Examining the effect of environmental variability on the viability of endangered Steller sea lions using an integrated population model
Amanda J. Warlick, Devin S. Johnson, Katie L. Sweeney, Tom S. Gelatt, Sarah J. Converse
2023, Endangered Species Research (52) 343-361
Understanding spatio-temporal variability in demography and the influence of environmental conditions offers insight into the factors underlying population dynamics. This is particularly true for species with divergent demographic patterns across large geographic areas. The contrasting abundance trends observed across the range of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) have been studied...
Feasibility of implementing a long-term plan to monitor the Arctic Basin polar bear subpopulation
Ryan H. Wilson, Jon Aars, Todd C. Atwood, Evan Richardson
2023, Report
The Arctic Basin (AB) polar bear subpopulation is the least studied of the 19 global polar bear subpopulations. The Polar Bear Specialist Group (PBSG) recognizes the AB subpopulation as a regional grouping intended to include bears that do not belong to any of the remaining subpopulations that have data to support boundary delineations....
Differential heat shock protein responses in two species of Pacific salmon and their utility in identifying heat stress
Vanessa R. von Biela, Amy M. Regish, Lizabeth Bowen, Ashley E. Stanek, Shannon C. Waters-Dynes, Michael P. Carey, Christian E. Zimmerman, Jonathon Gerken, Daniel Rinella, Stephen D. McCormick
2023, Conservation Physiology (11)
Rapid and accelerating warming of salmon habitat has the potential to lower productivity of Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus species) populations. Heat stress biomarkers can indicate where warming is most likely affecting fish populations; however, we often lack clear classifications that separate individuals with and without heat stress needed to make these...
Fractures, scarps, faults, and landslides mapped using LiDAR, Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve, Alaska
Chad Hults, Jeffrey A. Coe, Nikita N. Avdievitch
2023, Report
This map of fractures, scarps, faults, and landslides was completed to identify areas in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve that may present a landslide-generated tsunami hazard. To address the potential of landslide and tsunami hazards in the park, the National Park Service (NPS) and the US Geological Survey (USGS)...
Divergent responses of western Alaska salmon to a changing climate
Erik Schoen, Kathrine G. Howard, James Murphy, Daniel Schindler, Peter A. H. Westley, Vanessa R. von Biela
2023, Report, 2023 Arctic Report Card
HeadlinesWestern Alaska salmon abundance reached historic extremes during 2021-22, with record lows for Chinook and chum salmon (81% and 92% below the 30-year mean, respectively) and record highs for sockeye salmon (98% above the 30-year mean).Salmon are maturing at smaller sizes. Since the 1970s, for example, Yukon River Chinook...
Arctic-boreal lakes of interior Alaska dominated by contemporary carbon
Fenix Garcia-Tigreros, Clayton D. Elder, Martin R. Kurek, Benjamin L. Miller, Xiaomei Xu, Kimberly Wickland, Cluadia I. Czimczik, Mark M. Dornblaser, Robert G. Striegl, Ethan D. Kyzivat, Laurence C. Smith, Robert G.M. Spencer, Charles E. Miller, David Butman
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Northern high-latitude lakes are critical sites for carbon processing and serve as potential conduits for the emission of permafrost-derived carbon and greenhouse gases. However, the fate and emission pathways of permafrost carbon in these systems remain uncertain. Here, we used the natural abundance of radiocarbon to identify and trace the...
Investigating permafrost carbon dynamics in Alaska with artificial intelligence
Bradley Gay, Neal Pastick, Andreas Zufle, Amanda Armstrong, Kimberly Miner, J.J. Qu
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Positive feedbacks between permafrost degradation and the release of soil carbon into the atmosphere impact land–atmosphere interactions, disrupt the global carbon cycle, and accelerate climate change. The widespread distribution of thawing permafrost is causing a cascade of geophysical and biochemical disturbances with global impacts. Currently, few earth...
Kinematic evolution of a large paraglacial landslide in the Barry Arm fjord of Alaska
Lauren N. Schaefer, Jeffrey A. Coe, Katreen Wikstrom Jones, Brian D. Collins, Dennis M. Staley, Michael E. West, Ezgi Karasozen, Charles Prentice-James Miles, Gabriel J. Wolken, Ronald P. Daanan, Kelli Wadsworth Baxstrom
2023, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (128)
Our warming climate is adversely affecting cryospheric landscapes via glacial retreat, permafrost degradation, and associated slope destabilization. In Prince William Sound, Alaska, the rapid retreat of Barry Glacier has destabilized the slopes flanking the glacier, resulting in numerous landslides. The largest of these landslides (∼500 Mm3 in volume) is...
