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Weekly Highlights for 09-08-2009

I. Departmental/Bureau News

A. Upcoming Events

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B. Current

Alaska Interagency Volcanic Ash Group to Discuss Recent Eruption Response
The Alaska Interagency Volcanic Ash Working Group composed of the USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory, National Weather Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Alaska Department of Homeland Security, the Air Force Weather Agency, and others will meet in Anchorage on September 23 to discuss the response to the recent eruptions of Redoubt volcano in Alaska and Sarychev volcano located in Russia's Kurile Islands. Discussions will include ways to improve interagency communication based on these recent response efforts.
Contact: Thomas Murray Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7042

Alaska Seismological Catalog for 2008 Released
The annual USGS Alaska Volcano Observatory Seismological Catalog titled: "Catalog of Earthquake Hypocenters at Alaskan Volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2008", has been released. This publication describes the location of seismic instrumentation deployed in the field, the earthquake detection, recording, analysis, and data archival systems, the seismic velocity models used for earthquake locations, and a summary of the 7000+ earthquakes located in 2008. The catalog can be found online at: http://pubs.usgs.gov/ds/467/
Contact: James Dixon Fairbanks, AK, (907) 474-7099

Environmental Forcing on Life History Strategies
USGS Alaska Science Center research wildlife biologist Scott Hatch is a co-author of a study appearing in Progress in Oceanography titled "Environmental forcing on life history strategies: Evidence for multi-trophic level responses at ocean basin scale." The study presents evidence for ocean basin and large marine ecosystem-scale variation in life history traits, both among and within species, due to environmental forcing. These responses also occur among trophic levels from short-lived secondary producers to long-lived apex predators. The researchers propose three primary mechanisms by which environmental forcing affects life history strategies: 1)food-web structure; 2) climate variability affecting quantity and seasonality of primary productivity; and 3) bottom-up vs. top-down forcing. These mechanisms provide a framework for comparisons of ecosystem function among oceanic regions and are essential in modeling ecosystem response to climate change.
Contact: Scott Hatch Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7163

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