Oceanographic gradients and seabird prey community dynamics in glacial fjords
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, Erica N. Madison, Jeffrey S. Conaway, N. Hillgruber
2012, Fisheries Oceanography (21) 148-169
Glacial fjord habitats are undergoing rapid change as a result of contemporary global warming, yet little is known about how glaciers influence marine ecosystems. These ecosystems provide important feeding, breeding and rearing grounds for a wide variety of marine organisms, including seabirds of management concern. To characterize ocean conditions and...
Will a changing climate increase interaction between rare and non-native plant species in Alaska?
Lindsey Flagstad, Matthew L. Carlson, Helen Cortes-Burnes, Catherine Jarnevich, Tracy Holcombe
Wendy J. Gibble, Julie K. Combs, Sarah H. Reichard, editor(s)
2012, Conference Paper, Conserving plant biodiversity in a changing world: A view from northwestern North America
No abstract available....
U.S. Department of the Interior Southeast Climate Science Center Science and Operational Plan
Sonya A. Jones, Melinda S. Dalton
2012, Open-File Report 2012-1034
Climate change challenges many of the basic assumptions routinely used by conservation planners and managers, including the identification and prioritization of areas for conservation based on current environmental conditions and the assumption those conditions could be controlled by management actions. Climate change will likely alter important ecosystem drivers (temperature, precipitation,...
First description of autumn migration of Sooty Falcon Falco concolor from the United Arab Emirates to Madagascar using satellite telemetry
Sàlim Javed, David C. Douglas, Shahid Noor Khan, Junid Nazeer Shah, Abdullah Ali Al Hammadi
2012, Bird Conservation International (22) 106-119
The movement and migration pattern of the 'Near Threatened' Sooty Falcon Falco concolor is poorly known. Sooty Falcons breed on the islands of the Arabian Gulf after arriving from their non-breeding areas that are mainly in Madagascar. In the first satellite tracking of the species we fitted a 9.5 g...
Cross-seasonal patterns of avian influenza virus in breeding and wintering migratory birds: a flyway perspective
Nichola J. Hill, John Y. Takekawa, Carol J. Cardona, Brandt W. Meixell, Joshua T. Ackerman, Jonathan A. Runstadler, Walter M. Boyce
2012, Vector-Borne and Zoonotic Diseases (12) 243-253
The spread of avian influenza viruses (AIV) in nature is intrinsically linked with the movements of wild birds. Wild birds are the reservoirs for the virus and their migration may facilitate the circulation of AIV between breeding and wintering areas. This cycle of dispersal has become widely accepted; however, there...
Deep magmatic degassing versus scrubbing: Elevated CO2 emissions and C/S in the lead-up to the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska
Cynthia A. Werner, William C. Evans, Peter J. Kelly, Robert G. McGimsey, Melissa Pfeffer, Michael P. Doukas, Christina A. Neal
2012, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (13)
We report CO2, SO2, and H2S emission rates and C/S ratios during the five months leading up to the 2009 eruption of Redoubt Volcano, Alaska. CO2emission rates up to 9018 t/d and C/S ratios ≥30 measured in the months prior to the eruption were critical for fully informed forecasting efforts. Observations...
Assessment of potential oil and gas resources in source rocks of the Alaska North Slope, 2012
David W. Houseknecht, William A. Rouse, Christopher P. Garrity, Katherine J. Whidden, Julie A. Dumoulin, Christopher J. Schenk, Ronald R. Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Stephanie B. Gaswirth, Mark A. Kirschbaum, Richard M. Pollastro
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3013
The U.S. Geological Survey estimated potential, technically recoverable oil and gas resources for source rocks of the Alaska North Slope. Estimates (95-percent to 5-percent probability) range from zero to 2 billion barrels of oil and from zero to nearly 80 trillion cubic feet of gas....
Fission products in National Atmospheric Deposition Program—Wet deposition samples prior to and following the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant incident, March 8?April 5, 2011
Gregory A. Wetherbee, Timothy M. Debey, Mark A. Nilles, Christopher M.B. Lehmann, David A. Gay
2012, Open-File Report 2011-1277
Radioactive isotopes I-131, Cs-134, or Cs-137, products of uranium fission, were measured at approximately 20 percent of 167 sampled National Atmospheric Deposition Program monitoring sites in North America (primarily in the contiguous United States and Alaska) after the Fukushima Dai-Ichi Nuclear Power Plant incident on March 12, 2011. Samples from...
Uranium isotopes (234U/238U) in rivers of the Yukon Basin (Alaska and Canada) as an aid in identifying water sources, with implications for monitoring hydrologic change in arctic regions
Thomas F. Kraemer, Timothy P. Brabets
2012, Hydrogeology Journal (20) 469-481
The ability to detect hydrologic variation in large arctic river systems is of major importance in understanding and predicting effects of climate change in high-latitude environments. Monitoring uranium isotopes (234U and 238U) in river water of the Yukon River Basin of Alaska and northwestern Canada (2001–2005) has enhanced the ability to...
