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The Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) for Alaska and Northwest Canada Project integrated existing models of vegetation, disturbance, and permafrost into one complete ecosystem model for the state of Alaska and Northwest Canada.The final synchronized model will integrate existing climate, vegetation, disturbance, hydrology, and permafrost models to improve understanding of potential landscape, habitat and ecosystem change. The project’s (September 1, 2011 through August 31, 2016) primary goal was to develop the IEM modeling framework to integrate the driving components for and the interactions among disturbance regimes, permafrost dynamics, hydrology, and vegetation succession/migration for Alaska and Northwest Canada....
The YKD is also home to the largest subsistence-based economy in Alaska. Yet, the low-lying landscape mosaic characterizing the YKD is at risk of massive change associated with projected sea level rise (SLR), increasing storm frequency and severity and permafrost degradation due to future climate change. Therefore, to conserve ecosystem services associated with the botanical and faunal richness in the YKD, management strategies in the region should not only be based on current ecosystem conditions, but also incorporate projected changes in landscape composition. The goal of this project is to provide managers and people living in the YKD, an assessment of the vulnerability of the landscape to future change and to...
Western Alaska is one of the fastest warming regions on the globe and recent trends are expected to continue into the next century, likely having substantial effects on the aquatic resources of this region. While increased air temperatures will have direct effects on water temperatures, indirect effects due to changes in precipitation, groundwater characteristics, and flow regimes may have much larger effects on aquatic ecosystems. Coastal watersheds of Western Alaska are expected to receive 25-50% more snow and 18-25% more rain in the next century. Future “climate warming” may actually cool some streams if the ratio of snow to rain increases for coastal watersheds, while rain-dominated streams are likely to become...
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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is supporting a field effort in support of a ShoreZone mapping project along the Chukchi and Beaufort coasts. Funds from the LCC will allow for the inclusion of three additional ShoreStations. Researchers will conduct ground surveys to get detailed physical and biological measurements throughout the various and often unique Chukchi and Beaufort coastal habitats. Sediment samples will be archived from each shore station for hydrocarbon analyses in the event of a local or regional oil spill. The Arctic ShoreZone Shore Stations will be added to the statewide database and made available online to the public NOAA website.
Water temperature plays a critical role in the health of pre-smolt salmon life stages, and changes in water temperature may be a strong driving factor on growth and survival of juvenile Chinook salmon. Climate is expected to warm substantially in the coming decades in western Alaska, potentially affecting juvenile salmon condition in freshwater habitats. This project investigates the variability in size-at-age and annual growth for juvenile Chinook salmon across the western Alaska landscape, the association of juvenile Chinook size-at-age or annual growth with spatial or temporal stream temperature gradients, and whether expected water temperature changes in western Alaska will affect juvenile Chinook salmon habitat...
Understanding the causes of relative sea level rise requires knowledge of changes to both land (uplift and subsidence) and sea level. However, measurements of coastal uplift or subsidence are almost completely lacking in western Alaska. This project will result in precision measurements of prioritized benchmarks across the Western Alaska geography. This will improve the network of published tidal benchmark elevations, allowing for tidal datum conversion in more places, and providing a necessary component for improved inundation studies in coastal communities and low-lying areas.
This project is focused on establishing a statewide framework to improve the hydrography mapping and stewardship in Alaska. This will be acheived through the creation of a statewide system to make digital mapping data updates accessible and affordable, and through the creation of a statewide hydrography mapping coordinator position to synchronize updates and guide hydrography mapping development. This framework will allow agencies and organizations to greatly improve their hydrography mapping data, as well as consume and uplift project level hydrography data that would not otherwise be incorporated.
Permafrost thaw can be a major driver of landscape change. Regions in Western Alaska are highly vulnerable to such thawing due to the high ice content of the soils and the lack of thermal monitoring in this region has limited our ability to understand current thermal state and establish thawing rates. This study established a permafrost monitoring network in this region, providing a baseline of permafrost thermal regimes for assessing future change at a total of 26 automated monitoring stations. Stations have collected year-round temperature data from the active layer and the permafrost starting from the summer of 2011. The strong correspondence between spatial variability in permafrost thermal regime and an existing...
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Viable sockeye salmon populations are critical to the economy, culture, and freshwater ecosystems of Bristol Bay in Western Alaska, and it is unclear how populations might respond to warming temperatures during the critical life history stages of spawning and embryo incubation. The overarching goal of the project is to understand how temperature might influence population-specific patterns of embryo incubation, timing of hatching and fry emergence, and sockeye salmon embryo survival. By combining analyses of data from two large lake systems in the Kvichak watershed, laboratory rearing experiments to elucidate functional relationships, and simulation modeling, this project quantifies biological responses to changing...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: Academics & scientific researchers, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS, DATA REFORMATTING, DATA REFORMATTING, All tags...
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The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD) encompasses the southernmost, warmest parts of the arctic tundra biome and is renowned for its high biological productivity and large subsistence-based human population. Ice-rich permafrost currently is widespread and strongly influences terrestrial and aquatic habitats, including local topography, vegetation, soil hydrology, and the water balance of lakes. Ground temperatures are near the freezing point, however, and recent projections indicate that the YKD is poised for widespread loss of permafrost by the end of this century. This has implications for the region’s extensive and heretofore stable terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Tundra wildfire is a common ecological “pulse” disturbance...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2016, AK-00, Academics & scientific researchers, Academics & scientific researchers, Conservation NGOs, All tags...
