Simulated tsunami inundation for a range of Cascadia megathrust earthquake scenarios at Bandon, Oregon, USA
Robert C. Witter, Yinglong J. Zhang, Kelin Wang, George R. Priest, Chris Goldfinger, Laura Stimely, John T. English, Paul A. Ferro
2013, Geosphere (9) 1783-1803
Characterizations of tsunami hazards along the Cascadia subduction zone hinge on uncertainties in megathrust rupture models used for simulating tsunami inundation. To explore these uncertainties, we constructed 15 megathrust earthquake scenarios using rupture models that supply the initial conditions for tsunami simulations at Bandon, Oregon. Tsunami inundation varies with the...
Tackling “boundary faults” across the Alaska-Yukon border: a report from the field
Rick Saltus
2013, Earth (58) 8-9
One day in late May, a team of geologists from two countries and four different organizations got together in a remote corner of the Yukon Territory to try to rectify a mapping discrepancy called a “boundary fault.”...
Estimating animal resource selection from telemetry data using point process models
Devin S. Johnson, Mevin Hooten, Carey E. Kuhn
2013, Journal of Animal Ecology (82) 1155-1164
Analyses of animal resource selection functions (RSF) using data collected from relocations of individuals via remote telemetry devices have become commonplace. Increasing technological advances, however, have produced statistical challenges in analysing such highly autocorrelated data. Weighted distribution methods have been proposed for analysing RSFs with telemetry data. However, they can...
Migration and wintering areas of American Bitterns (Botaurus lentiginosus) that summer in central North America as determined by satellite and radio telemetry, 1998-2003
Guy Huschle, John E. Toepfer, David C. Douglas
2013, Waterbirds (36) 300-309
Twenty adult male American Bitterns (Botaurus lentiginosus) were marked on summer range in central North America with satellite tracking Platform Transmitter Terminals (PTTs) to document migration routes and wintering range. Nineteen complete fall migration routes were documented for 17 individuals. Of the successful migrations, 63% (n = 12) went to...
Classification of freshwater ice conditions on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain using ground penetrating radar and TerraSAR-X satellite data
Benjamin M. Jones, Alessio Gusmeroli, Christopher D. Arp, Tazio Strozzi, Guido Grosse, Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Matthew S. Whitman
2013, International Journal of Remote Sensing (34) 8267-8279
Arctic freshwater ecosystems have responded rapidly to climatic changes over the last half century. Lakes and rivers are experiencing a thinning of the seasonal ice cover, which may increase potential over-wintering freshwater habitat, winter water supply for industrial withdrawal, and permafrost degradation. Here, we combined the use of ground penetrating...
Alternative ways of using field-based estimates to calibrate ecosystem models and their implications for carbon cycle studies
Yujie He, Qianlai Zhuang, David McGuire, Yaling Liu, Min Chen
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (118) 983-993
Model-data fusion is a process in which field observations are used to constrain model parameters. How observations are used to constrain parameters has a direct impact on the carbon cycle dynamics simulated by ecosystem models. In this study, we present an evaluation of several options for the use of observations...
Seasonal persistence of marine-derived nutrients in south-central Alaskan salmon streams
Daniel J. Rinella, Mark S. Wipfi, Coowe M. Walker, Craig A. Stricker, Ron A. Heintz
2013, Ecosphere (4)
Spawning salmon deliver annual pulses of marine-derived nutrients (MDN) to riverine ecosystems around the Pacific Rim, leading to increased growth and condition in aquatic and riparian biota. The influence of pulsed resources may last for extended periods of time when recipient food webs have effective storage mechanisms, yet few studies...
A multilocus evaluation of ermine (Mustela erminea) across the Holarctic, testing hypotheses of Pleistocene diversification in response to climate change
Natalie G. Dawson, Andrew G. Hope, Sandra L. Talbot, Joseph A. Cook
2013, Journal of Biogeography (41) 464-475
Aim: We examined data for ermine (Mustela erminea) to test two sets of diversification hypotheses concerning the number and location of late Pleistocene refugia, the timing and mode of diversification, and the evolutionary influence of insularization. Location: Temperate and sub-Arctic Northern Hemisphere. Methods: We used up to two mitochondrial and four nuclear...