Probabilistic source classification of large tephra producing eruptions using supervised machine learning: An example from the Alaska-Aleutian arc
Jordan Edward Lubbers, Matthew W. Loewen, Kristi L. Wallace, Michelle L. Coombs, Jason A. Addison
2023, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (24)
Alaska contains over 130 volcanoes and volcanic fields that have been active within the last 2 million years. Of these, roughly 90 have erupted during the Holocene, with many characterized by at least one large explosive eruption. These large tephra-producing eruptions (LTPEs) generate orders of magnitude more...
Reconnaissance mineral and cathodoluminescence studies of gold occurrences in the Pogo-Black Mountain area, eastern interior Alaska, USA
Garth E. Graham, Erin E. Marsh, Heather A. Lowers, Ryan D. Taylor
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th SGA biennial meeting
The Pogo Au deposit is the largest of a number of gold occurrences in eastern interior Alaska, that occur along a broad trend from west of Pogo to Black Mountain. Some of these occurrences are hosted in amphibolite facies gneisses and others in mid-Cretaceous igneous rocks that intruded the older...
Critical minerals: Germanium and cobalt in the Bornite deposit, southwestern Brooks Range, Alaska
Katharina Pfaff, Garth E. Graham, Alex Jones, Karen D. Kelley
2023, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 17th SGA biennial meeting
Increasing demand for Ge and Co has led to a renewed interest and focus on advancing our understanding of the occurrence, distribution, and sequestration of these critical elements in known ore deposits. A workflow using a variety of analytical techniques and co-registered datasets has been developed and was applied to...
The Arctic Rivers Project: Using an equitable co-production framework for integrating meaningful community engagement and science to understand climate impacts
Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Alestine Andre, Victoria Buschman, Dylan Blaskey, Cassandra M. Brooks, Yifan Cheng, Evelynn Combs, Karen Cozzetto, Serena Fitka, Joshua C. Koch, Aine Lawlor, Elizabeth Moses, Emily Murray, Edda A. Mutter, Andrew Newman, Charles Prince, Patricia Salmon, Jenessa Tlen, Ryan C. Toohey, Michael L. Williams, Keith Musselman
2023, Community Science (2)
As the Arctic and its rivers continue to warm, a better understanding of the possible future impacts on people would benefit from close partnership with Indigenous communities and scientists from diverse fields of study. We present efforts by the Arctic Rivers Project to conduct community-engaged research to...
Incremental evolution of modeling a prognosis for polar bears in a rapidly changing Arctic
Bruce G. Marcot, Todd C. Atwood, David C. Douglas, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Anthony M. Pagano, Steven C. Amstrup
2023, Ecological Indicators (156)
Updating predictions of the response of high-profile, at-risk species to climate change and anthropogenic stressors is vital for informing effective conservation action. Here, we review two prior generations of Bayesian network probability models predicting changes in global polar bear (Ursus maritimus) population status, and provide...
Critical minerals for a carbon-neutral future
Douglas C. Kreiner, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Warren C. Day
2023, Eos, American Geophysical Union (104)
The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative is filling data gaps and fostering more holistic understanding of critical mineral resources in the United States using a novel mineral systems framework....
Stream hydrology and a pulse subsidy shape patterns of fish foraging
Kevin Fitzgerald, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jason B. Fellman, Matthew L. H. Cheng, Claire Delbecq, Jeffrey A. Falke
2023, Journal of Animal Ecology (92) 2386-2398
Pulsed subsidy events create ephemeral fluxes of hyper-abundant resources that can shape annual patterns of consumption and growth for recipient consumers. However, environmental conditions strongly affect local resource availability for much of the year, and can heavily impact consumer foraging and growth patterns prior to pulsed subsidy events. Thus,...
Glass electron microprobe analyses methods, precision and accuracy for tephra studies in Alaska
Matthew W. Loewen, Kristi L. Wallace, Jordan Edward Lubbers, Dawn Catherine Sweeney Ruth, Pavel Izbekov, Jessica Larsen, Nathan Graham
2023, Report, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Miscellaneous Publication 174
No abstract available....
