Post-release monitoring of a stranded and rehabilitated short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus) reveals current-assisted travel
Reny B Tyson Moore, David C. Douglas, Hendrik H. Nollens, Randall S. Wells
2020, Aquatic Mammals (46) 200-214
A subadult female short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus), stranded on the northeastern Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida in June 2017, was rehabilitated for 38 days and then monitored with a satellite-linked, time-depth recording tag for 32 days after being released off the West Florida Shelf. The individual, “Gale,”...
Storm impacts on phytoplankton community dynamics in lakes
Jason D. Stockwell, Jonathan P. Doubek, Rita Adrian, Orlane Anneville, Cayelan C. Carey, Laurence Carvalho, Marieke A. Frassl, Lisette N. De Senerpont Domis, Gael Dur, Bas W Ibelings, Hans-Peter Grossart, Marc J. Lajeunesse, Aleksandra M. Lewandowska, Maria E. Llames, Shin-Ichiro S. Matsuzaki, Emily Nodine, Peeter Noges, Vijay P. Patil, Francesco Pomati, Karsten Rinke, Lars G. Rudstam, James A. Rusak, Nico Salmaso, Christian T. Seltmann, Dietmar Straile, Stephen J. Thackeray, Wim Thiery, Pablo Urrutia-Cordero, Patrick Venail, Piet Verburg, R. Iestyn Woolway, Tamar Zohary, Mikkel R. Andersen, Ruchi Bhattacharya, J. Hejzlar, Nasime Janatian, Alfred T. N. K. Kpodonu, Tanner J. Williamson, Harriet Wilson
2020, Global Change Biology (26) 2756-2784
In many regions across the globe, extreme weather events such as storms have increased in frequency, intensity, and duration due to climate change. Ecological theory predicts that such extreme events should have large impacts on ecosystem structure and function. High winds and precipitation associated with storms can affect lakes via...
Monitoring nearshore ecosystem health using Pacific razor clams (Siliqua patula) as an indicator species
Lizabeth Bowen, Katrina Counihan, Brenda E. Ballachey, Heather A Colletti, Tuula E. Hollmen, Benjamin Pister, Tammy L Wilson
2020, PeerJ (8)
An emerging approach to ecosystem monitoring involves the use of physiological biomarker analyses in combination with gene transcription assays. For the first time, we employed these tools to evaluate the Pacific razor clam (Siliqua patula), which is important both economically and ecologically, as a bioindicator species in the northeast Pacific....
Quality control and assessment of interpreter consistency of annual land cover reference data in an operational national monitoring program
Bruce Pengra, Stephen V. Stehman, Josephine Horton, Daryn Dockter, Todd A. Schroeder, Zhiqiang Yang, Warren B Cohen, Sean P. Healey, Thomas Loveland
2020, Remote Sensing of Environment (238)
The U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Monitoring, Assessment and Projection (USGS LCMAP) initiative is working toward a comprehensive capability to characterize land cover and land cover change using dense Landsat time series data. A suite of products including annual land cover maps and annual land cover change maps will be...
The 3D Elevation Program and energy for the Nation
Cindy A. Thatcher, Vicki Lukas, Jason M. Stoker
2020, Fact Sheet 2019-3051
High-resolution light detection and ranging (lidar) data are used in energy infrastructure siting, design, permitting, construction, and monitoring to promote public safety through the reduction of risks. For example, lidar data are used to identify safe locations for energy infrastructure by analyzing terrain parameters and identifying and evaluating geologic hazards...
Spatial epidemiological patterns suggest mechanisms of land-sea transmission for Sarcocystis neurona in a coastal marine mammal
Tristan Burgess, M. Tim Tinker, Melissa A. Miller, Woutrina A. Smith, James L. Bodkin, Michael J. Murray, Linda M. Nichol, Justin A. Saarinen, Shawn E. Larson, Joseph A. Tomoleoni, Patricia A. Conrad, Christine K. Johnson
2020, Scientific Reports (10)
Sarcocystis neurona was recognised as an important cause of mortality in southern sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) after an outbreak in April 2004 and has since been detected in many marine mammal species in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Risk of S. neurona exposure in sea otters is associated with consumption...
Co-producing knowledge: The Integrated Ecosystem Model for resource management in Arctic Alaska
Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Kristin Timm, Amy L. Breen, Stephen Gray, T. Scott Rupp, Philip Martin, Joel H. Reynolds, Amanda Sesser, Karen Murphy, Jeremy Littell, Alec Bennett, W. Robert Bolton, Tobey Carman, Helene Genet, Brad Griffith, Tom Kurkowski, Mark J. Lara, Sergei Marchenko, Dmitry Nicolsky, Panda Santosh, Vladimir Romanovsky, Ruth Rutter, Colin Tucker, A. David McGuire
2020, Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment (18) 447-455
Assessments of climate-change effects on ecosystem processes and services in high-latitude regions are hindered by a lack of decision-support tools capable of forecasting possible future landscapes. We describe a collaborative effort to develop and apply the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) for Alaska and northwestern Canada to explore how climate change...
