Alaska Science Center

A creative story map showcasing the Alaska Landbird Monitoring Survey (ALMS) has recently been developed by the Alaska Migratory Bird Management of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This highly collaborative monitoring program was created by the USGS Alaska Science Center in cooperation with Boreal Partners in Flight to monitor breeding bird populations across the vast roadless area of...

A total of $634,000 will fund new research and preserve important data across the Last Frontier.

We hope you enjoy and subscribe. Below are links to recent publications, data releases, and highlights of on-going research programs. In this issue we feature news on the Pacific marine heatwave, Alaska Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, and our Ecosystems Analytics group. See new additions to the Wildlife Tracking page, Data and tools and Publications.

A story map, developed by the National Park Service, is based on a published article by John Piatt, Sarah Schoen and Mayumi Arimitsu at the U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center in collaboration with 20 coauthors from the USFWS, NPS, NOAA, UW, and other research organizations. It describes the massive seabird die-off in the north Pacific and the research findings on this event.

U.S. Geological Survey field crews are measuring flooding across the country as spring weather is in full swing. Warming temperatures, increased precipitation and snowmelt have caused moderate to major flooding in the upper Midwest, East Coast, Central Plains and the Southeast portions of the country.

Few data exist to assess the value of National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska management buffer zones for conservation-reliant yellow-billed loons or sympatrically breeding red-throated and Pacific loons. 

Caribou, North America’s wild reindeer, have lives apart from their famous role on Christmas Eve. To learn more about how  these Arctic antler-bearers spend the other 364 days of the year,  we talked to USGS caribou  expert Dr. Layne Adams, who has studied these animals for more than 35 years.

The USGS Alaska Science Center is now embarking on the next 5-year (FY2020 – 2024) research plan of the Changing Arctic Ecosystems Initiative.

 Learn About USGS Hazards Science and More About National Preparedness Month:  The very nature of natural hazards means that they have the potential to impact a majority of Americans every year.  USGS science provides part of the foundation for emergency preparedness whenever and wherever disaster strikes.

Marbled Godwits are common and conspicuous North American shorebirds. So how did such a charismatic species go largely undetected in Alaska until the 1980s?

A rare submarine landslide provides researchers with a reference point for modeling the biggest tsunamis. (EOS article)