Genetic diversity of a newly established population of golden eagles on the Channel Islands, California
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Timothy J. Coonan, Brian C. Latta, George K. Sage, Sandra L. Talbot
2012, Biological Conservation (146) 116-122
Gene flow can have profound effects on the genetic diversity of a founding population depending on the number and relationship among colonizers and the duration of the colonization event. Here we used data from nuclear microsatellite and mitochondrial DNA control region loci to assess genetic diversity in golden eagles of...
Microanatomy of passerine hard-cornified tissues: Beak and claw structure of the black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)
Caroline R. Van Hemert, Colleen M. Handel, John E. Blake, Rhonda Swor, Todd M. O'Hara
2012, Journal of Morphology (273) 226-240
The microanatomy of healthy beaks and claws in passerine birds has not been well described in the literature, despite the importance of these structures in avian life. Histological processing of hard‐cornified tissues is notoriously challenging and only a few reports on effective techniques have been published. An emerging epizootic of...
Monitoring floods and fires during the summer of 2011--The value of the Landsat satellite 40-year archives
Linda Owen
2012, Fact Sheet 2012-3006
The summer of 2011 proved to be a season of extreme events. Heavy snowfall in the western mountains and excessive spring rains caused flooding along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers; whereas extended dry conditions enabled fires to rage out of control from Alaska and Canada, south to Texas, Arizona, New...
Changing Arctic ecosystems--research to understand and project changes in marine and terrestrial ecosystems of the Arctic
Joy Geiselman, Anthony R. DeGange, Karen Oakley, Dirk V. Derksen, Mary E. Whalen
2012, Fact Sheet 2011-3136
Ecosystems and their wildlife communities are not static; they change and evolve over time due to numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. A period of rapid change is occurring in the Arctic for which our current understanding of potential ecosystem and wildlife responses is limited. Changes to the physical environment include...
Thermal maturation history of Arctic Alaska and the southern Canada Basin
David W. Houseknecht, W. Matthew Burns, Kenneth J. Bird
2012, Book chapter, Analyzing the thermal history of sedimentary basins: Methods and case studies
The emerging global focus on the oil and gas potential of the Arctic underscores the importance of understanding petroleum systems with limited data. Geohistory modeling of Arctic Alaska (including the Chukchi shelf) and the southern Canada basin indicates that regional patterns of thermal maturity and timing of petroleum generation reflect...
Peninsular terrane basement ages recorded by Paleozoic and Paleoproterozoic zircon in gabbro xenoliths and andesite from Redoubt volcano, Alaska
Charles R. Bacon, Jorge A. Vazquez, Joseph L. Wooden
2012, Geological Society of America Bulletin (124) 24-34
Historically Sactive Redoubt volcano is an Aleutian arc basalt-to-dacite cone constructed upon the Jurassic–Early Tertiary Alaska–Aleutian Range batholith. The batholith intrudes the Peninsular tectonostratigraphic terrane, which is considered to have developed on oceanic basement and to have accreted to North America, possibly in Late Jurassic time. Xenoliths in Redoubt magmas...
Wet deposition of fission-product isotopes to North America from the Fukushima Dai-ichi incident, March 2011
Gregory A. Wetherbee, David A. Gay, Timothy M. Debey, Christopher M.B. Lehmann, Mark A. Nilles
2012, Environmental Science & Technology (46) 2574-2582
Using the infrastructure of the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP), numerous measurements of radionuclide wet deposition over North America were made for 167 NADP sites before and after the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station incident of March 12, 2011. For the period from March 8 through April 5, 2011, wet-only...
Long-term effects of the 'Exxon Valdez' oil spill: Sea otter foraging in the intertidal as a pathway of exposure to lingering oil
James L. Bodkin, Brenda E. Ballachey, Heather A. Coletti, George G. Esslinger, Kimberly A. Kloecker, Stanley D. Rice, John A. Reed, Daniel H. Monson
2012, Marine Ecology Progress Series (447) 273-287
The protracted recovery of some bird and mammal populations in western Prince William Sound (WPWS), Alaska, and the persistence of spilled 'Exxon Valdez' oil in intertidal sediments, suggests a pathway of exposure to consumers that occupy nearshore habitats. To evaluate the hypothesis that sea otter (Enhydra lutris) foraging allows access...
Cross-species amplification of microsatellite markers in the Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus, Short-eared Owl Asio flammeus and Snowy Owl B. scandiacus for use in population genetics, individual identification and parentage studies
Cody R. Dial, Sandra L. Talbot, George K. Sage, Mathew T. Seidensticker, Denver W. Holt
2012, Journal of the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology (44) 1-12
Using DNA from blood and feathers, we screened twenty-four microsatellite primer pairs initially developed for six strigid owls, and four primer pairs shown to be polymorphic across avian taxa, for their utility in Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), Short-eared Owl (Asio flammeus), and Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus). Eight of these...