Climate- and disturbance-driven changes in subsistence berries in coastal Alaska: Indigenous knowledge to inform ecological inference
Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Rachel A. Loehman, Ryan C. Toohey, Cynthia Paniyak
2020, Human Ecology Review (48) 85-99
Berry-producing plants are a key subsistence resource in Indigenous Alaskan communities. High-latitude coastal regions are particularly impacted by global climate change due to their location at the land-sea ecotone subjecting them to terrestrial stressors as well as shifts in ocean dynamics. While vegetation changes have been documented for the subarctic coastal region of Alaska,...
Regional ocean models indicate changing limits to biological invasions in the Bering Sea
Amanda Droghini, Anthony S. Fischbach, Jordan Watson, Jesika Reimer
2020, ICES Journal of Marine Science
Minimal vessel traffic and cold water temperatures are believed to limit non-indigenous species (NIS) in high-latitude ecosystems. We evaluated whether suitable conditions exist in the Bering Sea for the introduction, survival, and reproduction of NIS. We compiled temperature and salinity thresholds of known NIS and compared these to ocean conditions...
Evolving infrasound detections from Bogoslof volcano, Alaska: Insights from atmospheric propagation modeling
Hans Schwaiger, John J. Lyons, Alexandra M. Iezzi, David Fee, Matthew M. Haney
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
Bogoslof volcano, a back-arc volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian arc, began an eruptive sequence in mid-December 2016 that ended in late August 2017, with 70 individual eruptive episodes. Because there were no local seismic or infrasound stations on the island, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) relied on distant geophysical networks and...
Seasonal subsurface thaw dynamics of an aufeis feature inferred from geophysical methods
Neil Terry, Elliot Grunewald, Martin A. Briggs, Michael Gooseff, Alexander D. Huryn, M. Andy Kass, Ken Tape, Patrick Hendrickson, John W. Lane Jr.
2020, Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface (125)
Aufeis are sheets of ice unique to cold regions that originate from repeated flooding and freezing events during the winter. They have hydrological importance associated with summer flows and possibly winter insulation, but little is known about the seasonal dynamics of the unfrozen sediment layer beneath them. This layer...
Movements and habitat use of loons for assessment of conservation buffer zones in the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska
Sharon A. Poessel, Brian D. Uher-Koch, John M. Pearce, Joel A. Schmutz, Todd E. Katzner, David C. Douglas, Vanessa R. von Biela, Autumn-Lynne Harrison
2020, Global Ecology and Conservation (22)
Oil and gas development in the Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska, may pose threats to wildlife. Management guidelines within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska dictate buffer zones for coastal wildlife habitat and for breeding and foraging sites of yellow-billed loons (YBLOs; Gavia adamsii), a species of conservation concern. However, few...
Phase equilibrium of a high-SiO2, andesite at fO2 = RRO: Implications for Augustine volcano and other high-fO2 arc andesites
Sarah H. De Angelis, Jessica F. Larsen, Michelle L. Coombs, James E. P. Utley, Andrew P. Dunn
2020, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology (175)
Understanding the impact of magmatic plumbing systems on explosive volcanic activity is important for hazard management. This study describes phase equilibria experiments using a high-silica andesite (HSA; SiO2 = 62.5 wt%) from the 2006 eruption of Augustine Volcano, Alaska. Experiments were conducted under H2O saturated conditions, f0<mrow...
Waterfowl occurrence and residence time as indicators of H5 and H7 avian influenza in North American Poultry
John M. Humphreys, Andy Ramey, David C. Douglas, Jennifer M. Mullinax, Catherine Soos, Paul T. Link, Patrick Walther, Diann J. Prosser
2020, Scientific Reports (10) 16
Avian influenza (AI) affects wild aquatic birds and poses hazards to human health, food security, and wildlife conservation globally. Accordingly, there is a recognized need for new methods and tools to help quantify the dynamic interaction between wild bird hosts and commercial poultry. Using satellite-marked waterfowl, we applied Bayesian...
Geology and assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Sverdrup Basin Province, Arctic Canada, 2008
Marilyn E. Tennyson, Janet K. Pitman
Thomas E. Moore, Donald L. Gautier, editor(s)
2020, Professional Paper 1824-I
The Sverdrup Basin Province, an area of 515,000 square kilometers on the northern margin of North America, extends 1,300 kilometers across the Canadian Arctic Islands from near the Mackenzie Delta to northern Ellesmere Island. It consists of an intracratonic late Paleozoic to early Cenozoic rift-sag basin and a Mesozoic rift...
Modelling pinniped abundance and distribution by combining counts at terrestrial sites and in-water sightings
Steven L. Whitlock, Jamie N. Womble, James Peterson
2020, Ecological Modelling (420)
Pinnipeds are commonly monitored using aerial photographic surveys at land- or ice-based sites, where animals come ashore for resting, pupping, molting, and to avoid predators. Although these counts form the basis for monitoring population change over time, they do not provide information...
