Factors influencing nest survival and productivity of Red-throated Loons (Gavia stellata) in Alaska
Daniel Rizzolo, Joel A. Schmutz, Sarah E. McCloskey, Thomas F. Fondell
2014, The Condor (116) 574-587
Red-throated Loon (Gavia stellata) numbers in Alaska have fluctuated dramatically over the past 3 decades; however, the demographic processes contributing to these population dynamics are poorly understood. To examine spatial and temporal variation in productivity, we estimated breeding parameters at 5 sites in Alaska: at Cape Espenberg and the Copper...
Energy demands for maintenance, growth, pregnancy, and lactation of female Pacific walruses (Odobenus rosmarus divergens)
Shawn R. Noren, Mark S. Udevitz, Chadwick V. Jay
2014, Physiological and Biochemical Zoology (87) 837-854
Decreases in sea ice have altered habitat use and activity patterns of female Pacific walruses Odobenus rosmarus divergens and could affect their energetic demands, reproductive success, and population status. However, a lack of physiological data from walruses has hampered efforts to develop the bioenergetics models required for fully understanding potential...
Lessons from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill: A biological perspective
Brenda E. Ballachey, James L. Bodkin, Daniel Esler, Stanley D. Rice
2014, Book chapter, Impacts of Oil Spill Disasters on Marine Habitats and Fisheries in North America
On March 24, 1989, the tanker vessel Exxon Valdez altered its course to avoid floating ice, and ran aground on Bligh Reef in northeastern Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska (Figure 1). The tanker was carrying about 53 million gallons of Prudhoe Bay crude, a heavy oil, and an estimated 11...
Changing Arctic ecosystems: resilience of caribou to climatic shifts in the Arctic
David D. Gustine, Layne G. Adams, Mary E. Whalen, John M. Pearce
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3103
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) initiative strives to inform key resource management decisions for Arctic Alaska by providing scientific information and forecasts for current and future ecosystem response to a warming climate. Over the past 5 years, a focal area for the USGS CAE initiative has...
Evidence for seasonal patterns in the relative abundance of avian influenza virus subtypes in blue-winged teal (Anas discors)
Andrew M. Ramey, Rebecca L. Poulson, Ana S. González-Reiche, Benjamin R. Wilcox, Patrick Walther, Paul Link, Deborah L. Carter, George M. Newsome, Maria L. Muller, Roy D. Berghaus, Daniel R. Perez, Jeffrey S. Hall, David E. Stallknecht
2014, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (50) 916-922
Seasonal dynamics of influenza A viruses (IAVs) are driven by host density and population immunity. Through an analysis of subtypic data for IAVs isolated from Blue-winged Teal (Anas discors), we present evidence for seasonal patterns in the relative abundance of viral subtypes in spring and summer/autumn....
Radiocarbon age-offsets in an arctic lake reveal the long-term response of permafrost carbon to climate change
Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Daniel H. Mann, Benjamin M. Jones, John W. Pohlman, Michael L. Kunz, Matthew J. Wooller
2014, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (119) 1630-1651
Continued warming of the Arctic may cause permafrost to thaw and speed the decomposition of large stores of soil organic carbon (OC), thereby accentuating global warming. However, it is unclear if recent warming has raised the current rates of permafrost OC release to anomalous levels or to what extent soil...
Spatio-temporal analysis of gyres in oriented lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska based on remotely sensed images
Shengan Zhan, Richard A. Beck, Kenneth M. Hinkel, Hongxing Liu, Benjamin M. Jones
2014, Remote Sensing (6) 9170-9193
The formation of oriented thermokarst lakes on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska has been the subject of debate for more than half a century. The striking elongation of the lakes perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction has led to the development of a preferred wind-generated gyre hypothesis, while...
Centennial changes in North Pacific anoxia linked to tropical trade winds
Curtis Deutsch, William Berelson, Robert Thunell, Thomas Weber, Caitlin Tems, James McManus, John Crusius, Taka Ito, Timothy Baumgartner, Vicente Ferreira, Jacob Mey, Alexander van Geen
2014, Science (345) 665-668
Climate warming is expected to reduce oxygen (O2) supply to the ocean and expand its oxygen minimum zones (OMZs). We reconstructed variations in the extent of North Pacific anoxia since 1850 using a geochemical proxy for denitrification (δ15N) from multiple sediment cores. Increasing δ15N since ~1990 records an expansion of...
