Climate, disturbance, and vulnerability to vegetation change in the Northwest Forest Plan Area
Matthew J. Reilly, Thomas A. Spies, Jeremy Littell, Ramona J. Butz, John B. Kim
2018, General Technical Report PNW-GTR-966-2
Climate change is expected to alter the composition, structure, and function of forested ecosystems in the United States (Vose et al. 2012). Increases in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (e.g., carbon dioxide [CO2]) and temperature, as well as altered precipitation and disturbance regimes (e.g., fire, insects, pathogens, and windstorms), are...
Climate Change in Port Heiden, Alaska - Strategies for Community Health
Erica Lujan, Mike Brubaker, John Warren, Jaclyn Christensen, Scott Anderson, Melissa O’Domin, Jeremy Littell, Richard M. Buzard, Jacquelyn R. Overbeck, Davin Holen, Sue Flensburg, Elizabeth Powers
2018, Report
There are two components to this document. The first component is the scope of described environmental change and its impacts in Port Heiden Alaska. The second component is a list of priorities to be addressed that will help Port Heiden achieve its vision for the future. Each priority area incorporates...
Interisland genetic structure of two endangered Hawaiian waterbirds: The Hawaiian Coot and Hawaiian Gallinule
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Jared G. Underwood
2018, The Condor (120) 863-873
Most of Hawaii's endemic avifauna are species of conservation concern. Some of Hawaii's endangered waterbirds, however, have increased in number as a result of intensive management of wetlands. To inform these conservation efforts, we examined interisland genetic structure and gene flow within 2 Hawaiian endemic waterbirds, the Hawaiian Coot (Fulica...
Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic exhumation of the western Brooks Range, Alaska, revealed from apatite and zircon fission track data
William H. Craddock, Thomas E. Moore, Paul O'Sullivan, Christopher J. Potter, David W. Houseknecht
2018, Tectonics (37) 4714-4751
We report data for 112 apatite and 31 zircon fission track (AFT and ZFT) outcrop sandstone samples along a transect that spans the western Brooks Range. Sampling targeted structures that modify the Middle Jurassic‐Early Cretaceous early Brookian orogen. The AFT samples record latest Cretaceous to Eocene...
Satellite remote sensing estimation of river discharge: Application to the Yukon River Alaska
David M. Bjerklie, Charon M. Birkett, John Jones, Claudia C. Carabajal, Jennifer Rover, John W, Fulton, Pierre-Andre Garambois
2018, Journal of Hydrology (561) 1000-1018
A methodology based on general hydraulic relations for rivers has been developed to estimate the discharge (flow rate) of rivers using satellite remote sensing observations. The estimates of discharge, flow depth, and flow velocity are derived from remotely observed water...
2018 update to the U.S. Geological Survey national volcanic threat assessment
John W. Ewert, Angela K. Diefenbach, David W. Ramsey
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5140
When erupting, all volcanoes pose a degree of risk to people and infrastructure, however, the risks are not equivalent from one volcano to another because of differences in eruptive style and geographic location. Assessing the relative threats posed by U.S. volcanoes identifies which volcanoes warrant the greatest risk-mitigation efforts by...
Ice wedge degradation and stabilization impacts water budgets and nutrient cycling in Arctic trough ponds
Joshua C. Koch, M. Torre Jorgenson, Kimberly P. Wickland, Mikhail Z. Kanevskiy, Robert G. Striegl
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (123) 2604-2616
Trough ponds are ubiquitous features of Arctic landscapes and an important component of freshwater aquatic ecosystems. Permafrost thaw causes ground subsidence, creating depressions that gather water, creating ponds. Permafrost thaw also releases solutes and nutrients, which may fertilize these newly formed ponds. We measured water budget...
Drought and fire in the western USA: Is climate attribution enough?
Jeremy Littell
2018, Current Climate Change Reports (4) 396-406
Purpose of ReviewI sought to review the contributions of recent literature and prior foundational papers to our understanding of drought and fire. In this review, I summarize recent literature on drought and fire in the western USA and discuss research directions that may increase the...
Downscaling of climate model output for Alaskan stakeholders
John E. Walsh, Uma S. Bhatt, Jeremy Littell, Matthew Leonawicz, Michael Lindgren, Thomas A. Kurkowski, Peter A. Bieniek, Richard Thoman, Stephen Gray, T. Scott Rupp
2018, Environmental Modelling and Software (110) 38-51
The paper summarizes an end-to-end activity connecting the global climate modeling enterprise with users of climate information in Alaska. The effort included retrieval of the requisite observational datasets and model output, a model evaluation and selection procedure, the actual downscaling by the delta method with its inherent bias-adjustment, and the provision of products to...
