencerows. In contrast, we report the presence of the southern bog lemming in open, xeric habitats (e.g., sites with sparse vegetation on west-facing slopes or on sandy to gravelly surfaces) in Osborne and Lincoln counties in north-central Kansas. Furthermore, these sites were not near marshy or even mesic sites. We advocate more research to determine the conservation status of the southern bog lemming in the central and western portions of the state given the predicted arid conditions (i.e., lower annual precipitation and warmer temperatures) likely to develop owing to global climate change.

We sampled fishes in Fox Creek at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, Chase Co., Kansas in June 2012 to record fish species present and to compare richness, abundance, and evenness between pools and riffles. We collected 31 fish species from 94 pools and 14 riffles. The most common species in riffles were Orangethroat Darter (Etheostoma spectabile), Redfin Shiner (Lythrurus umbratilis), and Central Stoneroller (Compostoma anomalum), and the most common species in pools were Redfin Shiner, Central Stoneroller, and Orangespotted Sunfish (Lepomis humilis). Species richness and abundance were higher in pools than riffles, however evenness was not statistically significantly different. Since this study was conducted in the middle of a severe drought, these results could provide important data on how fish communities are assembled during periods of low-flow in tallgrass prairie streams.

There has been some debate in the scientific literature on whether or not two subspecies of the swamp rabbit, Sylvilagus aquaticus aquaticus and S. a. littoralis, exist. The latter subspecies is believed to be restricted to habitats along the coast line of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. The objectives of this research were to record a standard set of cranial measurements from voucher specimens of the swamp rabbit that are housed in natural history collections and use multivariate statistics to assess the degree of geographic variation among populations throughout Louisiana. Morphological variation was assessed by taking 26 cranial measurements with a digital caliper and rounded to the nearest 0.01 mm. We performed analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine the extent of secondary sexual variation and a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to detect differences in morphological variation among sampling units. Our results indicated no significant secondary sexual variation between male and female rabbits. Also, no significant difference was detected between sampling units of S. a. aquaticus and S. a. littoralis. Based on these results we suggest all swamp rabbit populations be referred to as S. aquaticus with no subspecific designation.

This paper explores the geostatistical relationship between volcanic and plutonic rock on Battle Mountain, one of the northernmost units of the Robertson River Igneous Suite in central Virginia (U.S.A.), in an effort to reconstruct the original appearance of the formation after rift volcanism at 704 Ma. This Neoproterozoic anorogenic formation dates from the initial rifting of the supercontinent Rodinia and may be one of the oldest intact visible volcanic formations in Virginia. This paper explores the use of geostatistical trace element analysis in geochemical data related to A-type granitoid rock, as well as mathematical and feed-forward neural network palaeogeographic reconstructions including the use of Markov chains. The paper concludes with evidence and analysis that indicates gallium may be used as a reliable indicator trace element for volcanic A-type rhyolitic rock. Furthermore, the paper indicates a lateral rhyolitic stratovolcano explosive event at approximately 704 Ma with a corresponding rhyodacitic cauldron complex. This indicates that the remnant Battle Mountain lava dome, after the explosion of the rhyolitic stratovolcano, reached a prominence height of approximately 1600 meters above modern sea level during the Neoproterozoic.

During the summer of 2015, a recently described species of tardigrade from southern Argentina, Milnesium beatae Roszkowska, Ostrowska and Kaczmarek, 2015, was discovered in the canopy of trees in Kansas, USA. Seven specimens of the southern hemisphere species were collected from lichen habitat above six meters on red oak tree substrates in a tree island on the edge of the tall grass prairie. Statistical comparison of the characteristics of the specimens of the two populations demonstrates that they are morphologically the same. Two new characters are described: first, small cuticular bars at the base of legs IV and second, thin plates (pseudoplates) in the dorsal and lateral cuticle are exposed by UV fluorescence imagery. Bird nesting habits and migration patterns are explored to explain how the same species of microscopic water bear is known to only occur at disparate locations 9,000 km apart in different hemispheres.

In the early history of paleontology in the United States, much of the attention (and notoriety) was centered around the two giants in the field, Othniel Charles Marsh of Yale College and Edward Drinker Cope of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Both of these men were certainly major contributors to the science of paleontology, but they often overshadowed the work of many of the other people who actually collected and donated the fossils that subsequently made them famous. Nearly all of the important specimens discovered in Kansas during the late 1860s were collected by individuals who had no special training or real knowledge of fossils. While some did receive a brief credit in a scientific journal for their discovery, others were simply lost in history. This paper sheds some light on the adventurous life, and the important contributions of William E. Webb to the science of paleontology.