Runoff sources and flowpaths in a partially burned, upland boreal catchment underlain by permafrost
Joshua C. Koch, Colin P. Kikuchi, Kimberly P. Wickland, Paul Schuster
2014, Water Resources Research (50) 8141-8158
Boreal soils in permafrost regions contain vast quantities of frozen organic material that is released to terrestrial and aquatic environments via subsurface flowpaths as permafrost thaws. Longer flowpaths may allow chemical reduction of solutes, nutrients, and contaminants, with implications for greenhouse gas emissions and aqueous export. Predicting boreal catchment runoff...
Fatal paralytic shellfish poisoning in Kittlitz's Murrelet (Brachyramphus brevirostris) nestlings, Alaska, USA
Valerie I. Shearn-Bochsler, Ellen W. Lance, Robin Corcoran, John F. Piatt, Barbara Bodenstein, Elizabeth Frame, James Lawonn
2014, Journal of Wildlife Diseases (50) 933-937
Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) is an acute toxic illness in humans resulting from ingestion of shellfish contaminated with a suite of neurotoxins (saxitoxins) produced by marine dinoflagellates, most commonly in the genus Alexandrium. Poisoning also has been sporadically suspected and, less often, documented in marine wildlife, often in association with...
Carbonate margin, slope, and basin facies of the Lisburne Group (Carboniferous-Permian) in northern Alaska
Julie A. Dumoulin, Craig A. Johnson, John F. Slack, Kenneth J. Bird, Michael T. Whalen, Thomas E. Moore, Anita G. Harris, Paul B. O’Sullivan
Klaas Verwer, Ted E. Playton, Paul M. Harris, editor(s)
2014, Book chapter, Deposits, architecture, and controls of carbonate margin, slope and basinal settings
The Lisburne Group (Carboniferous-Permian) consists of a carbonate platform that extends for >1000 km across northern Alaska, and diverse margin, slope, and basin facies that contain world-class deposits of Zn and Ba, notable phosphorites, and petroleum source rocks....
Melanin-based color of plumage: role of condition and of feathers' microstructure
Liliana D’Alba, Caroline R. Van Hemert, Karen A. Spencer, Britt J. Heidinger, Lisa Gill, Neil P. Evans, Pat Monaghan, Colleen M. Handel, Matthew D. Shawkey
2014, Integrative and Comparative Biology (54) 633-644
Whether melanin-based colors honestly signal a bird's condition during the growth of feathers is controversial, and it is unclear if or how the physiological processes underlying melanogenesis or color-imparting structural feather microstructure may be adversely affected by condition. Here we report results from two experiments designed to measure the effect...
The destructive 1946 Unimak near-field tsunami: New evidence for a submarine slide source from reprocessed marine geophysical data
Roland E. von Huene, Stephen Kirby, John J. Miller, Peter Dartnell
2014, Geophysical Research Letters (41) 6811-6818
The Mw 8.6 earthquake in 1946 off the Pacific shore of Unimak Island at the end of the Alaska Peninsula generated a far-field tsunami that crossed the Pacific to Antarctica. Its tsunami magnitude, 9.3, is comparable to the 9.1 magnitude of the 2011 Tohoku tsunami. On Unimak Island's Pacific shore,...
Chemical complexity and source of the White River Ash, Alaska and Yukon
S.J. Preece, Robert G. McGimsey, J.A. Westgate, N.J.G. Pearce, W.K. Hartmann, W.T. Perkins
2014, Geosphere (10) 1020-1042
The White River Ash, a prominent stratigraphic marker bed in Alaska (USA) and Yukon (Canada), consists of multiple compositional units belonging to two geochemical groups. The compositional units are characterized using multiple criteria, with combined glass and ilmenite compositions being the best discriminators. Two compositional units compose the northern group...
Distribution, stock composition and timing, and tagging response of wild Chinook Salmon returning to a large, free-flowing river basin
John H. Eiler, Michele Masuda, Ted R. Spencer, Richard J. Driscoll, Carl B. Schreck
2014, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (143) 1476-1507
Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha returns to the Yukon River basin have declined dramatically since the late 1990s, and detailed information on the spawning distribution, stock structure, and stock timing is needed to better manage the run and facilitate conservation efforts. A total of 2,860 fish were radio-tagged in the lower basin during...