NDVI exhibits mixed success in predicting spatiotemporal variation in caribou summer forage quality and quantity
Heather E. Johnson, David D. Gustine, Trevor S. Golden, Layne G. Adams, Lincoln S. Parrett, Elizabeth A. Lenart, Perry S. Barboza
2018, Ecosphere (9) 1-19
The satellite‐derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) is commonly used by researchers and managers to represent ungulate forage conditions in landscapes across the globe, despite limited information about how it compares to empirical measurements of forage quality and quantity. The application of NDVI as a forage metric is particularly appealing...
Inventory of lowland-breeding birds on the Alaska Peninsula
Susan E. Savage, T. Lee Tibbitts, Kristin Sesser, Robb S.A. Kaler
2018, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (9) 637-658
We conducted the first systematic inventory of birds in the lowlands (areas ≤100 m above sea level) of the Alaska Peninsula during summers of 2004–2007 to determine their breeding distributions and habitat associations in this remote region. Using a stratified random survey design, we allocated sample plots by elevation and...
Museum metabarcoding: a novel method revealing gut helminth communities of small mammals across space and time
Stephen E. Greiman, Joseph A. Cook, Vasyl V. Tkach, Eric P. Hoberg, Damian M. Menning, Andrew G. Hope, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Sandra L. Talbot
2018, International Journal for Parasitology (48) 1061-1070
Natural history collections spanning multiple decades provide fundamental historical baselines to measure and understand changing biodiversity. New technologies such as next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) have considerably increased the potential of museum specimens to address significant questions regarding the impact of environmental changes on host and parasite/pathogen dynamics. We developed...
Fuelling conditions at staging sites can mitigate Arctic warming effects in a migratory bird
Eldar Rakhimberdiev, Sjoerd Duijns, Julia Karagicheva, Cornelis J. Camphuysen, Anne Dekinga, Rob Dekker, Anatoly Gavrilov, Job ten Horn, Joop Jukema, Anatoly Saveliev, Mikhail Soloviev, T. Lee Tibbitts, Jan A. van Gils, Theunis Piersma, VRS Castricum
2018, Nature Communications (9) 1-10
Under climate warming, migratory birds should align reproduction dates with advancing plant and arthropod phenology. To arrive on the breeding grounds earlier, migrants may speed up spring migration by curtailing the time spent en route, possibly at the cost of decreased survival rates. Based on a decades-long series of observations along...
Trends and traditions: Overview and synthesis
W David Shuford, Robert E. Gill Jr., Colleen M. Handel
2018, Book chapter, Trends and traditions: Avifaunal change in western North America, Studies of Western Birds No. 3
This paper provides an overview by the editors of a collection of 25 papers for the Studies of Western Birds, to be published in a single volume by Western Field Ornithologists. The title of the volume is: "Trends and traditions: Avifaunal change in western North America."...
A decade of remotely sensed observations highlight complex processes linked to coastal permafrost bluff erosion in the Arctic
Benjamin M. Jones, Louise M. Farquharson, Carson Baughman, Richard M. Buzard, Christopher D. Arp, Guido Grosse, Diana L. Bull, Frank Gunther, Ingmar Nitze, Frank Urban, Jeremy L. Kasper, Jennifer M. Frederick, Matthew A. Thomas, Craig Jones, Alejandro Mota, Scott Dallimore, Craig E. Tweedie, Christopher V. Maio, Daniel H. Mann, Bruce M. Richmond, Ann E. Gibbs, Ming Xiao, Torsten Sachs, Go Iwahana, Mikhail Z. Kanevskiy, Vladimir E. Romanovsky
2018, Environmental Research Letters (13)
Eroding permafrost coasts are indicators and integrators of changes in the Arctic System as they are susceptible to the combined effects of declining sea ice extent, increases in open water duration, more frequent and impactful storms, sea-level rise, and warming permafrost. However, few observation sites in the Arctic have yet...
Historical eruptions and hazards at Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
Christopher F. Waythomas, Cheryl E. Cameron
2018, Scientific Investigations Report 2018-5085
Bogoslof volcano is a submarine volcano in the southernBering Sea (53.9272°N, 168.0344°W), located 100 kilometers(km) west of Dutch Harbor/Unalaska, and 40 km northof Umnak Island. The volcano has a relatively long history ofscientific investigation and several of its historical eruptionshave been documented during brief visits to the area since thelate...
Unusual foraging observations associated with seabird die-offs in Alaska
Bryce Robinson, Lucas H. DeCicco, James A. Johnson, Daniel R. Ruthrauff
2018, Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation (46) 149-153
We report the first documentation of off-water foraging by the Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel Oceanodroma furcata and Short-tailed Shearwater Ardenna tenuirostris, a behavior not previously documented in any member of the families Hydrobatidae or Procellariidae. Over a two-week period in September 2016, we regularly observed individuals of these species over land on...
