Explore the vast range of titles available.

When Stephen Lehmkuhle became the chancellor of the brand new University of Minnesota-Rochester campus, he had to start from scratch. He did not inherit a legacy mission that established what the campus did and how to do it; rather, he needed to find a way to rationalize the existence of the nascent campus. Lehmkuhle recognized that without a shared understanding of purpose the scope of a new campus expands at an unsustainable rate as it tries to be all things to all people, and so his first act was to decide on the driving purpose of the campus. He then used this purpose to make decisions about institutional design, scope, programs, and campus activities. Through personal and engaging anecdotes about his experience as the inaugural chancellor at the University of Minnesota-Rochester, Lehmkuhle describes how higher education leaders can focus on campus purpose to create new and fresh ways to think about many elements of campus operation and function, and how leaders can protect the campus’s purpose from the pervasive higher education culture that is hardened by history and habit.

Large subsurface treatment systems (LSTS) and rapid infiltration basins (RIB) are preferred onsite wastewater treatments compared to direct discharge of treated wastewater to streams and adjacent facilities. Discharge of these wastewater treatments may result in contaminant loading to aquifers that also serve as drinking water sources downgradient from the discharge site. Until recently, few studies have characterized the contribution of micropollutants (e.g. pharmaceuticals, fragrances, flame retardants, etc.) to receiving aquifers. We conducted a pilot project to characterize the occurrence of micropollutants in groundwater downgradient from 7 on-site treatment systems in Minnesota, USA: 5 community LSTS and 2 municipal RIB. One downgradient monitoring well was sampled three times at each facility over one year. Of 223 micropollutants analyzed, 35 were detected. Total sample concentrations ranged from 90 to 4,039 ng/L. Sulfamethoxazole (antibiotic) was detected in all samples at concentrations from 7 to 965 ng/L. Other pharmaceuticals (0.12-1,000 ng/L), organophosphorus flame retardants (10-500 ng/L), and other anthropogenic chemicals (4-775 ng/L) were also detected. The numbers and concentrations of micropollutants detected were inversely related to dissolved oxygen and depth to water. Ratios of pharmaceutical concentrations to human-health screening values were <0.10 for most samples. However, concentrations of carbamazepine and sulfamethoxazole exceeded screening values at two sites. Study results illustrate that large on-site wastewater systems designed to discharge to permeable soil or shallow groundwater effectively deliver pharmaceuticals and other micropollutants to groundwater aquifers and could contribute micropollutants to drinking water via water supply wells.

Managing excess nutrients remains a major obstacle to improving ecosystem service benefits of urban waters. To inform more ecologically based landscape nutrient management, we compared watershed inputs, outputs, and retention for nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) in seven subwatersheds of the Mississippi River in St. Paul, Minnesota. Lawn fertilizer and pet waste dominated N and P inputs, respectively, underscoring the importance of household actions in influencing urban watershed nutrient budgets. Watersheds retained only 22% of net P inputs versus 80% of net N inputs (watershed area-weighted averages, where net inputs equal inputs minus biomass removal) despite relatively low P inputs. In contrast to many nonurban watersheds that exhibit high P retention, these urban watersheds have high street density that enhanced transport of P-rich materials from landscapes to stormwater. High P exports in storm drainage networks and yard waste resulted in net P losses in some watersheds. Comparisons of the N/P stoichiometry of net inputs versus storm drain exports implicated denitrification or leaching to groundwater as a likely fate for retained N. Thus, these urban watersheds exported high quantities of N and P, but via contrasting pathways: P was exported primarily via stormwater runoff, contributing to surface water degradation, whereas N losses additionally contribute to groundwater pollution. Consequently, N management and P management require different strategies, with N management focusing on reducing watershed inputs and P management also focusing on reducing P movement from vegetated landscapes to streets and storm drains.

The history of mercury (Hg) inputs to 55 Minnesota (U.S.A.) lakes was reconstructed from 210Pb (lead-210)-dated sediment cores to determine if erosion of soils from agriculture and urbanization contributes a significant loading of Hg to lakes, and whether lakes near Hg-emitting facilities receive appreciable local atmospheric deposition. Modern (1994-1997) Hg accumulation and Hg flux ratios (modern:preindustrial) increase significantly with the percentage of watershed area under urban or agricultural land-use. Both past and modern Hg accumulation rates are strongly correlated with the flux of total aluminum (Al), a tracer for soil erosion. Modern Hg accumulation rates are substantially higher in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area and in agriculturally dominated south-central Minnesota than in the forested northeastern part of the state, largely because of erosional inputs of soil-bound Hg from disturbed catchments. Modern Hg loading from direct atmospheric deposition is also greater in the metropolitan region than in the rural areas of south-central or northeastern Minnesota. However, some of the excess loading to urban lakes may also be a legacy of formerly high Hg deposition to urban watersheds. A decline in local Hg emissions from peak levels in the 1970s coupled with reduced erosional inputs has cut Hg loading to many metro-area lakes by more than half.

