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Research roundup-By the MSU Research Office, Smallpox in Montana, Volcanic heartburn, Good-guy fungi, Visualizing swans

Smallpox in Montana

Montana and smallpox have a history, and it’s ugly, according to recent speakers at MSU. Smallpox not only decimated Indian tribes before the days of Lewis and Clark, but it pitted city against city during the late 1800s and early 1900s. When smallpox was reported in Anaconda, Deer Lodge wouldn’t let tramps get off the train if they’d been in Anaconda. No one from Anaconda could be jailed in Deer Lodge. Elsewhere in the state, victims were sent to "pest houses" or tent cities which were burned down after they died. Weary doctors, when they weren’t battling the disease, battled each other. Cities paid pock-faced people to work as quarantine guards. (Their scars indicated they had survived the disease, so were immune.)

Volcanic heartburn

In most cases, Gallatin County residents would have to go out of their way to get hurt by a volcano. That was the consensus of students in Todd Feeley’s Geology 400 class at MSU. Feeley divided the seminar class into three groups, and one group examined community issues in Gallatin County as they related to volcanism. Group leader Sandra Underwood said Yellowstone National Park contains a giant caldera, but it’s closely monitored by scientists. And its last sizable eruptions occurred 0.6 million years ago, 1.2 million years ago and two million years ago. Gallatin County residents are more likely to be affected by the Cascade volcanoes along the West Coast, Underwood said. The "volcanic heartburn" they might produce could come in the form of ash like Mount St. Helens sent Montana in 1980.

Good-guy fungi

Humans probably couldn’t exist without tiny soil inhabitants called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. They create a fine network between plant roots and nearby soil, providing plant nutrients and getting carbon in return. Cathy Zabinski, an assistant professor in MSU’s Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, studies how the fungi affect plants. Her team, including graduate student Rebecca Bunn, collects the fungi and monkey flower plant seeds in Yellowstone National Park, then grows the seeds to see how the fungi work at different soil temperatures and acidities. What they learn may someday help improve vegetation on other harsh sites, including high-elevation and mine-area reclamation areas.

Visualizing swans

Managers of wildlife refuges populated by trumpeter swans could use a way of visualizing how management decisions will affect swan migration patterns. What would be the outcome, for example, if it’s a warm December and the swans aren’t given supplemental food? Will the swans stay where they are or move to another refuge? Building such a computerized management tool is the goal of John Paxton, an associate professor in computer science, and Rick Sojda of the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center based at MSU. Funded by the U.S. Geological Survey, the tool would help manage trumpeter swans in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Weighing about 28 pounds, the birds are the largest swans in North America.

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2003/02/03/news/roundupbzbigs.txt

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