High pathogenicity avian influenza represents an unprecedented conservation challenge for globally declining seabird populations. Response to: Editorial, Protect wildlife from livestock diseases (Thijs Kuiken & Ruth Cromie)
Michelle Wille, Stephanie Avery-Gomm, Valentina Caliendo, Kees Camphuysen, E. Humphreys, Andrew Lang, Emma Philip, Andrew M. Ramey, Jolianne M. Rijks, Gregory Robertson, Laura Robertson
2023, Science (378) 5-5
No abstract available....
Climate, heatwaves, nearshore ecosystems and the sunflower sea star
Sarah Beth Traiger, Robert M. Suryan, Heather A. Coletti, Daniel Esler
2023, Open Access Government (2023) 412-413
At the nexus of the ocean and the land lies the nearshore ecosystem, which includes the intertidal zone, an area exposed during low tides and submerged during high tides. Species in the intertidal are adapted to a high level of environmental variability including high temperatures, waves, and salinity variability. Species’...
Historically active volcanoes of Alaska reference deck
Cheryl E. Cameron, Kristen A. H. Janssen, Tim R. Orr, Matthew W. Loewen
2023, Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys Information Circular IC59 v.3
No abstract available....
Regional crustal structure of Indonesia from receiver functions
Ying Zhang, Walter D. Mooney
2023, Tectonophysics (865)
Characterizing the crustal structure of Indonesia is important to gain a better understanding of its geodynamic evolution and improve seismic hazard assessments in the area. However, a unified crustal model of the entire Indonesian region and its surroundings is lacking. We present new maps of crustal thickness and bulk Vp/Vs ratio...
Landslide initiation thresholds in data-sparse regions: Application to landslide early warning criteria in Sitka, Alaska, USA
Annette Patton, Lisa Luna, Josh J. Roering, Aaron Jacobs, Oliver Korup, Benjamin B. Mirus
2023, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (23) 3261-3284
Probabilistic models to inform landslide early warning systems often rely on rainfall totals observed during past events with landslides. However, these models are generally developed for broad regions using large catalogs, with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of landslide occurrences. This study evaluates strategies for training landslide forecasting models with...
Variability in terrestrial characteristics and erosion rates on the Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast
Anastasia Piliouras, Benjamin M. Jones, Tabatha Clevenger, Ann E. Gibbs, Joel C. Rowland
2023, Environmental Research Letters (18)
Arctic coastal environments are eroding and rapidly changing. A lack of pan-Arctic observations limits our ability to understand controls on coastal erosion rates across the entire Arctic region. Here, we capitalize on an abundance of geospatial and remotely sensed data, in addition to model output, from the...
Evaluation of breeding distribution and chronology of North American scoters
Kristin Bianchini, Scott G. Gilliland, Alicia Berlin, Timothy D. Bowman, W. Sean Boyd, Susan E.W. De La Cruz, Daniel Esler, Joseph R. Evenson, Paul L. Flint, Christine Lepage, Scott R. McWilliams, Dustin E. Meattey, Jason E. Osenkowski, Matthew Perry, Jean-Francois Poulin, Eric T. Reed, Christian Roy, Jean-Pierre L. Savard, Lucas Savoy, Jason L Schamber, Caleb S. Spiegel, John Takekawa, David H. Ward, Mark L. Mallory
2023, Wildlife Biology (2023)
North America's scoter species are poorly monitored relative to other waterfowl. Black Melanitta americana, surf M. perspicillata, and white-winged M. deglandi scoter abundance and trend estimates are thus uncertain in many parts of these species' ranges. The most extensive source of waterfowl abundance and distribution data in North...
Dispersal of juvenile Barrow’s goldeneyes (Bucephala islandica) mirrors that of breeding adults
Tess Forstner, Sean Boyd, Daniel Esler, David Green
2023, Movement Ecology (11)
Barrow’s goldeneyes across western North America have been shown to have a high degree of subpopulation independence using several data types. However, evidence for structured populations based on mitochondrial DNA, band recoveries, and tracking of adults is discordant with evidence from autosomal DNA. We used satellite...
Mortality thresholds of juvenile trees to drought and heatwaves: Implications for forest regeneration across a landscape gradient
Alexadra Lalor, Darin J. Law, David D. Breshears, Donald A. Falk, Jason P. Field, Rachel A. Loehman, Jack Triepke, Greg A. Barron-Gafford
2023, Frontiers in Forests and Global Change (6)
Tree loss is increasing rapidly due to drought- and heat-related mortality and intensifying fire activity. Consequently, the fate of many forests depends on the ability of juvenile trees to withstand heightened climate and disturbance anomalies. Extreme climatic events, such as droughts and heatwaves, are increasing in frequency and severity, and...