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Caribou are an important source of food for residents of western Alaska, but as environmental conditions and migration patterns change, some local hunters have encountered difficulty accessing the Mulchatna caribou herd (MCH). Existing data describe MCH harvests, herd movements, and caribou abundance through time, but an investigation drawing from traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) has not occurred. This project will integrate TEK with existing knowledge of caribou movements and subsistence harvests. Targeted stakeholders include local tribes, including Bristol Bay Native Association (BBNA), local village councils, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Lake Clark National Park and Preserve (LCNP), and...
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The coastal areas of the Yukon and Kuskokwim River Deltas (YKD) are among the most productive in Alaska. The fish, wildlife, and plant resources have been an integral part of communities in this region for thousands of years. Some of the same traits that make it so productive also make it a challenging place to live and work. To better understand and plan for coastal erosion and storm surges, or plan for roads and trails, information about elevation patterns on the YKD are needed. Current topographic maps have limited value given the flatness of the area. A group of partners worked together with USGS to collect elevation information and create a map that will reveal a portion of the delta’s topography. Kodiak Mapping...
Mid-winter icing events have the potential to lead to population declines of grazing caribou and to some species of small mammals due to reduced survival and reproduction associated with restricted access or lack of forage. Population-level effects of icing events remain unclear partly due to limited information on icing events in Alaska. The assessment results provide a baseline data set and remote sensing method, both of which have broad applicability, allowing the community of users to better understand the recent past, better link changes in ecological drivers and responses of wildlife populations, and aid in planning for the future.
This project will produce an existing vegetation type map at 30m resolution for the entire Western Alaska LCC region. The lack of a consistently mapped vegetation data layer for Alaska has been identified as a primary road block for many conservation and management entities across the state. This project will address a number of the LCC conservation goals by addressing a baseline science need that is the foundation for current and future project within the region.
Nearshore bathymetry is a vital link that joins offshore water depths to coastal topography. Seamless water depth information is a critical input parameter for reliable storm surge models, enables the calculation of sediment budgets and is necessary baseline data for a range of coastal management decisions. Funding from the Western Alaska LCC resulted in the purchase of field equipment capable of shallow water measurements in rural settings, allowing collection of nearshore bathymetry around western Alaska communities.
We propose to develop a Yukon-Kuskokwim Berry Outlook: a data- and observer-driven ecological monitoring and modeling framework that forecasts changes in berry habitat and abundance with climate and environmental change. Berry-producing plants are extremely important to human and wildlife communities of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta. Berry yield can be influenced by snow cover, rainfall, soil moisture, air temperature, availability of insect pollinators, and seasonal weather extremes; and berry habitat can be altered by more frequent tidal inundation, increased frequency of storm surges, and permafrost deterioration, all of which may be significantly impacted by climate change. In a recent survey of Alaskan environmental...
The tundra biome is the dominant terrestrial ecosystem of the circumpolar north, and its fate in a rapidly changing climate is of high scientific and socioeconomic concern. One of those concerns is that the majority of caribou herds throughout the circumpolar north are declining, perhaps as a result of climate change. The principal objective of this research is to reveal the connections between soil nutrient cycling, forage quality and caribou habitat selection. This framework is underpinned by the concept that tundra ecosystem productivity is ultimately driven by the thermodynamics of the system induced by climate. In winter, soil microbial processes drive N mineralization and thus N available for plant growth...
Alaska’s freshwater resources, vitally important for salmon and other species, are vulnerable to changes resulting from climate change. Though temperature is a critical element in the suitability of aquatic habitats, Alaska’s stream and lake temperature monitoring is occurring through independent agencies/partners without a means to link and share data. Because a coordinated network of monitoring data can help scientists and managers understand how aquatic systems are responding to climate change, conducting an inventory of past and present stream and lake temperature monitoring efforts has been identified as a priority science need for Alaska. This project will consolidate existing monitoring site locations and...
Lack of complete snow cover for the past 3 winters in southwestern Alaska has forced agencies to postpone moose surveys due to the likelihood of underestimating the population/lack of comparability to previous surveys. Poor snow conditions lower the sightability of moose, yet, for most regions of Alaska, the variation in moose sightability during suboptimal conditions has not yet been quantified. Because scientists are predicting less snowfall in this region over the long term, we initiated research to estimate sightability correction factors (SCF_c) using radiocollared animals to apply to abundance estimates obtained via the GeoSpatial Population Estimator (GSPE) method. The Project Goal is to develop a model that...
Categories: Data, Project; Tags: 2016, Academics & scientific researchers, Academics & scientific researchers, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, CALIBRATION/VALIDATION, All tags...


map background search result map search result map Ecosystem Dynamics and Fate of Warm Permafrost after Tundra Wildfire and Lake Drainage on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Traditional ecological knowledge of Mulchatna Caribou Herd phenology, habitat change, subsistence use, and related species interactions Landscape-scale analysis of the relationship between juvenile Chinook size and growth and stream temperature in western Alaska (Feasibility Study) Alaska Online Aquatic Temperature Site (AK-OATS) Temperature, phenology, and embryo survival in western Alaska sockeye salmon population: the potential for adaptation to a warming world? Watershed control of hydrologic sources and thermal conditions in SW Alaska streams: a framework for forecasting effects of changing climate Bringing Alaska's Freshwater Hydrography into the 21st Century Lidar collection in outer coastal regions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim River Deltas Development and Application of an Integrated Ecosystem Model for Alaska ShoreZone Program on the North Slope of Alaska Ecosystem Dynamics and Fate of Warm Permafrost after Tundra Wildfire and Lake Drainage on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Temperature, phenology, and embryo survival in western Alaska sockeye salmon population: the potential for adaptation to a warming world? Lidar collection in outer coastal regions of the Yukon and Kuskokwim River Deltas ShoreZone Program on the North Slope of Alaska Traditional ecological knowledge of Mulchatna Caribou Herd phenology, habitat change, subsistence use, and related species interactions