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Hydrogen Sulfide Released by Dibutyl Dithiophosphate Increases Potato Growth and Yield
(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2026-02)
Esquivel-Cervantes, Luis Fernando
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Zidack, Nina
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Oiestad, Alanna
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Bowden, Ned
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Martin, John M.
Hydrogen sulfide is a plant gasotransmitter that can increase plant growth. Application of compounds that slowly release hydrogen sulfide (H2S) is emerging as a method to increase plant growth and yield. This study investigated how dibutyl dithiophosphate (DBDTP), which releases H2S when metabolized by a plant, impacts potato growth and development. Two commonly grown potato varieties, Russet Burbank (RB) and Clearwater (CW), were grown under tissue culture, field, and growth chamber conditions with varying amounts of DBDTP. Potato root length was increased in tissue culture when DBDTP was included in the media at 0.025 and 0.1 mM. Potato plant height was also increased, though not significantly, at 0.05 mM DBDTP, while 0.2 mM DBDTP significantly reduced plant height. Under field conditions, potato yield was increased when DBDTP was applied as a 0.5 mM soil drench in 2023. Treated plants yielded 57.9 g per plant, compared to 33.5 g per plant for control plants, with a positive trend detected in 2024. Foliar sprays containing 0.5 mM DBDTP did not cause any visible damage to potato leaves when applied eight days after transplanting in growth chambers. DBDTP was associated with increased auxin pathway gene expression at seven and twelve days after DBDTP treatment. This study demonstrates the versatile ways in which DBDTP may be applied to improve potato growth under tissue culture, growth chamber, and field conditions.
American bison kill site use and abandonment amid drought and cultural shifts in late Holocene Montana
(Frontiers Media SA, 2026-02)
Wendt, John A.
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Neeley, Michael
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Alt, Mio
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Ewing, Stephanie A.
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Fischer, Georgianna S.
Understanding how ecological and social constraints interacted to shape bison hunting systems during the late Holocene reveals the dynamic ways bison hunting strategies adapted to changing conditions. At the Bergstrom site in central Montana, bison were hunted intermittently for roughly seven centuries before archaeologically visible use ceased near 1100 cal yr BP. To explain why hunting stopped despite continued regional bison presence, we integrate archaeological excavation, radiocarbon chronology, and multiproxy riparian paleoecology (pollen, charcoal, coprophilous fungal spores) with regional drought reconstructions and analysis of radiocarbon-dated bison occurrences. Local environmental proxies show stable vegetation, low fire activity, and persistent large-herbivore indicators after abandonment, providing little support for ecological transformation as a cause. Regional synthesis reveals that archaeological bison frequencies increased 5.5-fold through the Holocene while paleontological frequencies remained stable, with peak hunting intensity coinciding with severe, multi-decadal droughts. These findings contradict models of population tracking and indicate that hunting reorganization, not prey scarcity, led to site abandonment. The most parsimonious explanation is convergence of constraints: drought reduced processing water at hydrologically marginal sites while rising organizational demands favored larger, infrastructure-intensive communal operations. The abandonment of the small Bergstrom site likely reflects an adaptive reorganization of bison hunting efforts toward larger, topographically advantageous sites better suited to increasingly coordinated communal hunting systems. This case study illustrates how historical hunting systems maintained regional persistence through episodic site use and localized abandonment, providing empirical guidance for contemporary managers seeking to restore the spatial heterogeneity and adaptive capacity that supported bison-human systems under climatic variability.
U.S. politics as a reminder of historical losses in American Indian Adults: Implications for political participation
(Public Library of Science, 2025-12)
Wood, Zachary J.
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Helm, Peter J.
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John-Henderson, Neha A.
