Are polar bear habitat resource selection functions developed from 1985-1996 data still useful?
George M. Durner, David C. Douglas, Todd C. Atwood
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 8625-8638
1. Greenhouse gas-induced warming in the Arctic has caused declines in sea ice extent and changed its composition, raising concerns by all circumpolar nations for polar bear conservation. 2. Negative impacts have been observed in three well-studied polar bear subpopulations. Most subpopulations, however, receive little or no direct monitoring, hence, resource selection...
Late Miocene to Pleistocene source to sink record of exhumation and sediment routing in the Gulf of Alaska from detrital zircon fission-track and U-Pb double dating
Nathaniel Bootes, Eva Enkelmann, Richard O. Lease
2019, Tectonics (38) 2703-2726
We investigate the late Miocene‐Pleistocene offshore sedimentary record of the Yakutat microplate to evaluate the spatial and temporal variations in rock exhumation and sediment routing patterns at the heavily glaciated and actively converging plate boundary in southeast Alaska. We present 1,456 new fission track ages and 1,372...
Lithosphere and shallow asthenosphere rheology from observations of post-earthquake relaxation
Frederick Pollitz
2019, Physics of Earth and Planetary Interiors (293)
In tectonically active regions, post-earthquake motions are generally shaped by a combination of continued fault slippage (afterslip) on a timescale of days to months and viscoelastic relaxation of the lower crust and upper mantle on a timescale of days to years. Transient crustal motions have been observed following numerous magnitude >~7 earthquakes in various tectonic...
Near-field remote sensing of Alaskan Rivers
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Jonathan M. Nelson, Jeff Conaway, Adam LeWinter, Peter Gadomski, Dominic Filiano
2019, Conference Paper
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Geomorphology and Sediment Transport Laboratory (GSTL), in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), acquired remotely sensed data from several Alaskan rivers in 2017 and 2018 with the goal of developing a methodology for measuring streamflow from...
Synopsis of research programs that can provide baseline and monitoring information for offshore energy activities in the Pacific region: Seabird and marine mammal surveys in the Pacific region
Josh Adams, Kevin D. Lafferty, Emily C. Kelsey, Cora A. Johnston
2019, Report
We assembled and tabulated information about marine bird and mammal research and monitoring programs that could provide data needed to support environmental risk assessments. This included identifying ongoing or completed research programs that contain information on species and habitats sensitive to offshore energy activities and that could provide baseline and...
Trends and carrying capacity of sea otters in Southeast Alaska
M. Tim Tinker, Verena A. Gill, George G. Esslinger, James L. Bodkin, Melissa Monk, Marc Mangel, Daniel Monson, Wendel W. Raymond, Michelle Kissling
2019, Journal of Wildlife Management (83) 1073-1089
Sea otter populations in Southeast Alaska (SEAK) have increased dramatically from fewer than 500 translocated animals in the late 1960s. The recovery of sea otters to ecosystems from which they had been absent has affected coastal food webs, including commercially important fisheries, and thus information on expected growth and equilibrium...
Shorebird subsistence harvest and indigenous knowledge in Alaska: Informing harvest assessment and management, and engaging users in shorebird conservation
Naves. Liliana, Jacqueline Keating, T. Lee Tibbitts, Daniel R. Ruthrauff
2019, The Condor (121)
Limited data on harvest and population parameters are major impediments to assess shorebird harvest sustainability. Because of sharp declines in shorebird populations, timely conservation efforts require approaches that account for uncertainty in harvest sustainability. We combined harvest assessment and ethnographic research to better understand shorebird conservation concerns related to subsistence...
