The influence of glaciers on coastal marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Alaska
Arimitsu, M. L. 2016. The influence of glaciers on coastal marine ecosystems in the Gulf of Alaska. Dissertation, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 154 p.
Mayumi L Arimitsu, Ph.D.
Seabirds, forage fish, and oceanography
Glacial influence on marine ecosystems
Biography
Education
Ph.D. 2016 University of Alaska Fairbanks, Juneau, Alaska Fisheries
M.Sc. 2009 University of Alaska Fairbanks, Juneau, Alaska Fisheries
B.Sc. 1998 U.C. Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California Biology
Professional Experience
2009 - Present Research Ecologist, USGS Alaska Science Center, Juneau
2007 - 2009 SCEP, USGS Alaska Science Center, Juneau
2001 - 2007 Fishery Biologist USGS Alaska Science Center
Professional Activities and/or Memberships
Pacific Seabird Group
Kittlitz's Murrelet Technical Committee
American Fisheries Society
Honors and/or Awards
- 2009 and 2010, Best student presentation, NPRB
Science and Products
Date published: September 11, 2019
Status: Active Seabird Die-offs in Alaska
Beginning in 2015, large numbers of dead seabirds have been appearing on beaches in most marine areas of Alaska. Although seabird die-offs are known to occur sporadically (e.g. 1970, 1989, 1993, 1997/1998, and 2004) in Alaska, these recent die-offs have been distinguished from past events by their increased frequency, duration, geographic extent, and number of different species involved.
Attribution: Region 11: Alaska, Alaska Science Center
Date published: August 25, 2019
Status: Active Condition of Forage Fish in Prince William Sound During the Marine Heatwave
Changes in the body condition of a key forage fish species, Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), are examined to understand how energy transfer to predators may have been disrupted during the recent marine heatwave in the North Pacific (late 2013 to mid 2016).
Attribution: Region 11: Alaska, Alaska Science Center
Date published: August 2, 2019
Status: Active Cook Inlet Seabird and Forage Fish Study
A massive die-off of Common Murres was documented in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) during the fall and winter of 2015-2016 in association with a record-breaking marine heat wave in the GOA.
Date published: August 3, 2018
Status: Active Seabirds and Forage Fish Ecology
Alaska's coastal and offshore waters provide foraging habitat for an estimated 100 million birds comprising more than 90 different species; from loons and seaducks that nest inland, to petrels and puffins that breed on islands off shore. All these birds depend on the sea to provide a wide variety of food types— from clams, crabs and urchins nearshore— to krill, forage fish, and squid offshore...
Date published: August 2, 2018
Status: Active Detecting Long-term Changes in Forage Fish Populations in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Forage fish are small pelagic schooling fish that play a key role in transferring energy between plankton and top marine predators. Many seabirds, marine mammals, and commercial fish species depend on forage fish to grow and survive.
Attribution: Region 11: Alaska, Alaska Science Center
Date published: August 1, 2018
Status: Active Terrestrial Influence on Glacial-Marine Food Webs
Where glaciers meet the sea in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA), they create unique and productive marine habitats. Ringed by the continent’s tallest coastal mountains, 20% of the GOA coastal watershed is covered by glacial ice and the annual freshwater discharge into the GOA from glacial melt is comparable to that of the Mississippi river.
Attribution: Region 11: Alaska, Alaska Science Center
Year Published: 2021
Heatwave-induced synchrony within forage fish portfolio disrupts energy flow to top pelagic predators
During the Pacific marine heatwave of 2014–2016, abundance and quality of several key forage fish species in the Gulf of Alaska were simultaneously reduced throughout the system. Capelin (Mallotus catervarius), sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), and herring (Clupea pallasii) populations were at historically low levels, and within this community...
Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Piatt, John F.; Hatch, Scott; Suryan, Robert M.; Batten, Sonia; Bishop, Mary Anne; Campbell, Rob W.; Coletti, Heather; Cushing, Dan; Gorman, Kristen; Hopcroft, Russell R.; Kuletz, Kathy J.; Marsteller, Caitlin Elizabeth; McKinstry, Caitlin; McGowan, David; Moran, John; Pegau, W. Scott; Schaefer, Anne; Schoen, Sarah K.; Straley, Jan; von Biela, Vanessa R.
