The Marias River canyon in north-central Montana served during late Holocene time as a locus of human activity in an ecologically and geologically dynamic landscape. This volume presents the results of interdisciplinary research, synergistically combining geologic, ecologic, and archaeologic approaches focused on examining the ways that Late Precontact peoples depended upon the animal (bison) and plant resources of a changing landscape subject to erosion and sediment transport as dominant surficial processes. Connections between erosion and deposition, plant community distribution, large mammal niches, and native peoples' place in the Marias River canyon geoecosystem, as well as the role of tributary-junction alluvial fans as repositories of archaeological materials and vertebrate faunal remains are emphasized.

"The chapters represent a surge of field and laboratory research activity, illustrating the impacts of new and refined methods and tools. This volume explores geologic and biologic history preserved in the strata bounding the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary"--Provided by publisher.

Bear Lake is located 100 km northeast of Salt Lake City and lies along the course of the Bear River, the largest river in the Great Basin. The lake, which is one of the oldest extant lakes in North America, occupies a tectonically active half-graben and contains hundreds of meters of Quaternary sediment. This volume is the culmination of more than a decade of coordinated investigations aimed at a holistic understanding of this long-lived alkaline lake in the semiarid western United States. Its 14 chapters, with 20 contributing authors, contain geological, mineralogical, geochemical, paleontological, and limnological studies extending from the drainage basin to the depocenter. The studies span both modern and paleoenvironments, including a 120-m-long sediment core that captures a continuous record of the last two glacial-interglacial cycles.

"This volume contains a sizable suite of contributions dealing with regional impact records (Australia, Sweden), impact craters and impactites, early Archean impacts and geophysical characteristics of impact structures, shock metamorphic investigations, post-impact hydrothermalism, and structural geology and morphometry of impact structures - on Earth and Mars"--

Papers in this title were selected from presentations from an April 2005 workshop sponsored by the U.S. Geological Survey Earth Surface Dynamics Program, the U.S. Geological Survey National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, and the Smithsonian Institution. Papers are divided into two broad topics of the configuration, areal extent, and temporal development of the chain of interconnected lakes that emptied into Death Valley during periods of the Pleistocene, and the late Cenozoic history of drainage integration in the lower Colorado River region. Papers are occasionally illustrated in both color and black-and-white; the publication contains no index.

"River restoration is a societal goal in the United States. This collection of research articles focuses on our current understanding of the impacts of removing dams and the role of dam removal in the larger context of river restoration. The papers are grouped by topic: (1) assessment of existing dams, strategies to determine impounded legacy sediments, and evaluating whether or not to remove the dam; (2) case studies of the hydrologic, sediment, and ecosystem impacts of recent dam removals; (3) assessment of river restoration by modifying flows or removing dams; and (4) the concept of river restoration in the context of historical changes in river systems"--Provided by publisher.

Landscape Ecology is an emerging science of gaining momentum over the past few decades in the scientific as well as in the planning-management worlds. Although the field is rooted in biology and geography, the approaches to understanding the ecology of a landscape are highly divers. This hybrid vigor provides power to the field. One can no longer view a local ecosystem or land use in isolation from global areas and time frames. The surrounding landscape mosaic and the flows and movements in a landscape must be considered, especially the linkage between humans requiring resources provided by nature, the constraints on their use as well as the responding landscape.

"Contributors from twelve countries wrote the twelve chapters in this Special Paper, and they address a range of topics, including climatic and hydrologic modeling, paleogeographic reconstruction of Late Quaternary landscapes, palynology and paleoclimate reconstruction, and geoarchaeological studies, both onshore and offshore. The volume serves as a timely reference for continuing research in a region harboring a number of newly independent states that are now faced with population pressure and a variety of environmental issues."--

The three papers in this volume summarize the previous literature on fossil vertebrates from the Bahamas, provide revisions of the previously described fossil specimens, include identifications of newly collected material, and discuss changes in the late Pleistocene environment of the Bahaman archipelago. Olson and Pregill review the history of fossil exploration in the Bahamas, describe the known fossil localities, and briefly discuss the depauperate mammalian fauna. Pregill reviews the Pleistocene herpetofauna of New Providence Island, which is similar to that found on the island today, the only extinct taxa being a tortoise (Geochelone), a crocodile (Crocodylus), an iguana (Cyclura), and a gecko of the genus Aristelliger (previously misidentified as Tarentola). Taphonomy of the New Providence deposits and the zoogeographical patterns of the herpetofauna are discussed in relation to arid climatic conditions of the Wisconsinan glacial period. It is suggested that the establishment of a north-south rainfall gradient within the Bahamas has caused more extinctions in the wetter northern islands, whereas a more diverse herpetofauna persists in the drier southern islands. Olson and Hilgartner review the fossil record of birds from the Bahamas and propose the following changes in nomenclature: Calohierax quadratus Buteo sp., Burhinus nanus Burhinus bistriatus nanus, Glaucidium dickinsoni Athene cunicularia, Otus providentiae Athene cunicularia, Bathoceleus hyphalus Melanerpes superciliaris, Corvus wetmorei Corvus nasicus. About 50% of the fossil avifauna of New Providence no longer occurs there and 40% is extinct in the Bahamas. Species composition indicates that the Bahamas in the late Pleistocene were drier and had more open savanna-like and broadleaf scrub habitats. Subsequent increases in rainfall caused habitat changes that resulted in extinction. The implications of this for modern ecological theories are discussed.