The marine biota from the middle Pennsylvanian outcrops of the Sierra Agua Verde, located in mid-eastern Sonora, consists of phylloid algae of the genera Komia and Eugonophyllum and a number of invertebrates. These species include bioaccumulations of chaetetids; brachiopods of the genera Dielasma sp., Reticulariina sp., Anthracospirifer sp., Antiquatonia sp.; bryozoans of the genus Thamniscus; tabulate corals such as Syringopora and solitary corals such as Zaphrentis; fusulinid foraminifera such as Pseudostaffella, Eoshubertella texana, Fusulinella llanoensis, and Zellerella; gastropods of the genus Euomphalus and Donaldina; and the crinoid genera Cyclocaudex, Cyclocrista, Heterosteleschus, Lamprosterigma, Mooreanteris, Pentagonopternix, Preptopremium, Cycloscaspus, and Pentaridica. The material was collected from outcrops in the first 512m of the La Joya Formation, and their sediments have a total thickness of 780m and consist of limestone interbedded with calcareous mudstone and sandstone lenses. The age of the middle Pennsylvanian strata corresponds to that of the Atokan stage (311 million years). The species assemblages are typical of a shallow tropical marine benthos. The analysis of the distribution of the species allowed for the determination of their paleogeographic relationships with the components of the biota of the Carboniferous strata of Texas and Kansas in the United States of America, which belong to the province of the North American Craton.

Water resources in agriculture-dominated basins of the arid western United States are stressed due to long-term impacts from pumping. A review of 88 regional groundwater-flow modeling applications from seven intensively irrigated western states (Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Nebraska and Texas) was conducted to provide hydrogeologists, modelers, water managers, and decision makers insight about past modeling studies that will aid future model development. Groundwater models were classified into three types: resource evaluation models (39%), which quantify water budgets and act as preliminary models intended to be updated later, or constitute re-calibrations of older models; management/planning models (55%), used to explore and identify management plans based on the response of the groundwater system to water-development or climate scenarios, sometimes under water-use constraints; and water rights models (7%), used to make water administration decisions based on model output and to quantify water shortages incurred by water users or climate changes. Results for 27 model characteristics are summarized by state and model type, and important comparisons and contrasts are highlighted. Consideration of modeling uncertainty and the management focus toward sustainability, adaptive management and resilience are discussed, and future modeling recommendations, in light of the reviewed models and other published works, are presented.