High concentrations of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are accumulating in many urban stormwater ponds in Minnesota, resulting in either expensive disposal of the excavated sediment or deferred maintenance by economically challenged municipalities. Fifteen stormwater ponds in the Minneapolis—St. Paul, MN, metropolitan area were studied to determine sources of PAHs to bed sediments through the application of several environmental forensic techniques, including a contaminant mass balance receptor model. The model results were quite robust and indicated that coal tar-based sealant (CT-sealant) particulate washoff and dust sources were the most important sources of PAHs (67.1 %), followed by vehicle-related sources (29.5 %), and pine wood combustion particles (3.4 %). The distribution of 34 parent and alkylated PAHs was also evaluated regarding ancillary measurements of black carbon, total organic carbon, and particle size classes. None of these parameters were significantly different based on major land-use classifications (i.e., residential, commercial, and industrial) for pond watersheds. PAH contamination in three stormwater ponds was high enough to present a risk to benthic invertebrates, whereas nine ponds exceeded human health risk-based benchmarks that would prompt more expensive disposal of dredged sediment. The State of Minnesota has been addressing the broader issue of PAH-contaminated stormwater ponds by encouraging local municipalities to ban CT-sealants (29 in all) and to promote pollution prevention alternatives to businesses and homeowners, such as switching to asphalt-based sealants. A statewide CT-sealant ban was recently enacted. Other local and regional jurisdictions may benefit from using Minnesota’s approach where CT-sealants are still used.

Most studies of emancipation's consequences have focused on the South. Moving the discussion to the North, Leslie Schwalm enriches our understanding of the national impact of the transition from slavery to freedom.Emancipation's Diasporafollows the lives and experiences of thousands of men and women who liberated themselves from slavery, made their way to overwhelmingly white communities in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, and worked to live in dignity as free women and men and as citizens.Schwalm explores the hotly contested politics of black enfranchisement as well as collisions over segregation, civil rights, and the more informal politics of race--including how slavery and emancipation would be remembered and commemorated. She examines how gender shaped the politics of race, and how gender relations were contested and negotiated within the black community. Based on extensive archival research,Emancipation's Diasporashows how in churches and schools, in voting booths and Masonic temples, in bustling cities and rural crossroads, black and white Midwesterners--women and men--shaped the local and national consequences of emancipation.

Tree transpiration provides a variety of ecosystem services in urban areas, including amelioration of urban heat island effects and storm water management. Tree species vary in the magnitude and seasonality of transpiration owing to differences in physiology, response to climate, and biophysical characteristics, thereby complicating efforts to manage evapotranspiration at city scales. We report sap flux measurements during the 2007 and 2008 growing seasons for dominant tree species in a suburban neighborhood of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Evergreen needleleaf trees had significantly higher growing season means and annual transpiration per unit canopy area (1.90 kg H2O m−2 d−1 and 307 kg H2O m−2 yr−1, respectively) than deciduous broadleaf trees (1.11 kg H2O m−2 d−1 and 153 kg H2O m−2 yr−1, respectively) because of a smaller projected canopy area (31.1 and 73.6 m2, respectively), a higher leaf area index (8.8 and 5.5 m2 m−2, respectively), and a longer growth season (8 and 4 months, respectively). Measurements also showed patterns consistent with the species' differences in xylem anatomy (conifer, ring porous, and diffuse porous). As the growing season progressed, conifer and diffuse porous genera had increased stomatal regulation to high vapor pressure deficit, while ring porous genera maintained greater and more constant stomatal regulation. These results suggest that evaporative responses to climate change in urban ecosystems will depend in part on species composition. Overall, plant functional type differences in canopy structure and growing season length were most important in explaining species' differences in midsummer and annual transpiration, offering an approach to predicting the evapotranspiration component of urban water budgets.

Before the Museums Came: A Social History of the Fine Arts in the Twin Cities gives an engaging portrayal of the fine arts scene of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota in the United States, spanning from the appearance of the earliest artists in 1835 to the opening of the first permanent museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1915. Readers will learn about the institutions and organizations that were created in support of the fine arts, the early art exhibitions and events, and the collectors, dealers and artists whose efforts made all of that come to fruition. The text – enriched and supplemented by reproductions of artworks, photographs of various personages, exhibition venues, studios, art galleries, catalogues, and ephemera – presents a clear understanding of the period and breaks new ground for future scholars to research. Leo John Harris had pursued three different careers before retiring to follow yet another vocation, this time as a writer. He served in the U.S. Department of State and Foreign Service; he was an international lawyer; and he founded a niche publishing house devoted to books on the arts, history, and popularculture. In his retirement he has written articles and books on philately, the arts and regional history, and this passion has now resulted in a well-researched and richly illustrated publication. Before the Museums Came: A Social History of the Fine Arts in the Twin Cities gives an engaging portrayal of the fine arts scene of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota in the United States, spanning from the appearance of the earliest artists in 1835 to the opening of the first permanent museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1915. Readers will learn about the institutions and organizations that were created in support of the fine arts, the early art exhibitions and events, and the collectors, dealers and artists whose efforts made all of that come to fruition. The text – enriched and supplemented by reproductions of artworks, photographs of various personages, exhibition venues, studios, art galleries, catalogues, and ephemera – presents a clear understanding of the period and breaks new ground for future scholars to research. Leo John Harris had pursued three different careers before retiring to follow yet another vocation, this time as a writer. He served in the U.S. Department of State and Foreign Service; he was an international lawyer; and he founded a niche publishing house devoted to books on the arts, history, and popularculture. In his retirement he has written articles and books on philately, the arts and regional history, and this passion has now resulted in a well-researched and richly illustrated publication.

The Rapidan Dam near Mankato, Minn, was in “imminent failure condition,” according to local authorities on June 24.

In Making Minnesota Liberal, Jennifer A. Delton delves into the roots of Minnesota politics and traces the change from the regional, third-party, class-oriented politics of the Farmer-Labor party to the national, two-party, pluralistic liberalism of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor party (DFL). While others have examined how anticommunism and the Cold War shaped this transformation, Delton takes a new approach, showing the key roles played by antiracism and the civil rights movement. In telling this story, Delton contributes to our understanding not only of Minnesota’s political history but also of the relationship between antiracism and American politics in the twentieth century.