Hidden in plain sight: Migration routes of the elusive Anadyr bar-tailed godwit revealed by satellite tracking
Ying-Chi Chan, T. Lee Tibbitts, Dmitry Dorofeev, Chris J. Hassell, Theunis Piersma
2022, Journal of Avian Biology (2022)
Satellite and GPS tracking technology continues to reveal new migration patterns of birds which enables comparative studies of migration strategies and distributional information useful in conservation. Bar-tailed godwits in the East Asian–Australasian Flyway Limosa lapponica baueri and L. l. menzbieri are known for their long non-stop flights, however these populations are in steep decline....
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI): An emerging disease threat in North America
Andrew M. Ramey, Colleen M. Handel
2022, Report
Highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) is an ecologically and economically significant avian disease that is quickly spreading among wild and domestic birds throughout North America. In this blog post, we provide information and resources that can help you to be informed, be prepared, and be ready to take appropriate action...
Regional walrus abundance estimate in the United States Chukchi Sea in autumn
Anthony S. Fischbach, Rebecca L. Taylor, Chadwick V. Jay
2022, Journal of Wildlife Management (86)
Human activities (e.g., shipping, tourism, oil, gas development) have increased in the Chukchi Sea because of declining sea ice. The declining sea ice itself and these activities may affect Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens) abundance; however, previous walrus abundance estimates have been notably imprecise. When sea...
Dynamic sensitivity to resource availability influences population responses to mismatches in a shorebird
Luke R. Wilde, Josiah E. Simmons, Rose J. Swift, Nathan R. Senner
2022, Ecology (103)
Climate change has caused shifts in seasonally recurring biological events leading to the temporal decoupling of consumer-resource pairs – i.e., phenological mismatching. Although mismatches often affect individual fitness, they do not invariably scale up to affect populations, making it difficult to assess the risk they pose. Individual variation may contribute...
New model of the Barry Arm landslide in Alaska reveals potential tsunami wave heights of 2 meters, values much lower than previously estimated
Marísa A. Macías, Katherine R. Barnhart, Dennis M. Staley
2022, Fact Sheet 2022-3020
The retreat of Barry Glacier has contributed to the destabilization of slopes in Barry Arm, creating the possibility that a landslide could rapidly enter the fjord and trigger a tsunami.The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) recently released a report documenting potential tsunami wave heights in the event of a large, fast-moving...
An introduction to current climate projections and their use in climate impacts research
Jeremy Littell
Craig Stephen, Colleen G. Duncan, editor(s)
2022, Book chapter, Climate change and animal health
Using climate projections to evaluate future climate impacts and their associated risks requires a background knowledge of the nature of climate change, use of climate models to develop future projections, and knowledge of how to address climate scenario uncertainty. This chapter provides an overview of climate and climate change, some...
Intrapopulation differences in polar bear movement and step selection patterns
Ryan R. Wilson, Michelle St Martin, Eric V. Regehr, Karyn D. Rode
2022, Movement Ecology (10)
BackgroundThe spatial ecology of individuals often varies within a population or species. Identifying how individuals in different classes interact with their environment can lead to a better understanding of population responses to human activities and environmental change and improve population estimates. Most inferences about polar bear (Ursus maritimus)...
How beavers are changing Arctic landscapes and Earth’s climate
Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Brett Poulin, Ken Tape, Joshua C. Koch
2022, Frontiers for Young Minds (10)
Beavers build dams that change the way water moves between streams, lakes, and the land. In Alaska, beavers are moving north from the forests into the Arctic tundra. When beavers build dams in the Arctic, they cause frozen soil, called permafrost, to thaw. Scientists are studying how beavers and...
Nearshore bathymetric changes along the Alaska Beaufort Sea coast and possible physical drivers
Mark Zimmermann, Li H. Erikson, Ann E. Gibbs, Megan M. Prescott, Stephen M. Escarzaga, Craig E. Tweedie, Jeremy L. Kasper, Paul X. Duvoy
2022, Continental Shelf Research (242)
Erosion rates along Alaska's Beaufort Sea coast, among the highest in the world, are negatively impacting communities, industrial and military infrastructure, and wildlife habitat. Decreasing maximal winter ice extent and increasing summer open water duration and extent in the Beaufort Sea may be making the coast more vulnerable to destructive storm...
Comparison of indices to infer population dynamics of black brant
Paul L. Flint
2022, Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management (13) 344-358
To aid managers in assessing status of Pacific black brant Branta bernicla nigricans (hereafter brant), I examined pre-existing long-term data series from summer, fall staging, and wintering areas to infer overall population processes and assessed the utility of the various data sources. Variation in demographic parameters...
Fish ear stones offer climate change clues in Alaska's lakes
Krista K. Bartz, Vanessa R. von Biela, Bryan A. Black, Daniel B. Young, Peter van der Sleen, Christian E. Zimmerman
2022, Frontiers for Young Minds
Otoliths, also known as ear stones, are small body parts that help fish with hearing and balance. Like tree rings, otoliths form one light and one dark band per year, creating rings. These rings can be measured to understand fish growth. The wider the ring, the greater the growth....
