Genetic implications of bottleneck effects of differing severities on genetic diversity in naturally recovering populations: An example from Hawaiian coot and Hawaiian gallinule
Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Robert E. Wilson, Jared G. Underwood
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 9925-9934
The evolutionary trajectory of populations through time is influenced by the interplay of forces (biological, evolutionary, and anthropogenic) acting on the standing genetic variation. We used microsatellite and mitochondrial loci to examine the influence of population declines, of varying severity, on genetic diversity within two Hawaiian endemic waterbirds, the Hawaiian...
Attaching transmitters to waterbirds using one versus two subcutaneous anchors: Retention and survival trade-offs
Tyler Lewis, Daniel Esler, Brian D. Uher-Koch, Rian D. Dickson, Eric M. Anderson, Joseph R. Evenson, Jerry W. Hupp, Paul L. Flint
2017, Wildlife Society Bulletin (41) 691-700
A major challenge of wildlife telemetry is choosing an attachment technique that maximizes transmitter retention while minimizing negative side effects. For waterbirds, attachment of transmitters with subcutaneous anchors has been an effective and well-established technique, having been used on >40 species. This method was recently modified to include a second...
Cobalt—Styles of deposits and the search for primary deposits
Murray W. Hitzman, Arthur A. Bookstrom, John F. Slack, Michael L. Zientek
2017, Open-File Report 2017-1155
Cobalt (Co) is a potentially critical mineral. The vast majority of cobalt is a byproduct of copper and (or) nickel production. Cobalt is increasingly used in magnets and rechargeable batteries. More than 50 percent of primary cobalt production is from the Central African Copperbelt. The Central African Copperbelt is the...
Impact-related microspherules in Late Pleistocene Alaskan and Yukon “muck” deposits signify recurrent episodes of catastrophic emplacement
Jonathan T. Hagstrum, Richard B. Firestone, Allen West, James C. Weaver, Ted E. Bunch
2017, Scientific Reports (7)
Large quantities of impact-related microspherules have been found in fine-grained sediments retained within seven out of nine, radiocarbon-dated, Late Pleistocene mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) and bison (Bison priscus) skull fragments. The well-preserved fossils were recovered from frozen “muck” deposits (organic-rich silt) exposed within the Fairbanks and Klondike mining districts of Alaska,...
Implications of rapid environmental change for polar bear behavior and sociality
Todd C. Atwood
2017, Book chapter, Marine mammal welfare
Historically, the Arctic sea ice has functioned as a structural barrier that has limited the nature and extent of interactions between humans and polar bears (Ursus maritimus). However, declining sea ice extent, brought about by global climate change, is increasing the potential for human-polar bear interactions. Loss of...
Monitoring the welfare of polar bear populations in a rapidly changing Arctic
Todd C. Atwood, Colleen G. Duncan, Kelly A. Patyk, Sarah A. Sonsthagen
2017, Book chapter, Marine mammal welfare
Most programs for monitoring the welfare of wildlife populations support efforts aimed at reaching discrete management objectives, like mitigating conflict with humans. While such programs can be effective, their limited scope may preclude systemic evaluations needed for large-scale conservation initiatives, like the recovery of at-risk species. We discuss select categories...
Human-polar bear interactions in a changing Arctic: Existing and emerging concerns
Todd C. Atwood, Kristin S. Simac, Stewart Breck, Geoff York, James Wilder
2017, Book chapter, Marine mammal welfare
The behavior and sociality of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) have been shaped by evolved preferences for sea ice habitat and preying on marine mammals. However, human behavior is causing changes to the Arctic marine ecosystem through the influence of greenhouse gas emissions that drive long-term change in ecosystem...
Polar bears, Ursus maritimus
Karyn D. Rode, Ian Stirling
2017, Book chapter, Encyclopedia of marine mammals
Polar bears are the largest of the eight species of bears found worldwide and are covered in a pigment-free fur giving them the appearance of being white. They are the most carnivorous of bear species consuming a high-fat diet, primarily of ice-associated seals and other marine mammals. They...
Regionalizing indicators for marine ecosystems: Bering Sea–Aleutian Island seabirds, climate, and competitors
William J. Sydeman, Sarah Ann Thompson, John F. Piatt, Marisol García-Reyes, Stephani Zador, Jeffrey C. Williams, Marc Romano, Heather Renner
2017, Ecological Indicators (78) 458-469
Seabirds are thought to be reliable, real-time indicators of forage fish availability and the climatic and biotic factors affecting pelagic food webs in marine ecosystems. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that temporal trends and interannual variability in seabird indicators reflect simultaneously occurring bottom-up (climatic) and competitor (pink salmon) forcing of food...
