Ehrlichiosis is a zoonotic illness caused by Ehrlichia pathogens transmitted by ticks. Case data from 1999 to 2015, provided by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), were used to compare the seasonality and the change in incidence over time of ehrlichiosis infection in two Missouri ecoregions, Eastern Temperate Forest (ETF) and Great Plains (GP). Although the number of cases has increased over time in both ecoregions, the rate of change was significantly faster in ETF region. There was no significant difference in seasonality of ehrlichiosis between ecoregions. In Missouri, the estimated ehrlichiosis season begins, on average, in mid-March, peaks in June, and concludes in mid-October. Our results show that the exposure and risk season for ehrlichiosis in Missouri is at least 7 months long.

Riverbluff Cave, in Greene County, Missouri, is a short single passage between the James River and its direct tributary, Ward Branch. Before stream incision the cave functioned as a spillway/piracy between the two streams during high-discharge events and accumulated a sequence of stratified fluvial sediments within the cave. Five cosmogenic-nuclide burial ages for these sediments range from 0.984 to 0.570 Ma. These ages are consistent with both the stratigraphic order of the samples and the inferred position of the Matuyama/Brunhes paleomagnetic boundary. These ages indicate that sandy channel-facies deposits derived from Ward Branch entrances began to accumulate within the cave as early as 0.984±0.065 Ma. This facies is capped by highly fossiliferous gravel beds dated at 0.658±0.065 Ma, which contain abundant mammoth bones (possibly Mammuthus trogontherii) and other vertebrates. The high concentration implies that this deposit may record some type of mass-mortality event. By 0.570±0.072 Ma, all Ward Branch entrances had been abandoned because of incision, and a laminated red clay derived from backflow from flooding along the James River capped the older channel sediments.

The Whippoorwill Formation is a gleyed diamicton that is present locally within bedrock depressions beneath the oldest glacial till in northern Missouri, USA. Stratigraphy, paleomagnetism, and cosmogenic–nuclide burial ages show that it was deposited between the Matuyama–Gauss magnetostratigraphic boundary at 2.58 Ma and the first advance of the Laurentide ice sheet into Missouri at 2.47 ± 0.19 Ma. High cosmogenic–nuclide concentrations also show that the constituents of the Whippoorwill Formation experienced long exposure at a stable landscape surface with erosion rates of 1–2 m/Ma. However, cosmogenic–nuclide concentrations are invariant with depth below the Whippoorwill Formation surface, indicating active mixing of the soil profile shortly before burial by till. The Whippoorwill Formation retains numerous features indicative of cryoturbation. Therefore, we interpret it as a buried Gelisol, a soil formed under periglacial conditions in the presence of permafrost. At the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, climate cooling established permafrost conditions and accelerated erosion by inducing landscape instability. Thus, weathered regolith materials were mobilized and redeposited by gelifluction shortly before the ice sheet overrode the landscape.

The lost snout of Richard Harlan’s specimen of Mosasaurus missouriensis has been rediscovered in the vertebrate palaeontology collections of the Muséum national d’Histoire Naturelle (MNHN) in Paris, France. The specimen (MNHN 9587) bears the handwritten description, ‘Amérique du Nord. Par M. Harlan.’, which translated reads, ‘North America. By/From Mr. Harlan’. Accession information indicates the specimen was a gift to the museum prior to 1860 and was likely gifted from Harlan’s estate after his death. We examine the available history of the collection of the specimen present a description of the rediscovered snout, and demonstrate conclusively the conspecificity of M. maximiliani Goldfuss, 1845 and M. missouriensis (Harlan, 1834a) by providing a revised diagnosis of the taxon.

This study investigated the influence of economic, personal, and attitudinal factors on the intended conservation effort of a sample of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contract holders after their contracts have expired. Economic factors were found to dominate the decision about future conservation effort. Attitudes towards conservation were found to have no significant influence on the decision. This fact may relate to the recent changes in the regulatory environment brought about by the 1985 Food Security Act which changed conservation from a voluntary to regulated nature.

The sustainability of farming systems must be assessed by their potential environmental, economic, and social performance. We present a case study to illustrate an assessment of relative sustainability that uses all three performance criteria.

We developed two scenarios for farmland currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in Putnam County, Missouri: a conventional scenario reflecting farming practices typical of northern Missouri, and an alternative that we hypothesize to be more environmentally sound. We used selected economic and social indicators to assess whether the latter would be at least as economically viable and socially responsible as the conventional system.

Estimated direct farm income was $3.4 million for the alternative and $2.4 million for the conventional scenario. The alternative system applies more labor and management to a given land resource and may support more farming families. Estimated total community economic impacts were 25% greater for the alternative than the conventional farming scenario. CRP land, therefore, could be returned to production in a way that could significantly enhance local economic and social benefits while retaining many of the CRP's environmental benefits.