Shorebirds adjust spring arrival schedules with variable environmental conditions: Four decades of assessment on the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Craig R. Ely, Brian McCaffery, Robert E. Gill Jr.
W. David Shuford, Robert E. Gill Jr., Colleen M. Handel, editor(s)
2018, Book chapter, Trends and traditions: Avifaunal change in western North America: Studies of Western Birds 3
Arctic summers are brief, and there has been strong selection for migratory birds to arrive in Arctic nesting areas as early as possible to time breeding with peak food availability and complete reproduction. The timing of emergence of nesting habitat in spring is, however, extremely variable in the Arctic, and few long-term studies...
Submarine deposition of a subaerial landslide in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Peter J. Haeussler, S. P. S Gulick, N. McCall, Maureen A. L. Walton, R. Reece, C. Larson, D. H. Shugar, M. Geertsema, J. G. Venditti, Keith A. Labay
2018, Journal of Geophysical Research (123) 2443-2463
A large subaerial landslide entered Taan Fiord, Alaska, on 17 October 2015 producing a tsunami with runup to 193 m. We use LiDAR data to show the slide volume to be 76 + 3/−4 million cubic meters and that 51,000,000 m3 entered Taan Fiord. In 2016, we mapped the fjord with multibeam bathymetry and high‐resolution...
Tradeoffs of a portable, field-based environmental DNA platform for detecting invasive northern pike (Esox lucius) in Alaska
Adam J. Sepulveda, Patrick R. Hutchins, Robert L. Massengill, Kristine J. Dunker
2018, Management of Biological Invasions (9) 253-258
Environmental DNA (eDNA) has improved detection probabilities of aquatic invasive species but lab-based analyticalplatforms for eDNA analyses slow opportunities for rapid response. Effective approaches that address this analyticalbottleneck and improve capacity for rapid response are urgently needed. We tested the sensitivity of a portable, field-basedeDNA platform relative to widely used...
Survey-based assessment of the frequency and potential impacts of recreation on polar bears
Karyn D. Rode, Jennifer K. Fortin, Dave Garshelis, Markus Dyck, Vicki Sahanatien, Todd C. Atwood, Stanislav Belikov, Kristin L. Laidre, Susanne Miller, Martyn E. Obbard, Dag Vongraven, Jasmine V. Ware, James Wilder
2018, Biological Conservation (227) 121-132
Conservation plans for polar bears (Ursus maritimus) typically cannot prescribe management actions to address their primary threat: sea ice loss associated with climate warming. However, there may be other stressors that compound the negative effects of sea ice loss which can be mitigated. For example, Arctic tourism has increased concurrent with polar bears increasingly...
Use of landscape simulation modeling to quantify resilience for ecological applications
Robert Keane, Rachel A. Loehman, Lisa M. Holsinger, Donald A. Falk, Phil E Higuera, Sharon Hood, Paul F. Hessburg
2018, Ecosphere (9)
Goals of fostering ecological resilience are increasingly used to guide U.S. public land management in the context of anthropogenic climate change and increasing landscape disturbances. There are, however, few operational means of assessing the resilience of a landscape or ecosystem. We present a method to evaluate resilience...
Strike-slip 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 Gulf of Alaska rare intraplate earthquake: Complex rupture of a fracture zone system
Anne Krabbenhoeft, Roland von Huene, John J. Miller, Dietrich Lange, Felipe Vera
2018, Scientific Reports (8) 1-9
Large intraplate earthquakes in oceanic lithosphere are rare and usually related to regions of diffuse deformation within the oceanic plate. The 23 January 2018 MW 7.9 strike-slip Gulf of Alaska earthquake ruptured an oceanic fracture zone system offshore Kodiak Island. Bathymetric compilations show a muted topographic expression of the fracture zone...
Movements and dive patterns of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) released in the Gulf of Mexico following rehabilitation
Eric Pulis, Randall S. Wells, Gregory S. Schorr, David C. Douglas, Mystera M. Samuelson, Moby Solangi
2018, Aquatic Mammals (44) 555-567
The habits and habitats of pygmy killer whales (Feresa attenuata) in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) are poorly known outside of strandings and line-transect surveys. Two adult male pygmy killer whales were found live-stranded in the state of Mississippi (USA) on 1 September 2015 and were subsequently rehabilitated and returned...
Spring temperature, migration chronology, and nutrient allocation to eggs in three species of arctic‐nesting geese: Implications for resilience to climate warming
Jerry W. Hupp, David H. Ward, David X. Soto, Keith A. Hobson
2018, Global Change Biology (24) 5056-5071
The macronutrients that Arctic herbivores invest in their offspring are derived from endogenous reserves of fat and protein (capital) that females build prior to the period of investment or from foods they consume concurrently with investment (income). The relative contribution from each source can be influenced by temporal and environmental...