A swath across the great divide: Kelp forests across the Samalga Pass biogeographic break
Brenda H. Konar, Matthew S. Edwards, Aaron Bland, Jacob Metzger, Alexandra Ravelo, Sarah Traiger, Ben P. Weitzman
2017, Continental Shelf Research (143) 78-88
Biogeographic breaks are often described as locations where a large number of species reach their geographic range limits. Samalga Pass, in the eastern Aleutian Archipelago, is a known biogeographic break for the spatial distribution of several species of offshore-pelagic communities, including numerous species of cold-water corals, zooplankton, fish, marine mammals,...
Intraspecific evolutionary relationships among peregrine falcons in western North American high latitudes
Sandra L. Talbot, George K. Sage, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, Megan C. Gravley, Ted Swem, Jeffrey C. Williams, Jonathan L. Longmire, Skip Ambrose, Melanie J. Flamme, Stephen B. Lewis, Laura M. Phillips, Clifford Anderson, Clayton M White
2017, PLoS ONE (12) 1-25
Subspecies relationships within the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) have been long debated because of the polytypic nature of melanin-based plumage characteristics used in subspecies designations and potential differentiation of local subpopulations due to philopatry. In North America, understanding the evolutionary relationships among subspecies may have been further complicated by the...
Development of microsatellite loci exhibiting reverse ascertainment bias and a sexing marker for use in Emperor Geese (Chen canagica)
Megan C. Gravley, George K. Sage, Joel A. Schmutz, Sandra L. Talbot
2017, Avian Biology Research (10) 201-210
The Alaskan population of Emperor Geese (Chen canagica) nests on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta in western Alaska. Numbers of Emperor Geese in Alaska declined from the 1960s to the mid-1980s and since then, their numbers have slowly increased. Low statistical power of microsatellite loci developed in other waterfowl species and used...
The 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal
Thomas E. Moore, Donald L. Gautier, editor(s)
2017, Professional Paper 1824
Professional Paper 1824 comprises 30 chapters by various U.S. Geological Survey authors, including introduction and methodology chapters, which together provide documentation of the geological basis and methodology of the 2008 Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, results of which were first released in August 2008. Twenty-eight chapters summarize the petroleum geology and resource...
Novel RAD sequence data reveal a lack of genomic divergence between dietary ecotypes in a landlocked salmonid population
Morten T. Limborg, Wesley Larson, Kyle Shedd, Lisa W. Seeb, James E. Seeb
2017, Conservation Genetics Resources (10) 169-171
Preservation of heritable ecological diversity within species and populations is a key challenge for managing natural resources and wild populations. Salmonid fish are iconic and socio-economically important species for commercial, aquaculture, and recreational fisheries across the globe. Many salmonids are known to exhibit ecological divergence within species, including distinct feeding...
High value of ecological information for river connectivity restoration
Suresh Sethi, Jesse R. O’Hanley, Jonathon Gerken, Joshua Ashline, Catherine Bradley
2017, Landscape Ecology (32) 2327-2336
ContextEfficient restoration of longitudinal river connectivity relies on barrier mitigation prioritization tools that incorporate stream network spatial structure to maximize ecological benefits given limited resources. Typically, ecological benefits of barrier mitigation are measured using proxies such as the amount of accessible riverine habitat.<p...
Thermal adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in a warming world: Insights from common garden experiments on Alaskan sockeye salmon
Morgan M. Sparks, Peter A. H. Westley, Jeffrey A. Falke, Thomas P. Quinn
2017, Global Change Biology (23) 5203-5217
An important unresolved question is how populations of coldwater-dependent fishes will respond to rapidly warming water temperatures. For example, the culturally and economically important group, Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.), experience site-specific thermal regimes during early development that could be disrupted by warming. To test for thermal local adaptation and heritable phenotypic...
Estimating occupancy and abundance using aerial images with imperfect detection
Perry J. Williams, Mevin Hooten, Jamie N. Womble, Michael R. Bower
2017, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (8) 1679-1689
Species distribution and abundance are critical population characteristics for efficient management, conservation, and ecological insight. Point process models are a powerful tool for modelling distribution and abundance, and can incorporate many data types, including count data, presence-absence data, and presence-only data. Aerial photographic images are a natural tool...
