Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center

Join us for a lecture by Madonna Moss, a professor of Anthropology at the University of Oregon, as she shares her research on herring. She is aiming to develop a more complete understanding of the ancient Alaska Native use of Pacific herring (Clupea pallasi) to better assess the historical abundance, biogeography and genetic diversity of herring in the past.

Title: Synchronized upstream migration of Dolly Varden and spawning salmon may prevent trophic mismatch in a warming Auke Creek watershed -- Animal migrations often evolve to exploit seasonal variation in foraging opportunities. Many migrants move among discrete habitats using environmental cues to time their arrivals with seasonal peaks in food abundance. This type of migratory behavior has been hypothesized to be particularly vulnerable to climate change, which can generate asynchrony between the seasonal timing (phenology) of animal movements and periods of peak resource abundance in destination habitats. Using the Auke Creek weir dataset, we explored how a migratory predator, Dolly Varden, responded to climate-induced shifts in the migration timing of its prey, Pacific salmon. Although Auke Creek has been steadily warming and salmon migration timing has changed substantially over the last 4 decades, Dolly Varden migrations remained synchronized with salmon and appeared to be cued most directly by salmon movement rather than environmental conditions. Our results suggest that some wide-ranging predators may be resilient to altered prey phenology. By presenting this work at the ACRC Brown Bag, we hope to spur new ideas and future research related to Auke Creek and surrounding watersheds.

Title: Long-term vegetation changes in temperate forests impacted by climate change - Long-term vegetation changes in temperate forests impacted by climate change Pervasive forest mortality events due to climate change have been observed around the globe in recent years, and such forest diebacks are expected to increase in the coming decades as a result of increasing temperatures. Yellow-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis) has been experiencing widespread mortality in southeast Alaska since the late 1800s with intensifying rates observed in the 1970s and 1980s. Current research identifies climate-related reductions in snow cover as a key driver of yellow-cedar decline, but little is known about how the forest community develops as these trees die. Lauren and her team of assistants established a series of plots on the outer coast of Chichagof Island and in Glacier Bay National Park to study the process of forest development in forests affected by decline. The main objectives of her ecological study were to examine changes in seedling and sapling abundance and community structure of conifer species in the overstory; effects of yellow-cedar mortality on plant diversity and community composition in the understory; and volume of key forage species for Sitka black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis) managed throughout the region. Through a mix of photographs, story, and science, Lauren will share her findings on the changes occurring in these forests over time. She will then introduce the second aspect of her interdisciplinary work that examines how forest users and managers in the southeast region respond to these changes.

Title: Effects of urbanization on song sparrow population connectivity