HG 450.65-450.75

Mainly a coarse brown sediment with a few patches of a finer grained domain. The clasts range from small to large in size and angular to sub-rounded in clast shape. The coarser domain mainly contains grain crushing and stacking, with some rotation structures. The finer domain mainly contains lineations.

HG 482.15-482.35

Brown sediment with a coarse grained domain and a few finer grained domains throughout the sample. Clasts range from small to large in size and angular to sub-rounded in shape. In the coarser domain, grain crushing is common. A few rotation structures can also be seen throughout the sample, along with lineations.

HG 149.70-149.85

Brown sediment with clasts ranging from small to medium in size. Clast shape ranges from angular to rounded. Lineations and grain crushing are abundant throughout the sample. This sample also includes several inclusions of darker and fine grained domains. Comet structures can also be seen in some areas of the sample.

ARTHUR 3

Dark brown sediment, almost appears black. This may be due to organic material. Clasts are very well dispersed and range from small to medium in size. The clast shape ranges from angular to sub-rounded. Lineations can be seen in this sample. There are also a few examples of grain crushing that can be seen.

PB #2B

Dark brown sediment that appears almost black. This may be due to organic content. Clasts are well dispersed and range from small to medium. The clast shape ranges from angular to sub-rounded. Lineations can be seen throughout the sample. Grain crushing can also be seen in minor amounts.

PBURWELL #1-87

This sample contains two main domains. One is a light brown sediment domain with mainly small clasts which are clustered together. Only a few larger clasts can be seen in this domain. The other one is dark brown with well dispersed clasts. The light brown domain contains clasts that range from sub-angular to sub-rounded in shape. Lineations can be commonly seen in this domain. Grain crushing is also common with minor amounts of rotation. In the dark brown domain, clasts range from small to medium in size. They range from sub-angular to sub-rounded in shape. A few lineations and rotation structures can be seen in this domain.

PBURWELL #5-87

Brown sample with two domains. One domain contains many small grains that are clustered together. The other domain is a darker brown and contains clasts that are well dispersed. The clasts range from small to large, and are angular to sub-rounded in shape. Lineations are commonly seen throughout both domains. A few rotation structures can also be seen in the well dispersed domain. Some grain crushing/ stacking can also be seen throughout the sample.

PBURWELL #6-87

Brown sample with mainly small clasts and a few medium sized grains. Grains range from sub-angular to sub-rounded. Lineations are abundant. There are patches of darker brown organic material throughout the sample. Grain crushing and some comet structures can also be seen.

TvD PB #61

Brown sediment with well dispersed clasts ranging from small to large. Clast shape ranges from angular to sub-rounded. Lineations can be seen throughout the sample. There is one small patch of another domain present. This domain is light brown, and contains clasts that are clustered together. Grain crushing is abundant in this domain, as well as in other areas of the sample.

WTS-1-TvD

Brown sample with two mains domains. The general clast shape ranges from sub-angular to sub-rounded. The first one is light brown with closely clustered clasts ranging from small to large. Lineations are common amongst the smaller clasts. Grain crushing is commonly seen with larger clasts. The other domain is a darker brown with better dispersed clasts ranging from small to medium. Lineations are common in this domain.

WTS-5-KO

Brown sediment with clasts ranging from small to medium in size. Clast shape ranges from angular to sub-rounded. Lineations are the most common micro-structure in this sample. Grain crushing/stacking can also be observed in multiple areas of the sample. There are also a few darker organic rich areas present. Comet structures are present in minor amounts.

1544 BH17 NP 2014

Brown sediment with inclusions of a clay rich domain. Clasts range from small to medium in size and angular to sub-rounded in shape. Lineations can be commonly seen throughout the sample, along with water escape structures in the clay rich domain. Rotation structures, comet structures, and grain crushing are also present.