Geospatial analysis delineates lode gold prospectivity in Alaska
Susan M. Karl, Douglas C. Kreiner, George N. D. Case, Keith A. Labay
2022, Fact Sheet 2022-3008
Comprehensive, data-driven geographic information system analyses utilize publicly available lithologic, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral occurrence datasets to delineate gold resource potential in Alaska. These prospectivity analyses successfully identify areas containing known lode gold occurrences, expand areas of high prospectivity around known occurrences, improve the precision of delineation of areas of...
A collaborative agenda for archaeology and fire science
Grant J. Snitker, Christopher Roos, Allen Sullivan, S. Yoshi Maezumi, Douglas Bird, Michael Coughlan, Kelly Derr, Linn Gassaway, Anna Klimaszewski-Patterson, Rachel A. Loehman
2022, Nature Ecology and Evolution (6) 835-839
Humans have influenced global fire activity for millennia and will continue to do so into the future. Given the long-term interaction between humans and fire, we propose a collaborative research agenda linking archaeology and fire science that emphasizes the socioecological histories and consequences of anthropogenic fire in the development of...
Earthquakes indicated stress field change during the 2006 unrest of Augustine Volcano, Alaska
Yan Zhan, Diana Roman, Helene Le Mevel, John Power
2022, Geophysical Research Letters (49)
To examine controls on the local stress field at Augustine Volcano, Alaska, before its 2006 eruption, we calculated fault plane solutions for volcano-tectonic earthquakes from 2002 to 2006. The P-axis orientation was first aligned to the regional maximum compression (NW) and then rotated by about 90° (perpendicular to the dike...
Marine mammal hotspots across the circumpolar Arctic
Charmain Hamilton, Christian Lydersen, Jon Aars, Mario Acquarone, Todd C. Atwood, Alastair Baylis, Martin Biuw, Andrei N. Boltunov, Erik W. Born, Peter L. Boveng, Tanya M. Brown, Michael Cameron, John J. Citta, Justin A. Crawford, Rune Dietz, Jim Elias, Steven H. Ferguson, Aaron T. Fisk, Lars P. Folkow, Kathryn J. Frost, Dmitri M. Glazov, Sandra M. Granquist, Rowenna Gryba, Lois A. Harwood, Tore Haug, Mads Peter Heide-Jørgensen, Nigel E. Hussey, Jimmy Kalinek, Kristin L. Laidre, Dennis I. Litovka, Josh M. London, Lisa Loseto, Shannon MacPhee, Marianne Marcoux, Cory J. D. Matthews, Kjell J Nilssen, Erling S. Nordøy, Greg O’Corry-Crowe, Nils Øien, Morten Tange Olsen, Lori T. Quakenbush, Aqqalu Rosing-Asvid, Varvara Semenova, Kim E. W. Shelden, Olga V. Shpak, Garry Stenson, Luke Storrie, Signe Sveegaard, Jonas Teilmann, Fernando Ugarte, Andrew L. Von Duyke, Cortney Watt, Øystein Wiig, Ryan R. Wilson, David J. Yurkowski, Kit M. Kovacs
2022, Diversity and Distributions (28) 2729-2753
AimIdentify hotspots and areas of high species richness for Arctic marine mammals.LocationCircumpolar Arctic.MethodsA total of 2115 biologging devices were deployed on marine mammals from 13 species in the Arctic from 2005 to 2019. Getis-Ord Gi* hotspots were calculated based on the number of...
Laurentia in transition during the Mesoproterozoic: Observations and speculation on the ca. 1500–1340 Ma tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian margin
Christopher G. Daniel, Ruth Aronoff, Aphrodite Indares, James V. Jones III
2022, Book chapter, Laurentia: Turning points in the evolution of a continent
An accretionary tectonic model for the Mesoproterozoic ca. 1500–1340 Ma tectonic evolution of the southern Laurentian margin is presented. The tectonic model incorporates key observations about the nature and timing of Mesoproterozoic deposition, magmatism, regional metamorphism, and deformation across the 5000-km-long southern Laurentian margin. This time period was one of...
Permeability of methane hydrate-bearing sandy silts in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico (Green Canyon Block 955)
Yi Fang, Peter Flemings, Hugh Daigle, Stephen C. Phillips, Joshua O'Connell
2022, AAPG Bulletin (106) 1071-1100
Permeability is one of the most crucial properties governing fluid flow in methane hydrate reservoirs. This paper presents a comprehensive permeability analysis of hydrate-bearing sandy silt pressure-cored from Green Canyon Block 955 (GC 955) in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico. We developed an experimental protocol to systematically characterize the...