Early emergence of mcr-1-positive Enterobacteriaceae in gulls from Spain and Portugal
Christina Ahlstrom, Andrew M. Ramey, Hanna Woksepp, Jonas Bonnedahl
2019, Environmental Microbiology Reports (11) 669-671
We tested extended‐spectrum β‐lactamase producing bacteria from wild gulls (Larusspp.) sampled in 2009 for the presence of mcr‐1. We report the detection of mcr‐1 and describe genome characteristics of four Escherichia coli and one Klebsiella pneumoniaeisolate from Spain and Portugal that also exhibited colistin resistance. Results represent the earliest evidence for colistin‐resistant bacteria in European...
Repeated detection of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli in gulls inhabiting Alaska, USA
Christina Ahlstrom, Andrew M. Ramey, Hanna Woksepp, Jonas Bonnedahl
2019, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (63)
We report the first detection of carbapenemase-producing Escherichia coli in Alaska and in wildlife in the United States. Wild bird (gull) feces sampled at three locations in Southcentral Alaska yielded isolates that harbored plasmid-encoded blaKPC-2 or chromosomally-encoded blaOXA-48, and genes associated with antimicrobial resistance to up to eight antibiotic classes....
Technical comment on “Global pattern of nest predation is disrupted by climate change in shorebirds”
Martin Bulla, Jeroen Reneerkens, Emily L. Weiser, Aleksandr Sokolov, Audrey R. Taylor, Benoit Sittler, Brian J McCaffery, Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Daniel H. Catlin, David C. Payer, David H. Ward, Diana V Solovyeva, Eduardo Santos, Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Erica Nol, Eunbi Kwon, Glen S. Brown, Glenda D Hevia, H. River Gates, James A. Johnson, Jan A. van Gils, Jannik Hansen, Jean-François Lamarre, Jennie Rausch, Jesse R. Conklin, Joe Liebezeit, Joël Bêty, Johannes Lang, Jose A. Alves, Juan Fernandez-Elipe, Klaus-Michael Exo, Loic Bollache, Marcelo Bertellotti, Marie-Andree Giroux, Martijn van de Pol, Matthew D. Johnson, Megan L. Boldenow, Mihai Valcu, Mikhail Soloviev, Natalya Sokolova, Nathan R. Senner, Nicholas Lecomte, Nicolas Meyer, Niels Martin Schmidt, Olivier Gilg, Paul A Smith, Paula Machin, Rebecca L McGuire, Ricardo AS Cerboncini, Richard Ottvall, Rob van Bemmelen, Rose J Swift, Sara T Saalfeld, Sara E Jamieson, Stephen C. Brown, Theunis Piersma, Tomas Albrecht, Veronica L D’Amico, Richard B. Lanctot, Bart Kempenaers
2019, Science (364)
Kubelka et al. (Report, 9 November 2018, p. 680-683) claim that climate change has disrupted patterns of nest predation in shorebirds. They report that predation rates have increased since the 1950s, especially in the Arctic. We describe methodological problems with their analyses and argue that there is no solid statistical...
Ecosystem scale loss of grazing habitat impacted by abundance of dominant herbivores
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Joel A. Schmutz, Heather M. Wilson, R Michael Anthony, Thomas L Day, Thomas F Fondell, Brian T. Person, James S. Sedinger
2019, Ecosphere (10)
Grazing lawns, patches of grazing tolerant plants with high nutrient value, provide important habitat for herbivores, and changes in abundance can impact herbivore populations. Grazing lawns are maintained in quality and quantity by repeated grazing and are a result of a positive feedback since the availability of grazing lawn...
Prevalence and diversity of avian blood parasites in a resident northern passerine
Caroline R. Van Hemert, Brandt W. Meixell, Matthew M. Smith, Colleen M. Handel
2019, Parasites & Vectors (12)
Background: Climate-related changes are expected to influence the prevalence and distribution of vector-borne haemosporidian parasites at northern latitudes, although baseline information about resident birds is still lacking. In this study, we investigated prevalence and genetic diversity of Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon parasites infecting the Northwestern Crow (Corvus caurinus), a non-migratory...