Local versus organic: a turn in consumer preferences and willingness-to-pay

Demand for local food in the United States has significantly increased over the last decade. In an attempt to understand the drivers of this demand and how they have changed over time, we investigate the literature on organic and local foods over the last few decades. We focus our review on studies that allow comparison of characteristics now associated with both local and organic food. We summarize the major findings of these studies and their implications for understanding drivers of local food demand. Prior to the late 1990s, most studies failed to consider factors now associated with local food, and the few that included these factors found very little support for them. In many cases, the lines between local and organic were blurred. Coincident with the development of federal organic food standards, studies began to find comparatively more support for local food as distinct and separate from organic food. Our review uncovers a distinct turn in the demand for local and organic food. Before the federal organic standards, organic food was linked to small farms, animal welfare, deep sustainability, community support, and many other factors that are not associated with most organic foods today. Based on our review, we argue that demand for local food arose largely in response to corporate cooptation of the organic food market and the arrival of “organic lite.” This important shift in consumer preferences away from organic and toward local food has broad implications for the environment and society. If these patterns of consumer preferences prove to be sustainable, producers, activists, and others should be aware of the implications that these trends have for the food system at large.

The effect of the year of wheat variety release on productivity and stability of performance on two organic and two non-organic farms

Nineteen wheat cultivars, released from 1934 to 2000, were grown at two organic and two non-organic sites in each of 3 years. Assessments included grain yield, grain protein concentration, protein yield, disease incidence and green leaf area. The superiority of each cultivar (the sum of the squares of the differences between its mean in each environment and the mean of the best cultivar there, divided by twice the number of environments; CS) was calculated for yield, grain protein concentration and protein yield, and ranked in each environment. The yield and grain protein concentration CS were more closely correlated with cultivar release date at the non-organic sites than at organic sites. This difference may be attributed to higher yield levels with larger differences among cultivars at the non-organic sites, rather than to improved stability (i.e. similar ranks) across sites. The significant difference in the correlation of protein yield CS and cultivar age between organic and non-organic sites would support evidence that the ability to take up mineral nitrogen (N) compared to soil N has been a component of the selection conditions of more modern cultivars (released after 1989). This is supported by assessment of green leaf area (GLA), where more modern cultivars in the non-organic systems had greater late-season GLA, a trend that was not identified in organic conditions. This effect could explain the poor correlation between age and protein yield CS in organic compared to non-organic conditions where modern cultivars are selected to benefit from later nitrogen (N) availability which includes the spring nitrogen applications tailored to coincide with peak crop demand. Under organic management, N release is largely based on the breakdown of fertility-building crops incorporated (ploughed-in) in the previous autumn. The release of nutrients from these residues is dependent on the soil conditions, which includes temperature and microbial populations, in addition to the potential leaching effect of high winter rainfall in the UK. In organic cereal crops, early resource capture is a major advantage for maximizing the utilization of nutrients from residue breakdown. It is concluded that selection of cultivars under conditions of high agrochemical inputs selects for cultivars that yield well under maximal conditions in terms of nutrient availability and pest, disease and weed control. The selection conditions for breeding have a tendency to select cultivars which perform relatively better in non-organic compared to organic systems.

Variation in root-associated phosphatase activities in wheat contributes to the utilization of organic P substrates in vitro, but does not explain differences in the P-nutrition of plants when grown in soils

To understand whether genotypic variation in root-associated phosphatase activities in wheat impacts on its ability to acquire phosphorus (P), various phosphatase activities of roots were measured in relation to the utilization of organic P substrates in agar, and the P-nutrition of plants was investigated in a range of soils. Root-associated phosphatase activities of plants grown in hydroponics were measured against different organic P substrates. Representative genotypes were then grown in both agar culture and in soils with differing organic P contents and plant biomass and P uptake were determined. Differences in the activities of both root-associated and exuded phosphodiesterase and phosphomonoesterase were observed, and were related to the P content of plants supplied with either ribonucleic acid or glucose 6-phosphate, respectively, as the sole form of P. When the cereal lines were grown in different soils, however, there was little relationship between any root-associated phosphatase activity and plant P uptake. This indicates that despite differences in phosphatase activities of cereal roots, such variability appears to play no significant role in the P-nutrition of the plant grown in soil, and that any benefit derived from the hydrolysis of soil organic P is common to all genotypes.