Photo by Chris Garner, NOAA
New Beluga Signs at the Kenai Docks!
AWA Presentation: Using genetics to address conservation issues on the Kenai Peninsula
Click here or scroll below to view AWA Vice President, Dr. John Morton’s, presentation Using genetics to address conservation issues on the Kenai Peninsula for the Exploration Ecology course at UAA Kachemak Bay Campus, Homer, AK.
Cook Inlet Water Quality Summit Annoucned!
Breaking News: Victory for Brown bears and other wildlife on the Kenai!
AWA Publication! The dynamics of a changing Lutz spruce hybrid zone on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
New Publication! The Dynamics of a Changing Lutz Spruce Hybrid Zone on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Join us in congratulating AWA Vice President, Dr. John Morton, and co-authors Diana Wolf, Matthew Bowser, Naoki Takebayashi, and Dawn Magness in their recent publication in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research!
Abstract
We investigated the genetic makeup of Lutz spruce, a natural hybrid between white and Sitka spruce on the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska. Microsatellites indicate 72% of individuals sampled had predominantly white spruce ancestry whereas 14% had predominantly Sitka spruce ancestry; some individuals classified as white spruce had Sitka spruce plastid genotypes. As Picea mitochondria are maternally inherited and plastids are paternally inherited, it appears that white spruce was the ancestral seed parent of nearly all spruce on the peninsula, whereas Sitka spruce alleles originated from pollen. Pollen records show that white spruce colonized the western peninsula ~8,500 YBP from glacial refugium, whereas Sitka spruce arrived on the eastern peninsula ~4,000 YBP after migrating up the Pacific coast. Our data suggest that Sitka spruce migration onto the western peninsula may have occurred not via seed dispersal, but by long distance transport of wind-borne pollen and subsequent hybridization with established white spruce populations. Hybridization was an important mechanism that allowed Sitka spruce to expand the leading edge of its range in response to historical climate change. As the climate continues to warm, climate envelope modeling suggests Lutz spruce may ultimately displace white spruce on the western peninsula even as Sitka spruce is constrained to the eastern peninsula where it will continue to hybridize.
StoryMap! Wildlife and the new Sterling Highway underpasses
Why do moose cross the road? To get to the other side, of course — as do other wildlife like lynx, caribou, bears and wolves. The nature of the beast is that dens and calving areas and salmon and hardwood browse and berries don’t all occur in the same place. View a new storymap that demonstrates new wildlife crossings on the Sterling Highway!
VICTORY! Court upholds prohibition of brown bear baiting in the Kenai Refuge
Alaska Wildlife Alliance and our coalition partners celebrated a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision today that upheld a 2016 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service rule that enshrines the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge’s long-standing prohibition on brown bear baiting, along with its decades-long approach of managing the Skilak Wildlife Recreation Area for wildlife viewing and education.
Petition to Protect Lower Cook Inlet Wildlife
In the News: Beluga whale monitoring efforts looking for winter sightings in Kenai, Kasilof rivers and in lower Cook Inlet
Alaska's Wildlife-Inspired Place Names
A larger context to local-scale climate adaptation actions
VIDEO: Wildlife Wednesday- What's Going on with East Cook Inlet Razor Clams? An Update on the Stock Since the 2015 Closure
Effects of a Warming Climate on Caribou, Moose and Sitka Black-tailed Deer on the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound
Climate envelope models suggest in the near term caribou will likely decrease due to afforestation of alpine tundra; moose will likely increase due to continued colonization of Prince William Sound, afforestation of the Kenai Lowlands and alpine tundra, and increasing fires on the western peninsula; and Sitka deer will likely increase due to colonization of the eastern peninsula.
Winter newsletter: Victories!
Hometown Hero - Teresa Becher
VICTORY! Court upholds prohibition of brown bear baiting in the Kenai Refuge
“We believe that the Fish and Wildlife Service is obligated to protect Kenai brown bears on the refuge and this opinion recognizes the agency’s authority to do just that,” said Nicole Schmitt, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance. “At a time when so many of Alaska’s wildlife protections are being rolled back, this ruling comes as a sigh of relief for all those who enjoy the Refuge and its wildlife.”