Year Published: 2021
Forecasting community reassembly using climate-linked spatio-temporal ecosystem models
Ecosystems are increasingly impacted by human activities, altering linkages among physical and biological components. Spatial community reassembly occurs when these human impacts modify the spatial overlap between system components, and there is need for practical tools to forecast spatial community reassembly at landscape scales using monitoring...
Thorson, James; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Barnett, Lewis; Cheng, Wei; Eisner, Lisa; Haynie, Alan; Hermann, Albert; Holsman, Kirsten; Kimmel, David; Lomas, Michael; Richar, Jon; Siddon, Elizabeth
Year Published: 2020
Extreme mortality and reproductive failure of common murres resulting from the northeast Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016
About 62,000 dead or dying common murres (Uria aalge), the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. Most birds were severely emaciated and, so far, no evidence for anything other than starvation was found to explain this mass mortality....
Piatt, John F.; Parrish, Julia K.; Renner, Heather M.; Schoen, Sarah K.; Jones, Timothy; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Kuletz, Kathy J.; Bodenstein, Barbara; Garcia-Reyes, Marisol; Duerr, Rebecca; Corcoran, Robin; Kaler, Robb S.A.; McChesney, Gerard J.; Golightly, Richard T.; Coletti, Heather A.; Suryan, Robert M.; Burgess, Hillary K.; Lindsey, Jackie; Lindquist, Kirsten; Warzybok, Peter; Jahncke, Jaime; Roletto, Jan; Sydeman, William J.
Year Published: 2020
Spatial and temporal dynamics of Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius in the Gulf of Alaska: Implications for ecosystem-based fisheries management
Pacific capelin Mallotus catervarius are planktivorous, small pelagic fish that serve an intermediate trophic role in marine food webs. Due to the lack of a directed fishery or monitoring of capelin in the Northeast Pacific, there is limited information on their distribution and abundance, and how spatio-temporal fluctuations in capelin...
David W. McGowan; Esther Goldstein; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Alison Dreary; Olav Ormseth; Alex DeRobertis; John Horne; Lauren Rogers; Matt Wilson; Kenneth Coyle; Kris Holderied; Piatt, John F.; Stockhausen, W.T.; Stephani Zador
Year Published: 2020
Algal toxins in Alaskan seabirds: Evaluating the role of saxitoxin and domoic acid in a large-scale die-off of Common Murres
Elevated seawater temperatures are linked to the development of harmful algal blooms (HABs), which pose a growing threat to marine birds and other wildlife. During late 2015 and early 2016, a massive die-off of Common Murres (Uria algae; hereafter, murres) was observed in the Gulf of Alaska coincident with a strong marine heat wave. Previous...
Van Hemert, Caroline R.; Schoen, Sarah K.; Litaker, R. Wayne; Smith, Matthew M.; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Piatt, John F.; Holland, William C.; Hardison, Ransom; Pearce, John M.
Year Published: 2019
Effects of ocean climate on the length and condition of forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska
Climatic drivers of the size and body condition of forage fish in the North Pacific are poorly known. We hypothesized that length and condition of forage fish in the Gulf of Alaska (GoA) should vary in relation to ocean temperature on multiple scales. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed morphometric data for capelin (Mallotus catervarius) and...
Sarah Ann Thompson; Marisol Garcia-Reyes; William Sydeman; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Scott Hatch; Piatt, John F.
Year Published: 2019
Monitoring long-term changes in forage fish distribution, abundance and body condition
We collected data on forage fish abundance, distribution and body condition in Prince William Sound, Alaska during summers in 2012 through 2016. This included acoustic – trawl surveys, aerial-acoustic surveys, opportunistic sampling where we encountered forage aggregations, and concurrent measurements of forage fish habitat. Acoustic indices of...
Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Piatt, John F.
Year Published: 2019
Extreme reduction in nutritional value of a key forage fish during the Pacific marine heatwave of 2014–2016
Pacific sand lance Ammodytes personatus are a key forage fish in the North Pacific for many species of salmon, groundfish, seabirds, and marine mammals and have historically been important to predators in relatively warm years. However, extreme declines in the nutritional value of sand lance in Prince William Sound, Alaska, USA, during...
von Biela, Vanessa R.; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Piatt, John F.; Heflin, Brielle; Schoen, Sarah K.; Trowbridge, Jannelle; Clawson, ChelseaAttribution: Alaska Science Center, Region 11: Alaska
Year Published: 2019
Seasonal distribution of Dall's porpoise in Prince William Sound, Alaska
Dall's porpoise, Phocoenoides dalli, are a conspicuous predator in the Prince William Sound ecosystem, yet there has been little effort directed towards monitoring this species since the 1980s, prior to the Exxon Valdez oil spill. We used vessel-based surveys to examine the seasonal distribution of Dall's porpoise in the waters of Prince William...