Additional field and laboratory investigation of the Midco Member of the middle Wellington Formation, Lower Permian in Noble County, Northern Oklahoma has produced an abundance of vertebrate fossils from a 5 cm thick black silty clay. To date the most notable discovery is bones of the long-horned diplocaulid Diploceraspis which were previously only known from the upper Pennsylvanian and lower Permian of southwest Pennsylvania, southeast Ohio, and northwest West Virginia and the upper Pennsylvanian of southeastern Nebraska. This represents the first reported Permian occurrence of the amphibian Diploceraspis west of the of the Ohio River drainage area of Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia and therefore greatly increases the geographical range of the genus. Prior to this discovery, Diplocaulus magnicornis was the only long-horned diplocaulid known from the lower Permian of Oklahoma. The identifiable Diploceraspis material recovered consist of 5 partial tabular bones and one dorsal vertebra.

The Pfeifer Shale Member of the Greenhorn Limestone is a Late Cretaceous (early Turonian) rock unit deposited in the Western Interior Seaway in North America. Approximately 50 isolated skeletal and dental elements of fossil fishes were recently recovered from the lower part of the Pfeifer Shale at a locality in south-central Republic County, Kansas, U.S.A. They include a minimum of three chondrichthyan taxa and six osteichthyan taxa, including Ptychodus cf. P. whipplei, Cretoxyrhina mantelli, Squalicorax cf. S. falcatus, Caturidae indet., Actinopterygii (non-teleostean?) indet., Pachyrhizodus minimus, Enchodus shumardi, and at least two additional teleost species. Even though the sample size is small, the present study provides a glimpse into the rich diversity of the fish fauna that encompasses a wide range of trophic regimes, including small bony fishes with small sharp teeth suited for catching smaller fishes and soft-bodied invertebrates, as well as durophagous, predatory, and scavenging sharks.

The Blue Hill Shale Member of the Carlile Shale is a Middle Turonian (ca. 90 Ma) nearshore deposit formed during the regressive phase of the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway of North America. Over 900 identifiable specimens of fossil vertebrates were recovered from a locality in northeastern Nebraska that include at least 40 taxa, comprising a minimum of 23 chondrichthyan fishes, 16 osteichthyan fishes, and one aquatic squamate reptile. The fauna includes taxa such as Meristodonoides, Cantioscyllium, Scapanorhynchus, Cretodus, Protoplatyrhina, Pseudohypolophus, and Ptychotrygon, that are commonly represented in Middle Turonian nearshore deposits of North America. The vertebrate fauna described here is composed of nearly 50% non-durophagous and 50% durophagous fishes by number of taxa. Among the nondurophagous fishes are a large carnivorous Cretodus crassidens and medium-sized scavengers Squalicorax spp., but others are primarily piscivores.

The Fairport Chalk (middle Turonian) of the Carlile Shale is an Upper Cretaceous rock unit deposited in the middle of the Western Interior Seaway during the early regressive phase of the Seaway following its peak transgressive phase. The Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas, U.S.A., houses a collection of marine vertebrate fossils from the Fairport Chalk in southern Ellis County, Kansas. The fossil fauna consists of at least 16 taxa, including 11 chondrichthyans, four osteichthyans, and one reptilian. They show wide ecological diversity, with examples of small to medium-sized opportunistic (Squalicorax), large predaceous (Cardabiodon and Cretoxyrhina), and durophagous (Ptychodus) sharks, as well as small (Enchodus), medium-sized (Plethodidae and Pachyrhizodus), and large (Ichthyodectes) bony fishes. Another notable finding is the occurrence of Telodontaspis agassizensis in which the species was previously known only from Cenomanian deposits, making the specimen from the Fairport Chalk the geologically youngest record for the species.

We describe a previously unreported left humerus of the Late Cretaceous toothed seabird, cf. Ichthyornis sp., from the basal Lincoln Limestone Member (late Cenomanian) of the Greenhorn Limestone Formation in central Kansas. This specimen represents one of the oldest bird specimens in North America, and together with previously described ichthyornithid specimens, it also provides new insights into the size distribution of the fossil taxon. Our analysis indicates that Ichthyornis body size remained relatively consistent throughout its temporal range from the Cenomanian through the Campanian. The present fossil record suggests that Ichthyornis measured up to about 0.5 m in skeletal wingspan, 0.2 m in height, and 0.3 m in skeletal length.