Migratory strategies across an ecological barrier: Is the answer blowing in the wind?
Rosalyn E. Bathrick, James A. Johnson, Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Rebekah Snyder, Maria Stager, Nathan R. Senner
2024, Movement Ecology (12)
Background: Ecological barriers can shape the movement strategies of migratory animals that navigate around or across them, creating migratory divides. Wind plays a large role in facilitating aerial migrations, and can temporally or spatially change the challenge posed by an ecological barrier, with beneficial winds potentially converting a barrier to...
Previous reproductive success and environmental variation influence nest-site fidelity of a subarctic-nesting goose
Jordan M. Thompson, Brian D. Uher-Koch, Bryan L. Daniels, Thomas V. Riecke, Joel A. Schmutz, Benjamin S. Sedinger
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Nest-site fidelity is a common strategy in birds and is believed to be adaptive due to familiarity with local conditions. Returning to previously successful nest sites (i.e., the win-stay lose-switch strategy) may be beneficial when habitat quality is spatially variable and temporally predictable; however, changes in environmental conditions may constrain...
Body size and early marine conditions drive changes in Chinook salmon productivity across northern latitude ecosystems
Megan L. Feddern, Rebecca Shaftel, Erik R. Schoen, Curry J. Cunningham, Brendan M. Connors, Benjamin A. Staton, Al von Finster, Zachary Liller, Vanessa R. von Biela, Katherine G. Howard
2024, Global Change Biology (30)
Disentangling the influences of climate change from other stressors affecting the population dynamics of aquatic species is particularly pressing for northern latitude ecosystems, where climate-driven warming is occurring faster than the global average. Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) region occupy the...
A "Region-Specific Model Adaptation (RSMA)" based training data method in large-scale land cover mapping
Congcong Li, George Z. Xian, Suming Jin
2024, Remote Sensing (16)
An accurate and historical land cover monitoring dataset for Alaska could provide fundamental information for a range of studies, such as conservation habitats, biogeochemical cycles, and climate systems, in this distinctive region. This research addresses challenges associated with the extraction of training data for timely and accurate land cover...
Special topic—Rapid-response instrumentation
Ashton F. Flinders
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5062-M
IntroductionBased on the reports of Ewert and others (2005, 2018) and Moran and others (2008), most U.S. volcanoes are currently under-monitored and are likely to remain so until the goals of the National Volcano Early Warning System are fulfilled. In addition, volcanoes determined to have low to moderate threat...
Special topic—Eruption plumes and clouds
David J. Schneider, Alexa R. Van Eaton
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5062-J
IntroductionExplosive eruptions create plumes of volcanic ash and gas that can rise more than 30,000 feet (9.1 kilometers [km]) above sea level within minutes of eruption onset. The resulting clouds disperse under prevailing winds and may cause hazardous conditions hundreds to thousands of kilometers from the volcano, including in international...
Monitoring lahars
Weston A. Thelen, John J. Lyons, Alexandra M. Iezzi, Seth C. Moran
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5062-H
IntroductionLahars, or debris flows that originate from a volcano (Pierson and Scott, 1985; Pierson, 1995), are among the most destructive, far-reaching, and persistent hazards on stratovolcanoes. Lahars may be triggered by syneruptive rapid melting of snow and ice, lake breakouts, or heavy rains in conjunction with large eruptive columns. Alternatively,...
Streams, springs, and volcanic lakes for volcano monitoring
Steven E. Ingebritsen, Shaul Hurwitz
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5062-F
IntroductionVolcanic unrest can trigger appreciable change to surface waters such as streams, springs, and volcanic lakes. Magma degassing produces gases and soluble salts that are absorbed into groundwater that feeds streams and lakes. As magma ascends, the amount of heat and degassing will increase, and so will any related geochemical...
Volcanic gas monitoring
Jennifer L. Lewicki, Christoph Kern, Peter J. Kelly, Patricia A. Nadeau, Tamar Elias, Laura E. Clor
2024, Scientific Investigations Report 2024-5062-E
IntroductionAs magma rises through the crust, decreasing pressure conditions allow volatiles to exsolve from the magma. These volatiles then migrate upward through the crust, where they can be stored at shallower levels or escape to the atmosphere. Rising magma also heats rock masses beneath volcanic centers, causing water in shallow...
Arctic fishes reveal patterns in radiocarbon age across habitats and with recent climate change
Ashley E. Stanek, Jonathan A. O’Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Sarah M. Laske, Xiaomei Xu, Kenneth H. Dunton, Vanessa R. von Biela
2024, Limnology and Oceanography Letters (9) 796-805
Climate change alters the sources and age of carbon in Arctic food webs by fostering the release of older carbon from degrading permafrost. Radiocarbon (14C) traces carbon sources and age, but data before rapid warming are rare and limit assessments over time. We capitalized on 14C...