Effects of disturbance and climate change on ecosystem performance in the Yukon River Basin boreal forest
Bruce K. Wylie, Matthew B. Rigge, Brian Brisco, Kevin Mrnaghan, Jennifer R. Rover, Jordan Long
2014, Remote Sensing (6) 9145-9169
A warming climate influences boreal forest productivity, dynamics, and disturbance regimes. We used ecosystem models and 250 m satellite Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data averaged over the growing season (GSN) to model current, and estimate future, ecosystem performance. We modeled Expected Ecosystem Performance (EEP), or anticipated productivity, in undisturbed...
Seismicity of the Earth 1900-2013 offshore British Columbia-southeastern Alaska and vicinity
Gavin P. Hayes, Gregory M. Smoczyk, Jonathan G. Ooms, Daniel E. McNamara, Kevin P. Furlong, Harley M. Benz, Antonio H. Villasenor
2014, Open-File Report 2010-1083-O
The tectonics of the Pacific margin of North America between Vancouver Island and south-central Alaska are dominated by the northwest motion of the Pacific plate with respect to the North America plate at a velocity of approximately 50 mm/yr. In the south of this mapped region, convergence between the northern...
The 3D Elevation Program: Summary for New Jersey
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3091
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of New Jersey, elevation data are critical for water supply and quality, flood risk management, natural resources conservation, agriculture and precision farming, infrastructure...
The 3D Elevation Program initiative: a call for action
Larry J. Sugarbaker, Eric W. Constance, Hans Karl Heidemann, Allyson L. Jason, Vicki Lukas, David L. Saghy, Jason M. Stoker
2014, Circular 1399
The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) initiative is accelerating the rate of three-dimensional (3D) elevation data collection in response to a call for action to address a wide range of urgent needs nationwide. It began in 2012 with the recommendation to collect (1) high-quality light detection and ranging (lidar) data for...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Illinois
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3086
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Illinois, elevation data are critical for flood risk management, water supply and quality, infrastructure and construction management, agriculture and precision farming, and...
The 2013 eruption of Pavlof Volcano, Alaska: a spatter eruption at an ice- and snow-clad volcano
Christopher F. Waythomas, Matthew M. Haney, David Fee, David J. Schneider, Aaron G. Wech
2014, Bulletin of Volcanology (76) 1-12
The 2013 eruption of Pavlof Volcano, Alaska began on 13 May and ended 49 days later on 1 July. The eruption was characterized by persistent lava fountaining from a vent just north of the summit, intermittent strombolian explosions, and ash, gas, and aerosol plumes that reached as high as 8...
Changing Arctic ecosystems: ecology of loons in a changing Arctic
Brian D. Uher-Koch, Joel A. Schmutz, Mary E. Whalen, John M. Pearce
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3093
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) initiative informs key resource management decisions for Arctic Alaska by providing scientific information on current and future ecosystem response to a changing climate. From 2010 to 2014, a key study area for the USGS CAE initiative has been the Arctic Coastal...
Changing Arctic ecosystems: sea ice decline, permafrost thaw, and benefits for geese
Paul L. Flint, Mary E. Whalen, John M. Pearce
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3088
Through the Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) initiative, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) strives to inform resource management decisions for Arctic Alaska by providing scientific information on current and future ecosystem response to a warming climate. A key area for the USGS CAE initiative has been the Arctic Coastal Plain of...
Annual migratory patterns of long-billed curlews in the American west
Gary W. Page, Nils Warnock, T. Lee Tibbitts, Dennis Jorgensen, C. Alex Hartman, Lynne E. Stenzel
2014, The Condor (116) 50-61
Effective conservation of migratory species requires comprehensive knowledge of annual movement patterns. Such information is sparse for the Long-billed Curlew (Numenius americanus), a North American endemic shorebird of conservation concern. To test hypotheses about individual and area differences in migratory patterns across western North America, we tagged 29 curlews with...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Arizona
William J. Carswell Jr.
2014, Fact Sheet 2014-3085
Elevation data are essential to a broad range of applications, including forest resources management, wildlife and habitat management, national security, recreation, and many others. For the State of Arizona, elevation data are critical for infrastructure and construction management, natural resources conservation, flood risk management, geologic resource assessment and hazard mitigation,...
