The National Elevation Dataset
Dean B. Gesch, Gayla A. Evans, Michael J. Oimoen, Samantha Arundel
2018, Book chapter
The National Elevation Dataset (NED) is a primary elevation data product that has been produced and distributed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Since its inception, the USGS has compiled and published topographic information in many forms, and the NED is a significant development in this long line of products...
Energy-rich mesopelagic fishes revealed as a critical prey resource for a deep-diving predator using quantitative fatty acid signature analysis
Chandra Goetsch, Melinda G. Conners, Suzanne M. Budge, Yoko Mitani, William A Walker, Jeffrey F. Bromaghin, Samantha E. Simmons, Colleen Reichmuth, Daniel P. Costa
2018, Frontiers in Marine Science (5) 1-19
Understanding the diet of deep-diving predators can provide essential insight to the trophic structure of the mesopelagic ecosystem. Comprehensive population-level diet estimates are exceptionally difficult to obtain for elusive marine predators due to the logistical challenges involved in observing their feeding behavior and collecting samples for traditional stomach content or...
Factors affecting disaster preparedness, response, and recovery using the community capitals framework
Amber Himes-Cornell, Carlos Ormond, Kristin R Hoelting, Natalie C. Ban, J. Zachary Koehn, Edward H. Allison, Eric R. Larson, Daniel Monson, Henry P. Huntington, Tom Okey
2018, Coastal Management (46) 335-358
Disaster research often focuses on how and why communities are affected by a discrete extreme event. We used the community capitals framework to understand how community characteristics influence their preparedness, response to, and recovery from successive or multiple disasters using the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake and the...
Integrated population modeling provides the first empirical estimates of vital rates and abundance for polar bears in the Chukchi Sea
Eric V. Regehr, Nathan J. Hostetter, Ryan H. Wilson, Karyn D. Rode, Michelle St. Martin, Sarah J. Converse
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Large carnivores are imperiled globally, and characteristics making them vulnerable to extinction (e.g., low densities and expansive ranges) also make it difficult to estimate demographic parameters needed for management. Here we develop an integrated population model to analyze capture-recapture, radiotelemetry, and count data for the Chukchi Sea subpopulation of polar...
First comprehensive list of non-native species established in three major regions of the United States
Annie Simpson, Meghan C. Eyler
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1156
Invasive species are a subset of non-native (or alien) species, and knowing what species are non-native to a region is a first step to managing invasive species. People have been compiling non-native and invasive species lists ever since these species started causing harm, yet national non-native species lists are neither...
Inland waters
David E. Butman, Robert G. Striegl, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Paul Del Giorgio, Yves Prairie, Darren Pilcher, Peter Raymond, Fernando Paz Pellat, Javier Alcocer
N. Cavallaro, G. Shrestha, R. Birdsey, M. A. Mayes, R.G. Najjar, S.C. Reed, P. Romero-Lankao, Z. Zhu, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, Second State of the Carbon Cycle Report (SOCCR2): A Sustained Assessment Report
1. The total flux of carbon—which includes gaseous emissions, lateral flux, and burial—from inland waters across the conterminous United States (CONUS) and Alaska is 193 teragrams of carbon (Tg C) per year. The dominant pathway for carbon movement out of inland waters is the emission of carbon dioxide gas across...
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 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 Günther, 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...