Long-term distributed temperature sensing monitoring for near-wellbore gas migration and gas hydrate formation
Ana Garcia-Ceballos, Ge Jin, Timothy Collett, Sukru Merey, Seth S. Haines
2024, SPE Journal (29) 5804-5819
Well integrity monitoring has always been a critical component of subsurface oil and gas operations. Distributed fiber-optic sensing is an emerging technology that shows great promise for monitoring processes, both in boreholes and in other settings. In this study, we present a case study of using distributed temperature sensing (DTS)...
Facies variation within outcrops of the Triassic Shublik Formation, northeastern Alaska
Julie A. Dumoulin, Katherine J. Whidden, William A. Rouse, Christina A. DeVera
2024, Professional Paper 1814-H
The Shublik Formation (Middle to Upper Triassic) is a heterogeneous unit that is a major hydrocarbon source rock in northern Alaska and the largest known Triassic phosphate accumulation in the world. This formation, which occurs in the subsurface and crops out within the Arctic Alaska basin, was deposited on a...
Genomic characterization of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza viruses from Alaska during 2022 provides evidence for genotype-specific trends of spatiotemporal and interspecies dissemination
Christina Ahlstrom, Mia Kim Torchetti, Julianna B. Lenoch, Kimberlee Beckmen, Megan Boldenow, Evan J Buck, Bryan Daniels, Krista Dilione, Robert Gerlach, Kristina Lantz, Angela Matz, Rebecca L. Poulson, Laura Celeste Scott, Gay Sheffield, David R. Sinnett, David E. Stallknecht, Raphaela Stimmelmayr, Eric B. Taylor, Alison R. Williams, Andrew M. Ramey
2024, Emerging Microbes & Infections (13)
The ongoing panzootic of highly pathogenic H5 clade 2.3.4.4b avian influenza (HPAI) spread to North America in late 2021, with detections of HPAI viruses in Alaska beginning in April 2022. HPAI viruses have since spread across the state, affecting many species of wild birds as well as domestic...
Latitudinal gradients and sex differences in morphology of the Black Oystercatcher (Haematopus bachmani)
Hannah Roodenrijs, Lena Ware, Cole Rankin, Mark Maftei, Mark Hipfner, Brian H. Robinson, Daniel Esler, Heather Coletti, David Green
2024, Ecology and Evolution (14)
Environment and behavior are widely understood to affect bird morphology, which can lead to differences among subspecies or populations within a wide-ranging species. Several patterns of latitudinal gradients in morphology have been described, though Allen's and Bergmann's rules are the most well-known and have...
Anomalously high relief on Denali, Alaska, caused by tectonic, lithologic, and climatic drivers
Ari Matmon, Peter J. Haeussler, Michael Loso, ASTER Team
2024, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (646)
We assess the growth of anomalously high relief on Denali, located in the Alaska Range, Alaska, and the tallest mountain in North America (6190 masl). Denali is 3000 m taller than most surrounding peaks. It lies inside a 19° restraining bend in the active Denali fault system that is moving...
Parsimonious high-resolution landslide susceptibility modeling at continental scales
Benjamin B. Mirus, Gina Marie Belair, Nathan J. Wood, Jeanne M. Jones, Sabrina N. Martinez
2024, AGU Advances (5)
Landslide susceptibility maps are fundamental tools for risk reduction, but the coarse resolution of current continental-scale models is insufficient for local application. Complex relations between topographic and environmental attributes characterizing landslide susceptibility at local scales are not transferrable across areas without landslide data. Existing maps with multiple...
Sod farms drive habitat selection of a migratory grassland shorebird during a critical stopover period
Tara Rodkey, Bart M Ballard, T. Lee Tibbitts, Richard B. Lanctot
2024, Scientific Reports (14)
Migratory shorebirds are one of the fastest declining groups of North American avifauna. Yet, relatively little is known about how these species select habitat during migration. We explored the habitat selection of Buff-breasted Sandpipers (Calidris subruficollis) during spring and fall migration through the Texas Coastal Plain,...
Event classification, seismicity, and eruption forecasting at Great Sitkin Volcano, Alaska: 1999–2023
John Power, Diana Roman
2024, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (454)
The frequency content of volcanogenic seismicity is often used to classify events and their spatial and temporal progression is then used to map subsurface volcanic processes. The progression of volcano-seismic events and associated source processes also plays a critical role...