Analysis of a GRACE global mascon solution for Gulf of Alaska glaciers
Anthony Arendt, Scott Luthcke, Alex Gardner, Shad O'Neel, David Hill, Geir Moholdt, Waleed Abdalati
2013, Journal of Glaciology (59) 913-924
We present a high-resolution Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mascon solution for Gulf of Alaska (GOA) glaciers and compare this with in situ glaciological, climate and other remote-sensing observations. Our GRACE solution yields a GOA glacier mass balance of –65 ± 11 Gt a–1 for the period December 2003...
Changes in the structure and function of northern Alaskan ecosystems when considering variable leaf-out times across groupings of species in a dynamic vegetation model
E.S. Euskirchen, T.B. Carman, Anthony D. McGuire
2013, Global Change Biology (20) 963-978
The phenology of arctic ecosystems is driven primarily by abiotic forces, with temperature acting as the main determinant of growing season onset and leaf budburst in the spring. However, while the plant species in arctic ecosystems require differing amounts of accumulated heat for leaf-out, dynamic vegetation models simulated over regional...
Diel horizontal migration in streams: juvenile fish exploit spatial heterogeneity in thermal and trophic resources
Jonathan B. Armstrong, Daniel E. Schindler, Casey P. Ruff, Gabriel T. Brooks, Kale E. Bentley, Christian E. Torgersen
2013, Ecology (94) 2066-2075
Vertical heterogeneity in the physical characteristics of lakes and oceans is ecologically salient and exploited by a wide range of taxa through diel vertical migration to enhance their growth and survival. Whether analogous behaviors exploit horizontal habitat heterogeneity in streams is largely unknown. We investigated fish movement behavior at daily...
Identification of unrecognized tundra fire events on the north slope of Alaska
Benjamin M. Jones, Amy L. Breen, Benjamin V. Gaglioti, Daniel H. Mann, Adrian V. Rocha, Guido Grosse, Christopher D. Arp, Michael L. Kunz, Donald A. Walker
2013, Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences (118) 1334-1344
Characteristics of the natural fire regime are poorly resolved in the Arctic, even though fire may play an important role cycling carbon stored in tundra vegetation and soils to the atmosphere. In the course of studying vegetation and permafrost-terrain characteristics along a chronosequence of tundra burn sites from AD 1977,...
Response of cackling geese (Branta hutchinsii taverneri to spatial and temporal variation in production of crowberries on the Alaska Peninsula
Jerry W. Hupp, David E. Safine, Ryan M. Nielson
2013, Polar Biology (36) 1243-1255
Arctic geese often feed on berries during premigratory fattening. We hypothesized that during autumn staging on the Alaska Peninsula, the distribution of Taverne's cackling geese (Branta hutchinsii taverneri) would be correlated with spatial variation in crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) abundance. We also predicted that daily rates of fat increase among cackling...
Sex determination of duck embryos: observations on syrinx development
Robert E. Wilson, Sarah A. Sonsthagen, J. Christian Franson
2013, Avian Biology Research (6) 243-246
Ducks exhibit sexual dimorphism in vocal anatomy. Asymmetrical ossification of the syrinx (bulla syringealis) is discernable at about 10 days of age in male Pekin duck (Anas platyrhynchos domestica) embryos, but information is lacking on the early development of the bulla in wild ducks. To evaluate the reliability of this...
Permanently enhanced dynamic triggering probabilities as evidenced by two M ≥ 7.5 earthquakes
Joan S. Gomberg
2013, Geophysical Research Letters (40) 4828-4833
The 2012 M7.7 Haida Gwaii earthquake radiated waves that likely dynamically triggered the 2013M7.5 Craig earthquake, setting two precedents. First, the triggered earthquake is the largest dynamically triggered shear failure event documented to date. Second, the events highlight a connection between geologic structure, sedimentary troughs that act as waveguides, and triggering...
LANDFIRE 2010 - updated data to support wildfire and ecological management
Kurtis J. Nelson, Joel A. Connot, Birgit E. Peterson, Joshua J. Picotte
2013, Earthzine
Wildfire is a global phenomenon that affects human populations and ecosystems. Wildfire effects occur at local to global scales impacting many people in different ways (Figure 1). Ecological concerns due to land use, fragmentation, and climate change impact natural resource use, allocation, and conservation. Access to consistent and current environmental...
