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The Yukon River at Eagle - Photo by Dan Long, USGS

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Weekly Highlights for 9-7-2012

I. Departmental/Bureau News

A. Upcoming Events


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B. Current


New Publication Regarding Waterfowl Populations and North Pacific Oceanic Regime Shifts
USGS Alaska Science Center research biologist Paul Flint is the author of a recently accepted paper entitled, "Changes in size and trends of North American sea duck populations associated with North Pacific oceanic regime shifts" which will be published in an upcoming issue of Marine Biology. The background for the paper is that broad scale, multi-species declines have occurred in populations of North American sea ducks for unknown reasons and this has been cause for concern by management agencies. Dr. Flint examined changes in North American breeding populations of sea ducks from 1957 to 2011 in relation to potential oceanic regime shifts in the North Pacific in 1977, 1989, and 1998. There was strong support for population level effects of regime shifts in 1977 and 1989, but little support for an effect of the 1998 shift. Results of this analysis support the hypothesis that population size and trends of North American sea ducks are strongly influenced by oceanic conditions. Importantly and interestingly, the perceived population declines appear to have halted > 20 years ago and populations have been relatively stable or increasing since that time. Given these results, the paper concludes that we should reasonably expect dramatic changes in sea duck population status and trends with future oceanic regime shifts.
Contact: John Pearce Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7094

Listening to Tide Water Glaciers—They are very noisy
USGS Alaska Science Center glaciologist Shad O'Neel is co-author of a new study published in Oceanography about what scientists have learned from listening to tidewater glaciers in Alaska and the Antarctic Peninsula. Exploring ocean environments using passive underwater acoustics is a growing field and scientists took advantage of the exceptional sound propagating properties of seawater to record and interpret sounds generated at these glacial ice-ocean boundaries. The preliminary results of the ongoing studies show intriguing sounds at these boundaries, leading us toward novel methods for measuring variability in glacier ice melt rates, calving rates, and freshwater discharge. These events are important to study because acoustic observations may be useful for quantifying the submarine melt rate of ice at the terminus of a glacier used for modeling both ice flow and ocean water circulation, iceberg calving can affect upstream dynamics, trigger disintegration of a floating ice shelf, or induce acceleration of grounded ice, contributing to sea level rise, and acoustic measurements have potential to resolve variability in freshwater discharge from the subglacial hydrological system. The study may be viewed at: http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2012.81.

Pettit, E.C., J.A. Nystuen, and S. O’Neel. 2012. Listening to glaciers: Passive hydroacoustics near marine-terminating glaciers. Oceanography 25(3):104–105, http://dx.doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2012.81
Contact: Shad O'Neel Anchorage, AK, (907) 786-7088

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