Variations of transcript profiles between sea otters Enhydra lutris from Prince William Sound, Alaska, and clinically normal reference otters
A. Keith Miles, Lizabeth Bowen, Brenda E. Ballachey, James L. Bodkin, M. Murray, J.L. Estes, Robin A. Keister, J.L. Stott
2012, Marine Ecology Progress Series (451) 201-212
Development of blood leukocyte gene transcript profiles has the potential to expand condition assessments beyond those currently available to evaluate wildlife health, including sea otters Enhydra lutris, both individually and as populations. The 10 genes targeted in our study represent multiple physiological systems that play a role in immuno-modulation, inflammation,...
Range-wide patterns of migratory connectivity in the western sandpiper Calidris mauri
Samantha E. Franks, D. Ryan Norris, T. Kurt Kyser, Guillermo Fernández, Birgit Schwarz, Roberto Carmona, Mark A. Colwell, Jorge Correa Sandoval, Alexey Dondua, H. River Gates, Ben Haase, David J. Hodkinson, Ariam Jimenez, Richard B. Lanctot, Brent Ortego, Brett K. Sandercock, Felicia J. Sanders, John Y. Takekawa, Nils Warnock, Ron C. Ydenberg, David B. Lank
2012, Journal of Avian Biology (43) 155-167
Understanding the population dynamics of migratory animals and predicting the consequences of environmental change requires knowing how populations are spatially connected between different periods of the annual cycle. We used stable isotopes to examine patterns of migratory connectivity across the range of the western sandpiper Calidris mauri. First, we developed...
Well log characterization of natural gas-hydrates
Timothy S. Collett, Myung W. Lee
2012, Book
In the last 25 years there have been significant advancements in the use of well-logging tools to acquire detailed information on the occurrence of gas hydrates in nature: whereas wireline electrical resistivity and acoustic logs were formerly used to identify gas-hydrate occurrences in wells drilled in Arctic permafrost environments, more...
A circumpolar monitoring framework for polar bears
Dag Vongraven, Jon Aars, Steven C. Amstrup, Stephen N. Atkinson, Stanislav Belikov, Erik W. Born, T.D. DeBruyn, Andrew E. Derocher, George M. Durner, Michael J. Gill, Nicholas J. Lunn, Martyn E. Obbard, Jack Omelak, Nikita Ovsyanikov, Elizabeth L. Peacock, E.E. Richardson, Vicki Sahanatien, Ian Stirling, Øystein Wiig
2012, Ursus (23) 1-66
Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) occupy remote regions that are characterized by harsh weather and limited access. Polar bear populations can only persist where temporal and spatial availability of sea ice provides adequate access to their marine mammal prey. Observed declines in sea ice availability will continue as long as greenhouse...
Spatiotemporal analysis of black spruce forest soils and implications for the fate of C
Jennifer W. Harden, Kristen L. Manies, Jonathan O'Donnell, Kristofer Johnson, Steve Frolking, Zhaosheng Fan
2012, Journal of Geophysical Research (117)
Post-fire storage of carbon (C) in organic-soil horizons was measured in one Canadian and three Alaskan chronosequences in black spruce forests, together spanning stand ages of nearly 200 yrs. We used a simple mass balance model to derive estimates of inputs, losses, and accumulation rates of C on timescales of...
The effects of permafrost thaw on soil hydrologic, thermal, and carbon dynamics in an Alaskan peatland
Jonathan A. O’Donnell, M. Torre Jorgenson, Jennifer W. Harden, A. David McGuire, Mikhail Z. Kanevskiy, Kimberly P. Wickland
2012, Ecosystems (15) 213-229
Recent warming at high-latitudes has accelerated permafrost thaw in northern peatlands, and thaw can have profound effects on local hydrology and ecosystem carbon balance. To assess the impact of permafrost thaw on soil organic carbon (OC) dynamics, we measured soil hydrologic and thermal dynamics and soil OC stocks across a...
Bacterial and enchytraeid abundance accelerate soil carbon turnover along a lowland vegetation gradient in interior Alaska
M. P. Waldrop, Jennifer W. Harden, M.R. Turetsky, D.G. Petersen, A. D. McGuire, M.J.I. Briones, A.C. Churchill, D.H. Doctor, L.E. Pruett
2012, Soil Biology and Biochemistry (50) 188-198
Boreal wetlands are characterized by a mosaic of plant communities, including forests, shrublands, grasslands, and fens, which are structured largely by changes in topography and water table position. The soil associated with these plant communities contain quantitatively and qualitatively different forms of soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrient availability that...