Historical loss (HL) is a contributor to experiences of historical trauma and its negative impacts on American Indians. The relationship between HL, U.S. politics and political participation among American Indians has not been examined. Minority groups can become politically active through perceiving discrimination or injustices against them. Measures of HL contain items related to the discrimination and injustices that American Indians have experienced. While the Historical Loss Scale (HLS) measures the frequency with which American Indians think about HL, it does not measure the degree to which U.S. Politics may act as a reminder of HL. Here, we introduce an adaptation of the HLS: the U.S. Politics as a Loss Reminder Scale (USPLRS), measuring the degree to which U.S. politics may remind American Indian adults of HL, with higher scores reflecting a greater association between U.S. politics and HL. A sample of 877 American Indian adults completed a series of questionnaires including the HLS, USPLRS, and measures of political participation during the November 2020 national election cycle. Results revealed a 3-factor structure of the USPLRS related to losses due to Government Mistreatment, Interpersonal Loss, and Respect. Scores on both the HLS and USPLRS were positively associated with political participation, with the USPLRS exhibiting incremental validity beyond the HLS.
Stellar Birth Radii in the LMC: Insights into Chemodynamics, Radial Migration, and Star Formation across the Disk
(American Astronomical Society, 2026-03)
Lu, Yuxi(Lucy)
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Garver, Bethany
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Nidever, David L.
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Povick, Joshua T.
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Garavito-Camargo, Nicolás
The LMC and SMC are interacting dwarf galaxies offering a valuable testbed for studying galactic mergers. We investigate the LMC’s chemodynamic history during its interaction with the SMC by inferring stellar birth radii using APOGEE DR17 data, first validated on a hydrodynamical simulation reproducing their interaction history. Using birth radii and stellar ages, we identify signatures of dynamical and chemical evolution across the LMC disk. The LMC’s metallicity gradient steepened around 5, 3, and 1 Gyr ago, coinciding with enhanced star formation (SF). These events show distinct spatial patterns—initially inner-disk concentrated 5 Gyr ago, expanding outward by 3 Gyr, and becoming widespread with renewed central activity at 1 Gyr—likely reflecting changes in spin alignment if SF enhancements track the SMC’s pericenter passages. After accounting for disk scale-length differences, inferred radial migration strength rises relative to Milky Way (MW) expectations at ages <5 Gyr and during major SF enhancements reported in the literature. The most α-enriched stars formed 2–3 Gyr ago at birth radii of 2–4 kpc, the only epoch when SF was broadly distributed. Unlike the MW, the LMC lacks a clear [α/M]-[Fe/H] bimodality, likely due to more centrally concentrated SF versus the MW’s extended outer-disk SF. These results strongly constrain the LMC’s assembly and its interaction with the SMC.
Ultra-faint Milky Way Satellites Discovered in Carina, Phoenix, and Telescopium with DELVE Data Release 3
(American Astronomical Society, 2026-03)
Tan, Chin Yi
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Cerny, W.
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Pace, Andrew B.
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Sharp, J. M.
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Overdeck, K.
We report the discovery of three Milky Way satellite candidates: Carina IV, Phoenix III, and DELVE 7, in the third data release of the DECam Local Volume Exploration survey (DELVE). The candidate systems were identified by cross-matching results from two independent search algorithms. All three are extremely faint systems composed of old, metal-poor stellar populations (τ ≳ 10 Gyr, [Fe/H] ≲−1.4). Carina IV (MV = −2.8; r1/2 = 40 pc) and Phoenix III (MV = −1.2; r1/2 = 19 pc) have half-light radii that are consistent with the known population of dwarf galaxies, while DELVE 7 (MV = 1.2; r1/2 = 2 pc) is very compact and seems more likely to be a star cluster, though its nature remains ambiguous without spectroscopic follow-up. The Gaia proper motions of stars in Carina IV ({M}_{\star }=225{0}_{-830}^{+1180}\,{M}_{\odot }) indicate that it is unlikely to be associated with the LMC, while DECam CaHK photometry confirms that its member stars are metal poor. Phoenix III ({M}_{\star }=52{0}_{-290}^{+660}\,{M}_{\odot }) is the faintest known satellite in the extreme outer stellar halo (DGC > 100 kpc), while DELVE 7 ({M}_{\star }=6{0}_{-40}^{+120}\,{M}_{\odot }) is the faintest known satellite with DGC > 20 kpc.