Weekly Highlights for 04-16-2009
I. Departmental/Bureau News
A. Upcoming Events
USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory research geophysicist Matt Haney will give a seminar on April 22 entitled "Volcano monitoring and imaging in the microseismic band" at Stanford University as part of the Geophysics Department's seminar series. More information can be found at: http://pangea.stanford.edu/internal/seminars/index.php?dept=GP&series=Dept
Contact:
Matthew Haney
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7460
B. Current
USGS Alaska Science Center staff at the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) continue to respond to the ongoing eruption of Redoubt Volcano. The Aviation Color Code remains at ORANGE with the Alert Level at WATCH. A lava dome is actively growing in the summit crater and renewed explosive activity is likely. Data from real-time seismic networks, web cameras, ground-based radar, GPS stations, an infrasound instrument, and near-real imagery from satellites are monitored by AVO staff 24/7. AVO continues to post daily updates of Redoubts condition on the AVO website (http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Redoubt.php ). AVO is a partnership among the USGS, the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, and The University of Alaska Geophysical Institute.
Contact:
Thomas Murray
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7042
Scientists from the USGS Alaska Science Center, along with the Western Ecological Research Center and the National Wildlife Health Center, have contributed to a genetic analysis of low pathogenic avian influenza viruses from northern pintail ducks that will be published in the next few weeks in the journal Evolutionary Applications. The paper, entitled "Avian influenza at both ends of a migratory flyway: characterizing viral genomic diversity to optimize surveillance plans for North America" not only details the genetic characteristics of viruses among breeding and wintering northern pintails, but also demonstrates a methodology for prioritizing the sampling of wild bird species and geographic areas for high pathogenic avian influenza surveillance. This methodology is currently being applied to viruses isolated from other priority Alaska surveillance species (e.g., tundra swans, emperor geese, black brant, eiders, bar-tailed godwits, dunlin) by scientists at Alaska Science Center and National Wildlife Health Center. The article can currently be viewed online in advance of print at: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/122324581/abstract.
Contact:
Dirk Derksen
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7061
USGS Alaska Science Center geneticist Jolene Rearick, who is working toward her Ph.D. degree at the University of New Mexico, was recently awarded a 3-year National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship in support of her graduate research involving the molecular evolution of freeze tolerance in North American frogs. A portion of Rearick's laboratory research will be conducted in the Molecular Ecology Laboratory at the Alaska Science Center.
Contact:
Sandra Talbot
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7188
A new publication, co-authored by Dan Monson of the USGS Alaska Science Center, was recently published in the journal Ecology. The authors explored the use of stable isotopes as a proxy for detecting and quantifying patterns of individual dietary specialization in California sea otters. At the population level, sea otters show substantial variation in both d13C and d15N values, occupying nearly all of the “isotopic space” created by their potential prey base. Most of the variation was accounted for by differences between individuals, with much less within-individual variation. Most individuals showed little temporal variation while a few exhibited a high degree of temporal variation, suggesting seasonal shifts in diet composition. These results were consistent with long-term observational data on the diets of individual radio-tagged sea otters from the same population. These results demonstrate that stable isotopes can provide an efficient tool for measuring individual- and population-level dietary breadth and may be useful for studying populations where longitudinal data on individuals would otherwise be impossible to acquire, and thereby improve our understanding of these important ecological and evolutionary processes at the community level. The abstract can be viewed at: http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/07-1812.1.
Contact:
Daniel Monson
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7161
The USGS Alaska Technical Data Unit provided research assistance to Paul White of Michigan Technical University. Mr. White is researching the historical archaeology of the Bremner River valley in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, with specific interest in the mining history of the area. USGS provided access to the field notebooks of Fred Moffit and Theodore Chapin, who originally mapped the Hanagita/Bremner area in 1911; with a return trip by Moffit in 1935. Mr. White previously compiled the National Park Service’s Cultural Landscape Inventory of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve and is currently writing a book on the archaeology of mining.
Contact:
Jill Schneider
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7457
II. Press Inquiries/Media
USGS Alaska Science Center biologist Layne Adams was contacted on April 15 by National Geographic Magazine regarding recently initiated muskox research in northwest Alaska. Research efforts began this March to compare and contrast the population dynamics and ecology of muskoxen populations on and adjacent to Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument.
Contact:
Layne Adams
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7159
USGS scientists at the Alaska Volcano Observatory continued answering media inquiries, April 2 - 8, about the current period of unrest at Redoubt Volcano. Media outlets include radio KFQD (AM 750, Anchorage, AK) and CBS affiliate KTVA-TV (Ch 11, Anchorage),
Contact:
Thomas Murray
Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7042
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