Patterns of distribution, abundance, and change over time in a subarctic marine bird community
Daniel Cushing, Daniel D. Roby, David B. Irons
2017, Deep Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography (147) 148-163
Over recent decades, marine ecosystems of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, have experienced concurrent effects of natural and anthropogenic perturbations, including variability in the climate system of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. We documented spatial and temporal patterns of variability in the summer marine bird community in relation to habitat and...
Using multiple data types and integrated population models to improve our knowledge of apex predator population dynamics
Florent Bled, Jerrold L. Belant, Lawrence J. Van Daele, Nathan Svoboda, David D. Gustine, Grant V. Hilderbrand, Victor G. Barnes Jr.
2017, Ecology and Evolution (7) 9531-9543
Current management of large carnivores is informed using a variety of parameters, methods, and metrics; however, these data are typically considered independently. Sharing information among data types based on the underlying ecological, and recognizing observation biases, can improve estimation of individual and global parameters. We present...
Transgressive-regressive cycles in the metalliferous, oil-shale-bearing Heath Formation (Upper Mississippian), central Montana
Julie A. Dumoulin, Craig A. Johnson, Karen D. Kelley, Palma J. Botterell, Paul C. Hackley, Clint Scott, John F. Slack
2017, Stratigraphy (14) 97-122
The Upper Mississippian Heath Formation, which accumulated in the Big Snowy Trough of central Montana, has been known for three decades to contain mudrocks highly enriched in Zn, V, Mo, Ni and other metals, and source rocks for oil. The unit has more recently been recognized as a prospective tight...
Observationally constrained surface mass balance of Larsen C ice shelf, Antarctica
Peter Kuipers Munneke, Daniel Mcgrath, Brooke Medley, Adrian Luckman, Suzanne Bevan, Bernd Kulessa, Daniela Jansen, Adam Booth, Paul Smeets, B. Hubbard, David Ashmore, Michiel Van den Broeke, Heidi Sevestre, K. Steffen, Andrew Shepard, Noel Gourmelen
2017, The Cryosphere (11) 2411-2426
The surface mass balance (SMB) of the Larsen C ice shelf (LCIS), Antarctica, is poorly constrained due to a dearth of in situ observations. Combining several geophysical techniques, we reconstruct spatial and temporal patterns of SMB over the LCIS. Continuous time series of snow height (2.5–6 years) at five locations allow...
Assessing the risk of non-native marine species in the Bering Sea
Jesika Reimer, Amanda Droghini, Anthony S. Fischbach, Jordan Watson, Bonnie Bernard, Aaron Poe
2017, Report
Invasive species are one of the leading global conservation concerns, which can have strong, negative impacts on ecosystems, vulnerable species, and valuable natural resources. Arctic regions have experienced a relatively low number of biological introductions to date. Their geographical remoteness, cold waters, and presence of sea ice present challenging conditions...
Marine geology and tectonics--What is under all that water?
David W. Scholl, Warren J. Nokleberg
Thomas K. Bundtzen, Warren J. Nokleberg, Raymond A. Price, David W. Scholl, David B. Stone, editor(s)
2017, Book chapter, Dynamic geology of the Northern Cordillera (Alaska and western Canada) and adjacent marine areas: Tectonics, hazards, and resources
This chapter is divided into two main sections. The first section is on Marine Geology Seascapes (what earth scientists call bathymetry). The second section is on Tectonics of Marine Areas....
A model-based approach to wildland fire reconstruction using sediment charcoal records
Malcolm S. Itter, Andrew O. Finley, Mevin Hooten, Philip E. Higuera, Jennifer R. Marlon, Ryan Kelly, Jason S. McLachlan
2017, Environmetrics (28) 1-15
Lake sediment charcoal records are used in paleoecological analyses to reconstruct fire history, including the identification of past wildland fires. One challenge of applying sediment charcoal records to infer fire history is the separation of charcoal associated with local fire occurrence and charcoal originating from regional fire activity. Despite a...
High altitude flights by ruddy shelduck Tadorna ferruginea during trans-Himalayan migrations
N. Parr, S. Bearhop, David C. Douglas, J.Y. Takekawa, Diann J. Prosser, S.H. Newman, W.M. Perry, S. Balachandran, M.J. Witt, Y. Hou, Z. Lu, L.A. Hawkes
2017, Journal of Avian Biology (48) 1310-1315
Birds that migrate across high altitude mountain ranges are faced with the challenge of maintaining vigorous exercise in environments with limited oxygen. Ruddy shelducks are known to use wintering grounds south of the Tibetan Plateau at sea level and breeding grounds north of Himalayan mountain range. Therefore, it is likely...