Migration trends for king and common eiders and yellow-billed loons past Point Barrow in a rapidly changing environment
Abby Powell, R. Bentzen, R. Suydam
2018, Final Report BOEM 2018-059
Most of the king (Somateria spectabilis) and common eiders (S. mollissima v-nigra) nesting in northern Alaska and northwestern Canada migrate past Point Barrow, Alaska, during the spring and fall migration. Yellow-billed loons (Gavia adamsii) also migrate past Point Barrow and are a species of international conservation concern. Spring migration counts...
Effects of leg flags on nest survival of four species of Arctic‐breeding shorebirds
Emily L. Weiser, Richard B. Lanctot, Stephen C. Brown, H. River Gates, Rebecca L. Bentzen, Megan L. Boldenow, Jenny A. Cunningham, Andrew C. Doll, Tyrone F. Donnelly, Willow B. English, Samantha E. Franks, Kristen Grond, Patrick Herzog, Brooke L. Hill, Steve J. Kendall, Eunbi Kwon, David B. Lank, Joseph R. Liebezeit, Jennie Rausch, Sarah T. Saalfeld, Audrey R. Taylor, David H. Ward, Paul F. Wood, Brett K. Sandercock
2018, Journal of Field Ornithology (89) 287-297
Marking wild birds is an integral part of many field studies. However, if marks affect the vital rates or behavior of marked individuals, any conclusions reached by a study might be biased relative to the general population. Leg bands have rarely been found to have negative effects on birds and...
Shorebirds adjust spring arrival schedules with variable environmental conditions: Four decades of assessment on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Craig R. Ely, Brian McCaffery, Robert E. Gill Jr.
W. David Shuford, Robert E. Gill Jr., Colleen M. Handel, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, Trends and traditions: Avifaunal change in western North America: Studies of Western Birds 3
Arctic summers are brief, and there has been strong selection for migratory birds to arrive in Arctic nesting areas as early as possible to time breeding with peak food availability and complete reproduction. The timing of emergence of nesting habitat in spring is, however, extremely variable in the Arctic, and few long-term studies...
Submarine deposition of a subaerial landslide in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Peter J. Haeussler, S. P. S Gulick, N. McCall, Maureen A. L. Walton, R. Reece, C. Larson, D. H. Shugar, M. Geertsema, J. G. Venditti, Keith A. Labay
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research (123) 2443-2463
A large subaerial landslide entered Taan Fiord, Alaska, on 17 October 2015 producing a tsunami with runup to 193 m. We use LiDAR data to show the slide volume to be 76 + 3/−4 million cubic meters and that 51,000,000 m3 entered Taan Fiord. In 2016, we mapped the fjord with multibeam bathymetry and high‐resolution...
Tradeoffs of a portable, field-based environmental DNA platform for detecting invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) in Alaska
Adam J. Sepulveda, Patrick R. Hutchins, Robert L. Massengill, Kristine J. Dunker
2018, Management of Biological Invasions (9) 253-258
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has improved detection probabilities of aquatic invasive species but lab-based analyticalplatforms for eDNA analyses slow opportunities for rapid response. Effective approaches that address this analyticalbottleneck and improve capacity for rapid response are urgently needed. We tested the sensitivity of a portable, field-basedeDNA platform relative to widely used...
Survey-based assessment of the frequency and potential impacts of recreation on polar bears
Karyn D. Rode, Jennifer K. Fortin, Dave Garshelis, Markus Dyck, Vicki Sahanatien, Todd C. Atwood, Stanislav Belikov, Kristin L. Laidre, Susanne Miller, Martyn E. Obbard, Dag Vongraven, Jasmine V. Ware, James Wilder
2018, Biological Conservation (227) 121-132
Conservation plans for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) typically cannot prescribe management actions to address their primary threat: sea ice loss associated with climate warming. However, there may be other stressors that compound the negative effects of sea ice loss which can be mitigated. For example, Arctic tourism has increased concurrent with polar bears increasingly...
Use of landscape simulation modeling to quantify resilience for ecological applications
Robert Keane, Rachel A. Loehman, Lisa M. Holsinger, Donald A. Falk, Phil E Higuera, Sharon Hood, Paul F. Hessburg
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Goals of fostering ecological resilience are increasingly used to guide U.S. public land management in the context of anthropogenic climate change and increasing landscape disturbances. There are, however, few operational means of assessing the resilience of a landscape or ecosystem. We present a method to evaluate resilience...
Strike-slip 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 Gulf of Alaska rare intraplate earthquake: Complex rupture of a fracture zone system
Anne Krabbenhoeft, Roland von Huene, John J. Miller, Dietrich Lange, Felipe Vera
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-9
Large intraplate earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere are rare and usually related to regions of diffuse deformation within the oceanic plate. The 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 strike-slip Gulf of Alaska earthquake ruptured an oceanic fracture zone system offshore Kodiak Island. Bathymetric compilations show a muted topographic expression of the fracture zone...
