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R W Buddemeier

Publications and source records attributed to R W Buddemeier.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

Distribution and significance of small, artificial water bodies across the United States landscape.

At least 2.6 million small, artificial water bodies dot the landscape of the conterminous United States; most are in the eastern half of the country. These features account for approximately 20% of the standing water area across the United States, and their impact on hydrology, sedimentology, geochemistry, and ecology is apparently large in proportion to their area. These features locally elevate evaporation, divert and delay downstream water flow, and modify groundwater interactions. They apparently intercept about as much eroded soil as larger, better-documented reservoirs. Estimated vertical accretion rates are much higher, hence, inferred sedimentary chemical reactions must be different in the small features than in larger ones. Finally, these features substantially alter the characteristics of aquatic habitats across the landscape.

Conservation of Natural Resources↗
PubMed2001

Sustainability of coastal resource use in San Quintin, Mexico.

San Quintin, Mexico, provides a useful site for integrated analyses of material fluxes and socioeconomic constraints in a geographically isolated system. Natural resource utilization on the land is dominated by groundwater exploitation for cultivation of horticulture crops (primarily tomatoes). Irrigation exceeds water recharge minus export by a factor of 6. Resource utilization in the bay is dominated by oyster culture; food for the oysters is provided by tidal exchange of bay and ocean water. Consideration of oyster respiration and system respiration suggests that the present level of aquaculture is about 40% of the sustainable level. A "physical unsustainability index" (PhUI) was developed to measure the proportional departure of utilization of the most limiting resource for sustainability: 6 on land; 0.4 in the bay. Based on PhUI and measures of economic development, we conclude that aquaculture is more viable than agriculture.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Redistribution of fallout radionuclides in Enewetak Atoll lagoon sediments by callianassid bioturbation.

The lagoon sediments of Enewetak Atoll in the Marshall Islands contain a large selection of fallout radionuclides as a result of 43 nuclear weapon tests conducted there between 1948 and 1958. Studies of the burial of fallout radionuclides have been conducted on the islands and in several of the large craters, but studies of their vertical distribution have been limited to about the upper 20 cm of the lagoon sediments. We have found elevated fallout radionuclide concentrations buried more deeply in the lagoon sediments and evidence of burrowing into the sediment by several species of callianassid ghost shrimp (Crustacea: Thalassinidea) which has displaced highly radioactive sediment. The burrowing activities of callianassids, which are ubiquitous on the lagoon floor, facilitate radionuclide redistribution and complicate the fallout radionuclide inventory of the lagoon.

Micronesia↗