The 3D Elevation Program: summary for Alaska
William J. Carswell Jr.
2013, Fact Sheet 2013-3083
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 Alaska, elevation data are critical for aviation navigation and safety, natural resources conservation, oil and gas resources, flood risk management, geologic resource...
Lithofacies, age, depositional setting, and geochemistry of the Otuk Formation in the Red Dog District, northwestern Alaska
Julie A. Dumoulin, Robert A. Burruss, Charles D. Blome
2013, Professional Paper 1795-B
Complete penetration of the Otuk Formation in a continuous drill core (diamond-drill hole, DDH 927) from the Red Dog District illuminates the facies, age, depositional environment, source rock potential, and isotope stratigraphy of this unit in northwestern Alaska. The section, in the Wolverine Creek plate of the Endicott Mountains Allochthon...
Does calving matter? Evidence for significant submarine melt
Timothy C. Bartholomaus, Christopher F. Larsen, Shad O'Neel
2013, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (380) 21-30
During the summer in the northeast Pacific Ocean, the Alaska Coastal Current sweeps water with temperatures in excess of 12 °C past the mouths of glacierized fjords and bays. The extent to which these warm waters affect the mass balance of Alaskan tidewater glaciers is uncertain. Here we report hydrographic measurements...
Population vulnerability and evacuation challenges in California for the SAFRR tsunami scenario
Nathan Wood, Jamie Ratliff, Jeff Peters, Kimberley Shoaf
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170-I
The SAFRR tsunami scenario models the impacts of a hypothetical yet plausible tsunami associated with a magnitude 9.1 megathrust earthquake east of the Alaska Peninsula. This report summarizes community variations in population vulnerability and potential evacuation challenges to the tsunami. The most significant public-health concern for California coastal communities during...
Public-policy issues associated with the SAFRR Tsunami Scenario
Laurie Johnson, Chuck Real
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170-M
The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) tsunami scenario simulates a tsunami generated by a hypothetical magnitude 9.1 earthquake that occurs offshore of the Alaska Peninsula (Kirby and others, 2013). In addition to the work performed by the authors on public-policy issues associated with the SAFRR tsunami scenario, this section...
Emergency management response to a warning-level Alaska-source tsunami impacting California: Chapter J in The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario
Kevin M. Miller, Kate Long
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170-J
This chapter is directed towards two audiences: Firstly, it targets nonemergency management readers, providing them with insight on the process and challenges facing emergency managers in responding to tsunami Warning, particularly given this “short fuse” scenario. It is called “short fuse” because there is only a 5.5-hour window following the...
Economic impacts of the SAFRR tsunami scenario in California: Chapter H in The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario
Anne Wein, Adam Rose, Ian Sue Wing, Dan Wei
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170-H
This study evaluates the hypothetical economic impacts of the SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) tsunami scenario to the California economy. The SAFRR scenario simulates a tsunami generated by a hypothetical magnitude 9.1 earthquake that occurs offshore of the Alaska Peninsula (Kirby and others, 2013). Economic impacts are measured by...
Species and life-history affects the utility of otolith chemical composition to determine natal stream-of-origin in Pacific salmon
Christian E. Zimmerman, Heidi K. Swanson, Eric C. Volk, Adam J. R. Kent
2013, Transactions of the American Fisheries Society (142) 1370-1380
To test the utility of otolith chemical composition as a tool for determining the natal stream of origin for salmon, we examined water chemistry and otoliths of juvenile and adult Chum Salmon Oncorhynchus keta and Coho Salmon O. kisutch from three watersheds (five rivers) in the Norton Sound region of...
Potential Environmental and Environmental-Health Implications of the SAFRR Tsunami Scenario in California: Chapter F in The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario
Geoffrey S. Plumlee, Suzette A. Morman, Carma San Juan
2013, Open-File Report 2013-1170-F
The California Tsunami Scenario models the impacts of a hypothetical, yet plausible, tsunami caused by an earthquake offshore from the Alaska Peninsula. In this chapter, we interpret plausible tsunami-related contamination, environmental impacts, potential for human exposures to contaminants and hazardous materials, and implications for remediation and recovery. Inundation-related damages to...