Geographic variation in the intensity of warming and phenological mismatch between Arctic shorebirds and invertebrates
Enubi Kwon, Emily L. Weiser, Richard B. Lanctot, Stephen C. Brown, H. River Gates, H. Grant Gilchrist, Steve J. Kendall, David B. Lank, Joseph R. Liebezeit, Laura McKinnon, Erica Nol, David C. Payer, Jennie Rausch, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Daniel J. Rinella, Nathan R. Senner, David Ward, Paul A. Smith, Robert C. Wissman, Brett K. Sandercock
2019, Ecological Monographs (89)
Responses to climate change can vary across functional groups and trophic levels, leading to a temporal decoupling of trophic interactions or ‘phenological mismatches.’ Despite a growing number of single-species studies that identified phenological mismatches as a nearly universal consequence of climate change, we have a limited understanding of the spatial...
Viable long-term gas hydrate testing site confirmed on the Alaska north slope
Ray Boswell, Scott Marsteller, Nori Okinaka, Motoi Wakatsuki, Timothy S. Collett, Robert Hunter, Tom Walsh, David Itter, Stephen Crumley
2019, Fire in the Ice: NETL Methane Hydrate Newsletter (19) 1-5
In December 2018, data acquired in a Stratigraphic Test Well drilled from the 7-11-12 pad in the western part of the Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope confirmed the occurrence of two high-quality reservoirs fully saturated with gas hydrate. The drilling was the initial phase of a planned, three-well program...
Energy depletion and stress levels of Sockeye Salmon migrating at the northern edge of their distribution
Michael P. Carey, Kevin D. Keith, Merlyn Schelske, Charlie Lean, Stephen D. McCormick, Amy M. Regish, Christian E. Zimmerman
2019, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (148) 757-797
The physiological challenge for anadromous fish to migrate upriver is influenced by river temperature, but the impacts of river temperature can be difficult to predict due to an incomplete understanding of how temperature influences migration costs, especially in high‐latitude (>60°N) ecosystems. To assess temperature influences on...
Coast to coast: High genomic connectivity in North American scoters
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Philip Lavretsky, Sandra L. Talbot
2019, Ecology and Evolution (9) 7246-7261
Dispersal shapes demographic processes and therefore is fundamental to understanding biological, ecological, and evolutionary processes acting within populations. However, assessing population connectivity in scoters (Melanitta sp.) is challenging as these species have large spatial distributions that span remote landscapes, have varying nesting distributions (disjunct vs. continuous), exhibit...
Spatio-temporal population change of Arctic-breeding waterbirds on the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska
Courtney L. Amundson, Paul L. Flint, Robert A Stehn, Robert Platte, Heather M. Wilson, William W. Larned, Julian B. Fischer
2019, Avian Conservation and Ecology (14)
Rapid physical changes that are occurring in the Arctic are primary drivers of landscape change and thus may drive population dynamics of Arctic-breeding birds. Despite the importance of this region to breeding and molting waterbirds, lack of a comprehensive analysis of historic data has hindered quantifying avian population change. We...
Late Quaternary vegetation development following deglaciation of northwestern Alexander Archipelago, Alaska
Thomas A. Ager
2019, Frontiers in Earth Science (7) 1-25
The Cordilleran Ice sheet covered most of southeastern Alaska during the Last Glacial Interval (LGI: Marine Isotope Stage 2). Ice began to recede from western Alexander Archipelago ~17,000 + 700 yr BP. In this study pollen analysis and radiocarbon dating of three sediment cores were used to reconstruct, for...
Handbook to the partners in flight population estimates database, version 3.0
Tom Will, Jessica C. Stanton, Kenneth V. Rosenberg, Arvind O. Panjabi, Alaine Camfield, Allison Shaw, Wayne E. Thogmartin, Peter J. Blancher
2019, Partners in Flight Technical Publication 7
This document describes the content of Version 3.0 of the Partners in Flight (PIF) Population Estimates Database, which provides population estimates for breeding USA/Canada landbirds at several geographic scales following the Partners in Flight approach described initially in Rich et al. (2004) and by Rosenberg and Blancher (2005) and most...