U.S. Geological Survey climate science plan—Future research directions
Tamara Wilson, Ryan P. Boyles, Nicole DeCrappeo, Judith Z. Drexler, Kevin D. Kroeger, Rachel A. Loehman, John M. Pearce, Mark P. Waldrop, Peter D. Warwick, Anne M. Wein, Sara L. Zeigler, Beard Jr.
2024, Circular 1526
Executive Summary Climate is the primary driver of environmental change and is a key consideration in defining science priorities conducted across all mission areas in the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Recognizing the importance of climate change to its future research agenda, the USGS’s Climate Science Steering Committee requested the development of...
Science target prioritization framework for remote sensing
Vinay Ravindra, Douglas Caldwell, Meghan Chandarana Saephan, Bryan Duncan, Sarah A. Strode, William Swartz, Kristen L. Manies, Jeremy Frank, Richard Levinson, Eugene Turkov
2024, Conference Paper
Behind the scenes of a remote sensing mission there are complex decision making and planning operations. Streamlining these operations, with a quantitative scientific value framework, aids efficient and optimized science data collection. While there have been previous efforts to quantify the science value for specific science scenarios, our work aims...
New U-Pb geochronology and geochemistry of Paleozoic metaigneous rocks from western Yukon and eastern Alaska, cross-border synthesis, and implications for tectonic models
Cynthia Dusel-Bacon, James K. Mortensen
2024, Professional Paper 1888
The tectonic evolution of and relation between the Yukon-Tanana terrane and the Lake George assemblage, as well as other associated tectonic assemblages in western Yukon and eastern Alaska, have been debated for decades. The Yukon-Tanana terrane is widely considered to be an allochthonous rifted fragment derived from the Laurentian continental...
Arctic Alaska deepwater organic carbon burial and environmental changes during the late Albian–early Campanian (103–82 Ma)
Richard O. Lease, Katherine J. Whidden, Julie A. Dumoulin, David W. Houseknecht, Palma J. Botterell, Mark F. Dreier, Neil Patrick Griffis, Roland Mundil, Andrew R.C. Kylander-Clark, Margaret M. Sanders, John W. Counts, Jean Self-Trail, Jared T. Gooley, William A. Rouse, Rebecca A. Smith, Christina A. DeVera
2024, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (646)
The middle Cretaceous greenhouse period experienced profound environmental change including episodes of enhanced global burial of organic carbon marked by carbon isotopic excursions (CIEs). However, the role and response of polar regions like the newly formed, partially enclosed Arctic Ocean Basin...
Revised timing of rapid exhumation in the West Qinling: Implications for geodynamics of Oligocene-Miocene Tibetan plateau outward expansion
Chaopeng Li, Dewen Zheng, Jingxing Yu, Richard O. Lease, Yizhou Wang, Jianzhang Pang, Ying Wang, Yuqi Hao, Yigang Xu
2024, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (646)
Two contrasting age models for initial mountain building in the northeastern (NE) Tibetan Plateau (Paleocene-early Eocene versus late Oligocene-early Miocene) have led to the debate on how the deformed continental lithosphere absorbs plate convergence in general. The initial compressional deformation in the West Qinling (WQL) of the NE Tibetan Plateau...
From field station to forecast: Managing data at the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Michelle L. Coombs, Cheryl Cameron, Hannah R. Dietterich, Eleanor Boyce, Aaron Wech, Ronni Grapenthin, Kristi L. Wallace, Thomas Parker, Taryn Lopez, Scott Crass, David Fee, Matthew M. Haney, Dane M. Ketner, Matthew W. Loewen, John J. Lyons, Jenny Sha Nakai, John Power, Steven M Botnick, Israel Brewster, Max L. Enders, Dain Harmon, Peter J. Kelly, Michael J. Randall
2024, Bulletin of Volcanology (86)
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) uses multidisciplinary data to monitor and study dozens of active and potentially active volcanoes. Here, we provide an overview of internally and externally generated data types, tools and resources used in their management, and challenges faced. Data sources include the following: (1) a multiparameter (seismic,...
Reference 1D seismic velocity models for volcano monitoring and imaging: Methods, models, and applications
Jeremy D. Pesicek, Trond Ryberg
2024, Seismological Research Letters (95) 2722-2744
Seismic velocity models of the crust are an integral part of earthquake monitoring systems at volcanoes. 1D models that vary only in depth are typically used for real‐time hypocenter determination and serve as critical reference models for detailed 3D imaging studies and...
