Alaska Science Center

Current Highlights

Changing Arctic Ecosystems Fact Sheet Now Available

USGS Science on Seabirds in the North Pacific

Research Findings Used to Test Global Supercontinent Reconstructions

USGS Scientist Attends Annual Canadian Polar Bear Technical Committee Meeting

New Book for Young Readers "The Polar Bear Scientists" Highlights USGS Polar Bear Research Scientists and Research Program:

USGS Participates in Women of Science and Technology Day

In the Spotlight

Changing Arctic Ecosystems Fact Sheet Now Available

USGS recently published a new fact sheet entitled "Changing Arctic Ecosystems—Research to Understand and Project Changes in Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Arctic." Ecosystems and their wildlife communities are not static; they change and evolve over time due to numerous intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Through the new initiative Changing Arctic Ecosystems (CAE) the USGS strives to understand the potential suite of wildlife population responses to these physical changes to inform key resource management decisions such as those related to the Endangered Species Act, and provide unique insights into how Arctic ecosystems are responding under new stressors. The CAE initiative includes three major research themes including Marine Ecosystems, The Arctic Coastal Plans, and Boreal-Arctic Transiting Zone that span Arctic ice-dominated ecosystems and that are structured to identify and understand the linkages between physical processes, ecosystems, and wildlife populations. To view the factsheet visit http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3136/.

Geiselman, Joy, DeGange, Tony, Oakley, Karen, Derksen, Dirk, and Whalen, Mary, 2012, Changing Arctic Ecosystems—Research to Understand and Project Changes in Marine and Terrestrial Ecosystems of the Arctic: U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2011-3136, 4 p.

Comprehensive Alaska Geochemical Database Contains over 40 Years of Data

The publication "Alaska Geochemical Database (AGDB)—Geochemical data for rock, sediment, soil, mineral, and concentrate sample media" was created and designed to compile and integrate geochemical data from Alaska in order to facilitate geologic mapping, petrologic studies, mineral resource assessments, definition of geochemical baseline values and statistics, environmental impact assessments, and studies in medical geology. This Microsoft Access database serves as a data archive in support of present and future Alaskan geologic and geochemical projects, and contains data tables describing historical and new quantitative and qualitative geochemical analyses. The Data series includes analyses on 264,095 rocks, sediments (collected from streams, lakes, and various sources), soils, minerals, and heavy-mineral concentrates (derived from stream sediments, soils or rocks). A Fact Sheet is available online at http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2011/3130/; the Data Series—containing a pamphlet, metadata files and data files—is available at http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/637/.

A Promising Tool for Subsurface Permafrost Mapping

Permafrost is a predominant physical feature of the Earth's Arctic and Subarctic clines and a major consideration encompassing ecosystem structure to infrastructure engineering and placement. Perennially frozen ground is estimated to cover about 85 percent of the state of Alaska where northern reaches are underlain with continuous permafrost and parts of interior Alaska are underlain by areas of discontinuous and (or) sporadic permafrost. The region of Interior Alaska, where permafrost is scattered among unfrozen ground, is a complex mosaic of terrains and habitats. Such diversity creates arrays of lakes and surface-water and groundwater patterns that continental populations of migratory waterfowl and internationally significant fisheries have adapted to over time. A road or pipeline might pass over frozen and unfrozen ground, affecting the types of materials and engineering approaches needed to sustain the infrastructure.

Abraham, Jared, 2011, A promising tool for subsurface permafrost mapping—An application of airborne geophysics from the Yukon River Basin, Alaska: U. S. Geological Survey, Fact Sheet 2011-3133, 4 p.

Prior In the Spotlight Articles