Circa 1.50–1.45 Ga metasedimentary rocks in southwestern Laurentia provide distinctive records of Mesoproterozoic regional orogenesis and craton interactions
James V. Jones III, Christopher G. Daniel
2022, GSA Memoirs (220)
The discovery of multiple deformed and metamorphosed sedimentary successions in southwestern Laurentia that have depositional ages between ca. 1.50 and 1.45 Ga marked a turning point in our understanding of the Mesoproterozoic...
Scientific results of the Hydrate-01 Stratigraphic Test Well Program, Western Prudhoe Bay Unit, Alaska North Slope
Roy Boswell, Timothy S. Collett, Koji Yamamoto, Norihiro Okinaka, Robert Hunter, Kiyofumi Suzuki, Machiko Tamaki, Jun Yoneda, David Itter, Seth S. Haines, Evgeniy Myshakin, George Moridis
2022, Journal of Energy and Fuels (36) 5167-5184
The United States Department of Energy, the MH21-S Research Consortium of Japan, and the United States Geological Survey are collaborating to enable gas hydrate scientific drilling and extended-duration reservoir response testing on the Alaska North Slope. To feasibly execute such a test, a location is required...
A suction pump sampler for invertebrate drift detects exceptionally high concentrations of small invertebrates that drift nets miss
Jason R. Neuswanger, Erik R. Schoen, Mark S. Wipfli, Carol J. Volk, James W. Savereide
2022, Hydrobiologia (849) 2077-2089
Invertebrate drift is a key process in riverine ecosystems controlling aquatic invertebrate movement, distribution, and availability to fish as prey. However, accurately sampling drift across a wide range of invertebrate sizes is difficult because small invertebrates slip through coarse-mesh drift nets, and fine mesh clogs more easily, which reduces filtration...
Complex magmatic-tectonic interactions during the 2020 Makushin Volcano, Alaska, earthquake swarm
Federica Lanza, Diana Roman, John Power, Clifford H. Thurber, Thomas Hudson
2022, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (587)
On June 15, 2020, at 21:16 UTC, a locally-felt earthquake of magnitude 4.2 struck Unalaska Island, Alaska, ∼15 km west of the town of Unalaska and the large fishing port of Dutch Harbor. The event was followed by a M4.1 earthquake at 00:34 UTC and several M3+ aftershocks, initiating a prolific...
Topographic controls on ice flow and recession for Juneau Icefield (Alaska/British Columbia)
Bethan Davies, Jacob Bendle, Jonathan Carrivick, Robert McNabb, Christopher J. McNeil, Mauri Pelto, Seth Campbell, Tom Holt, Jeremy Ely, Bradley Markle
2022, Earth Surfaces Processes and Landforms (47) 2357-2390
Globally, mountain glaciers and ice caps are losing dramatic volumes of ice. The resultant sea-level rise is dominated by contributions from Alaska. Plateau icefields may be especially sensitive to climate change due to the non-linear controls their topography imparts on their response to climate change. However, Alaskan plateau icefields have...
Sensitivity of headwater streamflow to thawing permafrost and vegetation change in a warming Arctic
Joshua C. Koch, Ylva Sjöberg, Jonathan A. O'Donnell, Michael P. Carey, Pamela Sullivan, A. Terskaia
2022, Environmental Research Letters (17)
Climate change has the potential to impact headwater streams in the Arctic by thawing permafrost and subsequently altering hydrologic regimes and vegetation distribution, physiognomy and productivity. Permafrost thaw and increased subsurface flow have been inferred from the chemistry of large rivers, but there is limited empirical evidence of the impacts...
Harmful algal blooms in the Alaskan Arctic: An emerging threat as oceans warm
Donald Anderson, Evangeline Fachon, Katherine Hubbard, Kathi Lefebvre, Peigen Lin, Robert Pickart, Mindy Richlen, Gay Sheffield, Caroline R. Van Hemert
2022, Oceanography (35)
Harmful algal blooms (HABs) present an emerging threat to human and ecosystem health in the Alaskan Arctic. Two HAB toxins are of concern in the region: saxitoxins (STXs), a family of compounds produced by the dinoflagellate Alexandrium catenella, and domoic acid (DA), produced by multiple species in the diatom genus Pseudo-nitzschia. These...
Detection of Splendidofilaria sp. (Onchocercidae:Splendidofilariinae) Microfilaria within Alaskan ground-dwelling birds in the grouse subfamily tetraoninae using taqman probe-based real-time PCR
Stephen E. Greiman, Robert E. Wilson, Briana Sesmundo, Jack Reakoff, Sarah A. Sonsthagen
2022, Journal of Parasitology (108) 192-198
Grouse and ptarmigan (Galliformes) harbor fairly diverse helminth faunas that can impact the host's health, including filarial nematodes in the genus Splendidofilaria. As host and parasite distributions are predicted to shift in response to recent climate change, novel parasites may be introduced into a region...