Variability in shelf sedimentation in response to fluvial sediment supply and coastal erosion over the past 1,000 years in Monterey Bay, CA, United States
Joseph Carlin, Jason A. Addison, Amy Wagner, Valerie Evelyn Schwartz, Jamie Hayward, Victoria Severin
2019, Frontiers in Earth Science (7)
Continental shelf environments are uniquely situated to capture some of the most dynamic processes on Earth including climatic variability and anthropogenic modifications to coastal systems. Understanding how these processes have affected sediment delivery and accumulation on the shelf in the past may provide insight into potential changes in...
The influence of body size, condition, and age on recruitment of four Alaskan brown bear populations
Grant V. Hilderbrand, David Gustine, Kyle Joly, Buck Mangipane, William Leacock, Matthew Cameron, Mathew Sorum, Lindsey Mangipane, Joy Erlenbach
2019, Ursus (2) 111-118
Recruitment of brown bear (Ursus arctos) offspring into a population is the product of initial cub production and subsequent survival and is a critical component of overall population status and trend. We investigated the relationship between maternal body size, body condition, and age (as a surrogate for gained experience) and...
Mortality of Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) and other alcids during an unusual mortality event in the eastern Bering Sea
Timothy Jones, Laura M. Divine, Heather Renner, Susan Knowles, Kathi A. Lefebvre, Hillary K. Burgess, Charlie Wright, Julia K. Parrish
2019, PLoS ONE (14)
Mass mortality events are increasing in frequency and magnitude, potentially linked with ongoing climate change. In October 2016 through January 2017, St. Paul Island situated at the shelf-edge of the Bering Sea, Alaska, experienced a mortality event of alcids (family: Alcidae), with over 350 carcasses recovered. Almost three-quarters of the...
Evidence for frequent, large tsunamis spanning locked and creeping parts of the Aleutian megathrust
Robert C. Witter, Richard W. Briggs, Simon E. Engelhart, Guy R. Gelfenbaum, Richard D Koehler, Alan R. Nelson, SeanPaul La Selle, Reide Corbett, Kristi L. Wallace
2019, Geological Society of America Bulletin (131) 707-729
At the eastern end of the 1957 Andreanof Islands magnitude-8.6 earthquake rupture, Driftwood Bay (Umnak Island) and Stardust Bay (Sedanka Island) lie along presently locked and creeping parts of the Aleutian megathrust, respectively, based on satellite geodesy onshore. Both bays, located 200-km apart, face the Aleutian trench and harbor coastal...
Development and characterization of polymorphic microsatellite markers in Northern Fulmar, Fulmarus glacialis (Procellariformes), and cross-species amplification in eight other seabirds
Megan C. Gravley, George K. Sage, Andrew M. Ramey, Scott A. Hatch, Verena A. Gill, Jolene R. Rearick, Aevar Petersen, Sandra L. Talbot
2019, Genes and Genomics (41) 1015-1026
BackgroundIn the North Pacific, northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) forms extensive colonies in few locales, which may lead to limited gene flow and locale-specific population threats. In the Atlantic, there are thousands of colonies of varying sizes and in Europe the species is considered...
Global phylodynamic analysis of avian paramyxovirus-1 provides evidence of inter-host transmission and intercontinental spatial diffusion
Joseph T. Hicks, Kiril M. Dimitrov, Claudio L. Afonso, Andrew M. Ramey, Justin Bahl
2019, BMC Evolutionary Biology (19)
BackgroundAvian avulavirus (commonly known as avian paramyxovirus-1 or APMV-1) can cause disease of varying severity in both domestic and wild birds. Understanding how viruses move among hosts and geography would be useful for informing prevention and control efforts. A Bayesian statistical framework was employed to...