Genetic evidence supports sporadic and independent introductions of subtype H5 low pathogenic avian influenza A viruses from wild birds to domestic poultry in North America
Lei Li, Andrew S. Bowman, Thomas J. DeLiberto, Mary L. Killian, Scott Krauss, Jacqueline M. Nolting, Mia Kim Torchetti, Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, David E. Stallknecht, Richard J. Webby, Xiu-Feng Wan
2018, Journal of Virology (92) 1-16
Wild bird–origin influenza A viruses (IAVs or avian influenza) have led to sporadic outbreaks among domestic poultry in the United States (US) and Canada, resulting in economic losses through the implementation of costly containment practices and destruction of birds. We used evolutionary analyses of virus sequence data to determine that...
Introduction of Eurasian-origin H8N4 influenza A virus into North America via migratory birds
Andrew M. Ramey, Andrew B. Reeves, Tyrone F. Donnelly, Rebecca L. Poulson, David E. Stallknecht
2018, Emerging Infectious Diseases (24) 1950-1953
We identified a Eurasian-origin influenza A(H8N4) virus in North America by sampling wild birds in western Alaska, USA. Evidence for repeated introductions of influenza A viruses into North America by migratory birds suggests that intercontinental dispersal might not be exceedingly rare and that our understanding of viral establishment is incomplete....
The 2015 landslide and tsunami in Taan Fiord, Alaska
Brentwood Higman, Dan H. Shugar, Colin P. Stark, Goran Ekstrom, Michele N Koppes, Patrick Lynett, Anja Dufresne, Peter J. Haeussler, Marten Geertsema, Sean P.S. Gulick, Andrew Mattox, Jeremy G. Venditti, Maureen A. L. Walton, Naoma McCall, Erin Mckittrick, Breanyn MacInnes, Eric L. Bilderback, Hui Tang, Micheal Willis, Bruce Richmond, Bobby Reece, Christopher F. Larsen, Bjorn Olson, James Capra, Aykut Ayca, Colin K Bloom, Haley Williams, Doug Bonno, Robert Weiss, Adam Keen, Vassilios Skanavis, Micheal Loso
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Glacial retreat in recent decades has exposed unstable slopes and allowed deep water to extend beneath some of those slopes. Slope failure at the terminus of Tyndall Glacier on 17 October 2015 sent 180 million tons of rock into Taan Fiord, Alaska. The resulting tsunami reached elevations as high as...
Evaluating time-removal models for estimating availability of boreal birds during point count surveys: Sample size requirements and model complexity
Peter Solymos, Steven M. Matsuoka, Steven G. Cumming, Diana Stralberg, Patricia C. Fontaine, Fiona K. A. Schmiegelow, Samantha J. Song, Erin M. Bayne
2018, Condor (120) 765-786
We used conventional and finite mixture removal models with and without time-varying covariates to evaluate availability given presence for 152 bird species using data from point counts in boreal North America. We found that the choice of model had an impact on the estimability of unknown model parameters and affected...
Aerial surveys of sea otters (Enhydra lutris) in Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, May, 2017
Joel Gerlach-Miller, George G. Esslinger, Ben Weitzman
2018, Report, USFWS Technical Report
Portions of two stocks of northern sea otters (Enhydra lutris kenyoni) occur in Lower Cook Inlet (LCI), Alaska. Sea otters on the west side of LCI are considered part of the southwest Alaska stock; sea otters occupying eastern LCI are considered part of the southcentral Alaska stock. Information...
The influence of tectonic environment on dynamic earthquake triggering: A review and case study on Alaskan volcanoes
Stephanie Prejean, David P. Hill
2018, Tectonophysics (745) 293-304
The phenomenon of dynamic earthquake triggering, when seismic waves from an earthquake trigger seismicity at distant sites, has been recognized for over 25 years, yet knowledge of the global distribution of dynamic triggering remains far from complete. Because occurrences...
Short-term forecasting and detection of explosions during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, Alaska
Michelle L. Coombs, Aaron Wech, Matthew M. Haney, John J. Lyons, David J. Schneider, Hans Schwaiger, Kristi L. Wallace, David Fee, Jeffrey T. Freymueller, Janet Schaefer, Gabrielle Tepp
2018, Frontiers in Earth Science (6)
We describe a multidisciplinary approach to forecast, rapidly detect, and characterize explosive events during the 2016–2017 eruption of Bogoslof volcano, a back-arc shallow submarine volcano in Alaska’s Aleutian arc. The eruptive sequence began in December 2016 and included about 70 discrete explosive events. Because the volcano has no local monitoring...
Assessing historical and projected carbon balance of Alaska: A synthesis of results and policy/management implications
A. David McGuire, Hélène Genet, Zhou Lyu, Neal J. Pastick, Sarah M. Stackpoole, Richard Birdsey, David D'Amore, Yujie He, T. Scott Rupp, Robert G. Striegl, Bruce K. Wylie, Xiaoping Zhou, Qianlai Zhuang, Zhiliang Zhu
2018, Ecological Applications (28) 1396-1412
We summarize the results of a recent interagency assessment of land carbon dynamics in Alaska, in which carbon dynamics were estimated for all major terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems for the historical period (1950–2009) and a projection period (2010–2099). Between 1950 and 2009, upland and wetland (i.e., terrestrial) ecosystems of the...