J.R. Moran; O'Dell, M.B.; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Straley, Jan M; Dickson, D.M.S.
Year Published: 2018
Biogeography of pelagic food webs in the North Pacific
The tufted puffin (Fratercula cirrhata) is a generalist seabird that breeds throughout the North Pacific and eats more than 75 different prey species. Using puffins as samplers, we characterized the geographic variability in pelagic food webs across the subarctic North Pacific from the composition of ~10,000 tufted puffin meals (~56,000 prey items...
Piatt, John F.; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Sydeman, William J.; Thompson, Sarah Ann; Renner, Heather; Zador, Stephani; Douglas, David C.; Hatch, Scott A.; Kettle, Arthur B.; Williams, Jeffrey C.View Citation
Piatt, J.F., Arimitsu, M.L., Sydeman, W.J., Thompson, S.A., Renner, H., Zador, S., Douglas, D., Hatch, S., Kettle, A., and Williams, J., 2018. Biogeography of pelagic food webs in the North Pacific: Fisheries Oceanography, vol. 27, no. 4, p. 366-380. doi: 10.1111/fog.12258
Year Published: 2018
Avian predator buffers against variability in marine habitats with flexible foraging behavior
How well seabirds compensate for variability in prey abundance and composition near their breeding colonies influences their distribution and reproductive success. We used tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) as forage fish samplers to study marine food webs from the western Aleutian Islands (53°N, 173°E) to Kodiak Island (57°N, 153°W), Alaska,...
Schoen, Sarah K.; Piatt, John F.; Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Heflin, Brielle; Madison, Erica N.; Drew, Gary S.; Renner, Martin; Rojek, Nora A.; Douglas, David C.; DeGange, Anthony R.View Citation
Schoen, S. K., J. F. Piatt, M. L. Arimitsu, B. Heflin, E. N. Madison, G. S. Drew, M. Renner, N. A. Rojek, D. C. Douglas, and A. R. DeGange. 2018. Avian predator buffers against variability in marine habitats with flexible foraging behavior. Marine Biology 165:47. doi:10.1007/s00227-018-3304-4
Year Published: 2018
Tracing biogeochemical subsidies from glacier runoff into Alaska's coastal marine food webs
Nearly half of the freshwater discharge into the Gulf of Alaska originates from landscapes draining glacier runoff, but the influence of the influx of riverine organic matter on the trophodynamics of coastal marine food webs is not well understood. We quantified the ecological impact of riverine organic matter subsidies to glacier-marine habitats...
Arimitsu, Mayumi L.; Hobson, Keith A.; Webber, D'Arcy N.; Piatt, John F.; Hood, Eran W.; Fellman, Jason B.View Citation
Arimitsu, M.L., Hobson, K.A., Webber, D.N., Piatt, J.F., Hood, E.W. and Fellman, J.B., 2017. Tracing biogeochemical subsidies from glacier runoff into Alaska's coastal marine food webs: Global Change Biology, doi: 10.1111/gcb.13875
Pre-USGS Publications
Environmental gradients and prey availability relative to glacial features in Kittlitz's murrelet foraging habitat
Arimitsu, M. L. 2009. Environmental gradients and prey availability relative to glacial features in Kittlitz's murrelet foraging habitat. M.Sc. Thesis, University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Date published: February 23, 2021
Video on USGS Pacific Seabird Research
This video features an overview of USGS and Ecosystems research with a focus on Pacific seabirds. Our scientists at the USGS Alaska Science Center, Western Ecological Research Center and National Wildlife Health Center work on Pacific seabird research topics in collaboration with partner agencies, non-governmental organizations, universities, and rehabilitation centers.
Attribution: Ecosystems, Alaska Science Center
Date published: April 2, 2020
'The Blob' - The Story of the Pacific Heatwave
About 62,000 dead or dying common murres, the trophically dominant fish-eating seabird of the North Pacific, washed ashore between summer 2015 and spring 2016 on beaches from California to Alaska. A team of United States Geological Survey scientists have been researching and investigating the cause of this die off.
Attribution: Alaska Science Center