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Weekly Highlights for 5-17-2012

I. Departmental/Bureau News

A. Upcoming Events


No Upcoming Events highlights for this week

B. Current


USGS Develops New Tool for Monitoring Wildlife Survival Rates Based on Age-structure Data
USGS scientists from the Alaska Science Center and the Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center developed a new method that combines time series of age-structure data with other demographic data to provide maximum likelihood estimators of age-specific survival rates. The new approach does not require the assumption of a stable age structure or the relatively long time series required by previous methods and the new estimators have explicit forms so they are simple to compute. The approach was used to estimate survival rates for female bison in Yellowstone National Park. This work was just published in the April 2012 issue of Ecology and may be found at http://www.esajournals.org/doi/abs/10.1890/11-1766.1.

Udevitz, M. S., and P. J. P. Gogan. 2012. Estimating survival rates with time series of standing age-structure data. Ecology 93(4):726-732.
Contact: Mark Udevitz Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7083

II. Press Inquiries/Media

On May 16, Channel 11 news (KTVA CBS Anchorage, AK) interview USGS Alaska Science Center Research Geologist Peter Haeussler about the 4.6 magnitude earthquake that stuck Anchorage and south-central Alaska Wednesday morning at 7:01 am. Haeussler answered questions about earthquakes in general and the possibilities of another big earthquake, similar to the 1964 earthquake, happening in Alaska again.
Contact: Peter Haeussler Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7447

USGS Alaska Science Center Research Wildlife Biologist Todd Atwood has been invited to participate on a panel for the May 22 "Talk of Alaska" radio show for AK public radio. The topic will be the Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for Northern Pinnipeds and panel members will include Kathy Burek Huntington (Alaska Veterinary Pathology Services lead pathologist for the UME), Joel Garlich-Miller (walrus expert for the US Fish and Wildlife Service), and Gay Sheffield (Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program). Atwood will be calling in to the show to answer questions that may relate to USGS findings of alopecia in polar bears. Steve Himmel is the host for the live call-in show scheduled to air at 10:00 am to 11:00 am (AK time).
Contact: Todd Atwood Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7093

On May 17, USGS Alaska Science center Wildlife Biologist Anthony Pagano was interviewed in studio by Mark Crawley for the CBC Radio's science program Quirks & Quarks regarding the polar bear long-distance swimming paper.
Contact: Anthony Pagano Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7165

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Page Last Modified: December 11 2012 15:40:31.