The risk of rodent introductions from shipwrecks to seabirds on Aleutian and Bering Sea islands
Martin Renner, Eric Nelson, Jordan Watson, Alan Haynie, Aaron Poe, Martin D. Robards, Steve C. Hess
2018, Biological Invasions (20) 2679-2690
Accidental introductions of rodents present one of the greatest threats to indigenous island biota, especially seabirds. On uninhabited remote islands, such introductions are likely to come from shipwrecks. Here we use a comprehensive database of shipwrecks in Western Alaska to model the frequency of shipwrecks per Aleutian and Bering Sea...
Research to improve ShakeAlert earthquake early warning products and their utility
Elizabeth S. Cochran, Brad T. Aagaard, Richard M. Allen, Jennifer Andrews, Annemarie S. Baltay Sundstrom, Andrew J. Barbour, Paul Bodin, Benjamin A. Brooks, Angela Chung, Brendan W. Crowell, Douglas D. Given, Thomas C. Hanks, J. Renate Hartog, Egill Hauksson, Thomas H. Heaton, Sara K. McBride, Men-Andrin Meier, Diego Melgar, Sarah E. Minson, Jessica R. Murray, Jennifer A. Strauss, Douglas Toomey
2018, Open-File Report 2018-1131
Earthquake early warning (EEW) is the rapid detection of an earthquake and issuance of an alert or notification to people and vulnerable systems likely to experience potentially damaging ground shaking. The level of ground shaking that is considered damaging is defined by the specific application; for example, manufacturing equipment may...
Comparison of microbiomes of cold-water corals Primnoa pacifica and Primnoa resedaeformis, with possible link between microbiome composition and host genotype
Dawn B. Goldsmith, Christina A. Kellogg, Cheryl L. Morrison, Michael A. Gray, Robert P. Stone, Rhian G. Waller, Sandra D. Brooke, Steve W. Ross
2018, Scientific Reports (8)
Cold-water corals provide critical habitats for a multitude of marine species, but are understudied relative to tropical corals. Primnoa pacifica is a cold-water coral prevalent throughout Alaskan waters, while another species in the genus, Primnoa resedaeformis, is widely distributed in the Atlantic Ocean. This study examined the V4-V5 region of the 16S rRNA...
Flyway structure in the circumpolar greater white‐fronted goose
Robert E. Wilson, Craig R. Ely, Sandra L. Talbot
2018, Ecology and Evolution (8) 8490-8507
Dispersal and migratory behavior are influential factors in determining how genetic diversity is distributed across the landscape. In migratory species, genetic structure can be promoted via several mechanisms including fidelity to distinct migratory routes. Particularly within North America, waterfowl management units have been delineated according to distinct longitudinal migratory flyways...
A transcriptome resource for the Arctic Cod (Boreogadus saida)
Robert E. Wilson, Damian M. Menning, Kate Wedemeyer, Sandra L. Talbot
2018, Marine Genomics (41) 57-61
Arctic Cod (Boreogadus saida) serve as an important link in Arctic food webs and are thus considered an important species for environmental monitoring. RNA-Seq was conducted on samples from wild-collected individuals representing various age classes and tissue types to obtain as complete...
Liverworts from Attu Island, Near Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska (USA) with comparison to the Commander Islands (Russia)
Stephen S. Talbot, Wilfred B. Schofield, Jiří Váňa, Sandra L. Talbot
2018, Botanica Pacifica (7) 127-141
The liverwort flora of Attu Island, the westernmost Aleutian Island in the United States, was studied to assess species diversity in the hyperoceanic sector of the northern boreal subzone. The field study was undertaken in sites selected to represent a spectrum of environmental variation, primarily within the eastern part of...
An interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) habitat suitability model to identify overwinter conditions for coregonine whitefishes in Arctic lagoons
Marguerite Tibbles, Jeffrey A. Falke, Andrew R. Mahoney, Martin D. Robards, Andrew C. Seitz
2018, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (147) 1167-1178
Lagoons provide critical habitats for many fishes, including coregonine whitefishes, which are a mainstay in many subsistence fisheries of rural communities in Arctic Alaska. Despite their importance, little is known about the overwintering habits of whitefishes in Arctic Alaska due to the challenges associated with sampling during winter. We developed...
Sex-specific variation in denning by brown bears
Lindsey Mangipane, Jerrold L. Belant, Buck Mangipane, David Gustine, Grant V. Hilderbrand
2018, Mammalian Biology (93) 38-44
Denning characteristics of brown bears (Ursus arctos) have been described in numerous studies; however, population specific factors (i.e., landscape characteristics and climate) can greatly influence the location and timing of denning. Our objective was to evaluate den-site characteristics and denning chronology for male and female brown bears in Lake Clark National Park...
Pliocene erosional pulse and glacier-landscape feedbacks in the western Alaska Range
Richard O. Lease
2018, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (497) 62-68
Pliocene–Pleistocene glaciation modified the topography and erosion of most middle- and high-latitude mountain belts, because the evolution of catchment topography controls long-term glacier mass balance and erosion. Hence, characterizing how erosion rates change during repeated glaciations can help test hypothesized glacier erosion-landscape feedbacks across a range of settings. To better...