A spatially explicit, empirical estimate of tree-based biological nitrogen fixation in forests of the United States
Anika Staccone, Wenying Liao, Steven Perakis, Jana Compton, Christopher L. Clark, Duncan Menge
2020, Global Biogeochemical Cycles (34)
Quantifying human impacts on the nitrogen (N) cycle and investigating natural ecosystem N cycling depend on the magnitude of inputs from natural biological nitrogen fixation (BNF). Here, we present two bottom‐up approaches to quantify tree‐based symbiotic BNF based on forest inventory data across the coterminous United States and SE Alaska....
Cryptic and extensive hybridization between ancient lineages of American crows
David Slager, Kevin Epperly, Renee Ha, Sievert Rohwer, Christopher W. Woodall, Caroline R. Van Hemert, John Klicka
2020, Molecular Ecology (29) 956-969
Most species and therefore most hybrid zones have historically been defined using phenotypic characters. However, both speciation and hybridization can occur with negligible morphological differentiation. Recently developed genomic tools provide the means to better understand cryptic speciation and hybridization. The Northwestern Crow (Corvus caurinus) and American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) are...
Hydrologic connectivity determines dissolved organic matter biogeochemistry in northern high-latitude lakes
Sarah Ellen Johnston, Robert G. Striegl, Matthew J. Bogard, Mark M. Dornblaser, David E. Butman, Anne M. Kellerman, Kimberly P. Wickland, David C. Podgorski, Robert G. M. Spencer
2020, Limnology and Oceanography (65) 1764-1780
Northern high‐latitude lakes are undergoing climate‐induced changes including shifts in their hydrologic connectivity with terrestrial ecosystems. How this will impact dissolved organic matter (DOM) biogeochemistry remains uncertain. We examined the drivers of DOM composition for lakes in the Yukon Flats Basin in Alaska, an arid region of low relief that...
Did ice-charging generate volcanic lightning during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska?
Alexa R. Van Eaton, David J. Schneider, Cassandra Marie Smith, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, Ryan Said, David Fee, Robert H. Holzworth, Larry G. Mastin
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
The 2016–2017 shallow submarine eruption of Bogoslof volcano in Alaska injected plumes of ash and seawater to maximum heights of ~ 12 km. More than 4550 volcanic lightning strokes were detected by the World Wide Lightning Location Network (WWLLN) and Vaisala’s Global Lightning Dataset (GLD360) over 9 months. Lightning...
Are migratory waterfowl vectors of seagrass pathogens?
Damian M. Menning, David H. Ward, Sandy Wyllie-Echeverria, Kevin Sage, Megan C. Gravley, Hunter Gravley, Sandra L. Talbot
2020, Ecology and Evolution (10) 2062-2073
Migratory waterfowl vector plant seeds and other tissues, but little attention has focused on the potential of avian vectoring of plant pathogens. Extensive meadows of eelgrass (Zostera marina) in southwest Alaska support hundreds of thousands of waterfowl during fall migration and may be susceptible to plant pathogens. We...
Influence of grain size and shape on volcanic ash electrical conductivity
Taylor Woods, Kimberly Genareau, Kristi L. Wallace
2020, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (393)
Few studies have examined the electrical properties of volcanic ash or considered the effects of physical characteristics, such as grain size and shape on its electrification. This study measures the resistivity of eight volcanic ash samples, three milled-samples and five natural ashfall samples from Alaska, U.S.A., using a current amplifier and examines the...
Evolution of the submarine–subaerial edifice of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska, during its 2016–2017 eruption based on analysis of satellite imagery
Christopher F. Waythomas, Kim M. Angeli, Rick Wessels
2020, Bulletin of Volcanology (82)
The 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano involved at least 70 detected eruptive events between mid-December 2016 and August 30, 2017. Acquisition of high-resolution satellite imagery throughout the duration of the eruptive period allowed us to document and map the various morphologic changes that occurred on the...
A classification of streamflow patterns across the coastal Gulf of Alaska
Christopher J. Sergeant, Jeffrey A. Falke, Rebecca A. Bellmore, J. Ryan Bellmore, Ryan L. Crumley
2020, Water Resources Research (56) 1-17
Streamflow controls many freshwater and marine processes, including salinity profiles, sediment composition, fluxes of nutrients, and the timing of animal migrations. Watersheds that border the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) comprise over 400,000 km2 of largely pristine freshwater habitats and provide ecosystem services such as reliable fisheries for local and global food...
Conservation genomics in a changing arctic
Jocelyn P. Colella, Sandra L. Talbot, Christian Brochmann, Eric B. Taylor, Eric P. Hoberg, Joseph A. Cook
2020, Trends in Ecology and Evolution (35) 149-162
Although logistically challenging to study, the Arctic is a bellwether for global change and is becoming a model for questions pertinent to the persistence of biodiversity. Disruption of Arctic ecosystems is accelerating, with impacts ranging from mixing of biotic communities to individual behavioral responses. Understanding these changes is crucial for...
