Evolution and zoogeography of the invertebrate cave faunas of the Driftless Area of the Upper Mississippi River Valley of Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois, U.S.A.

1990 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart B. Peck ◽  
Kenneth Christiansen
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Early Pleistocene ◽  
Upper Mississippi River ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Glacial Ice ◽  
Driftless Area ◽  
Long Term Survey

This paper reports the results of a long-term survey of the invertebrates living in caves and other subterranean habitats in the Upper Mississippi River Valley, particularly in the region frequently but erroneously called the Driftless Area. Sixteen troglobitic species are known: two flatworms, two amphipods, one isopod, four spiders, one mite, and six collembolans. The terrestrial troglobite fauna probably represents cave invasion and isolation following Early Pleistocene glaciation, and demonstrates that the caves were habitable while the region was at the margin of Late Pleistocene glaciations. The groundwater troglobite fauna may have survived in situ while the region was covered by glacial ice in the Early Pleistocene. The troglophile fauna consists of at least 78 species, and these species may or may not have come into the region since the Wisconsinan glaciation recession. The presence of troglophile species in a particular cave is highly sporadic.

Source and Origin of Roxana Silt and Middle Wisconsinan Midcontinent Glacial Activity

1989 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 319-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Hilton Johnson ◽  
Leon R. Follmer
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Lake Michigan ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Upper Mississippi River ◽  
Upper Great Lakes ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Depositional System ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Late Wisconsinan

AbstractThick Roxana Silt (middle Wisconsinan) in central and southwestern Illinois traditionally has been interpreted as loess derived from valley-train deposits in the ancient Mississippi River valley. Winters et al. (H. A. Winters, J. J. Alford, and R. L. Rieck, Quaternary Research 29, 25–35, 1988) recently suggested that the Roxana was not directly related to glacial activity, but was derived from sediment produced by increased shoreline and spillway erosion associated with a fluctuating ancestral Lake Michigan. Because (1) paleoenvironmental and paleohydrologic conditions inferred in the hypothesis are unlikely for a loess depositional system and (2) loess did not accumulate during late Wisconsinan deglaciation under conditions similar to those hypothesized, we suggest the hypothesis should be rejected. Roxana distribution suggests the major source was drainage from the upper Mississippi River valley, and variations in loess thickness in Illinois can be explained by consideration of valley width, depth, orientation, and postdepositional erosion. Tills in the headwaters region of the ancient Mississippi drainage system in Minnesota and Wisconsin occur in the appropriate stratigraphic position and have colors and mineralogic compositions that suggest they could be the parent till of the Roxana. We believe a valley-train source for thick Roxana is most probable and urge continued consideration of middle Wisconsinan glaciation in the upper Great Lakes area.

Late Holocene shellfish exploitation in the Upper Mississippi River valley

2019 ◽  
Vol 530-531 ◽  
pp. 146-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
James L. Theler ◽  
Matthew G. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Upper Mississippi River ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Shellfish Exploitation

scholarly journals Carbon Dioxide Emissions as Affected by Alternative Long-Term Irrigation and Tillage Management Practices in the Lower Mississippi River Valley

2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
S. F. Smith ◽  
K. R. Brye
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Mississippi River ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Growing Seasons ◽  
Lower Mississippi River ◽  
Lower Mississippi River Valley

Ensuring the sustainability of cultivated soils is an ever-increasing priority for producers in the Lower Mississippi River Valley (LMRV). As groundwater sources become depleted and environmental regulations become more strict, producers will look to alternative management practices that will ensure the sustainability and cost-effectiveness of their production systems. This study was conducted to assess the long-term (>7 years) effects of irrigation (i.e., irrigated and dryland production) and tillage (conventional and no-tillage) on estimated carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from soil respiration during two soybean (Glycine maxL.) growing seasons from a wheat- (Triticum aestivumL.-) soybean, double-cropped production system in the LMRV region of eastern Arkansas. Soil surface CO2fluxes were measured approximately every two weeks during two soybean growing seasons. Estimated season-long CO2emissions were unaffected by irrigation in 2011 (P>0.05); however, during the unusually dry 2012 growing season, season-long CO2emissions were 87.6% greater (P=0.044) under irrigated (21.9 Mg CO2ha−1) than under dryland management (11.7 Mg CO2ha−1). Contrary to what was expected, there was no interactive effect of irrigation and tillage on estimated season-long CO2emissions. Understanding how long-term agricultural management practices affect soil respiration can help improve policies for soil and environmental sustainability.

Meander Loops and the Cahokia Site

1964 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles J. Bareis
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
River Channel ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Mississippi Valley ◽  
Channel Migration ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Lower Mississippi Valley

AbstractThe locations of certain mounds at the Cahokia site indicate that the rate of Mississippi River channel migration in the American Bottoms in the Upper Mississippi Valley has differed from the rate of channel movement in the Lower Mississippi Valley. The American Bottoms was probably the most favorable section of the Mississippi River Valley for long-term prehistoric settlement with regard to location within the present meander belt of the river.

A Storied Place: Jonathan Carver’s Travel Narrative and the Indigenous Map of the Upper Mississippi River Valley

2020 ◽  
Vol 92 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Caroline Wigginton
Keyword(s):  
Mississippi River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Literary Analysis ◽  
Constitutive Relationship ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Upper Mississippi River ◽  
Travel Narrative ◽  
Mississippi River Valley ◽  
Native Peoples

Abstract This essay recognizes the totality of practices by which Native peoples of the upper Mississippi River valley for centuries oriented themselves to place as an Indigenous map. After limning the map and its material and nonmaterial components, I then place it at the center of a comparative Indigenous-colonizer literary analysis and argue that the manuscript of Euro-American Jonathan Carver’s 1760s travel narrative written in the region is in constitutive relationship to the map. I conclude by turning to printed versions of his narrative to consider how they extend and shape colonialist orientations to the Indigenous map. Attending to how the land has been shaped in partnership with Indigenous text making transforms American literary studies by demonstrating one way that Euro-American texts always were, are, and will be in relation to Native genres.

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