Author: Jenny Woodman

Jenny is a science writer, editor and educator based in the Pacific Northwest.

Uncertain Future for Nestlings

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date August 17, 2018

2015 chicks from nest box C-8 at 26 days. Image Credit: George Divoky

Dku-3_DUYAQHHwc — Arctic sea ice grows and shrinks during the year (seasonal cycle), reaching its annual minimum extent at the end of every summer (early-mid September). Currently, 2018’s sea ice extent is below the minimums from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decadal averages. Image Credit: Zach Labe

Black Guillemots have their young remain in the nest for almost five weeks, being nearly adult weight and independent of the parents when fledging. Returning to the nest with a single fish in their bill is a breeding strategy found in all member of the genus Cepphus; it reflects the abundance and predictability of prey in the nearshore waters where parents forage while provisioning young.

For guillemots breeding in subarctic and temperate areas, where the nearshore provides a diverse and ample supply of forage fish, the strategy works well. In the Arctic, however, Mandt’s Black Guillemot has had to adapt to a different nearshore environment. Because of sea ice covering and scouring the nearshore much of the year, and the low productivity and biodiversity of the region’s marine waters, there is a typically a paucity of nearshore fish to feed their young.

The sea ice is central to supporting an ecosystem, with Arctic Cod being the primary forage fish, that can provide an abundant source of prey when the edge of the pack ice occupies the nearshore. Mandt’s Black Guillemot has been able to breed in the Arctic “nearshore” due to this presence of sea ice near their breeding colonies.

The strategy worked well as long the breeding colonies were adjacent to the Arctic pack ice and sea surface temperatures were low. These conditions were present for the first thirty years of the Cooper Island study and the growth and fledging rate of guillemot nestlings was high. Now, as summer sea ice retreats earlier and farther from the coast, nestlings and their parents could no longer count on having 35 days of high prey availability. This has resulted in decreased chick growth, increased mortality, and poor condition of those nestlings surviving to fledging.

C-8 26 days square — 2015 chicks from nest box C-8 at 26 days. Image Credit: George Divoky

This year, with ice visible north of the island until a few days ago, there was an abundance of Arctic Cod. A walk through the colony found many parents flying back to their nests with adult cod (some bigger than six inches). Chick weights and survival reflected this abundance with no mortality of nestlings yet being recorded this year.

However, since sea ice was blown offshore by strong south winds two days ago, most chicks have been losing weight with others having little or no growth. Based on what we have seen in past years, parent birds should soon be shifting their prey choice to the more predictable – but less preferred – sculpin. The abundance of sculpin – which are present in a range of water temperatures – and the parents’ ability to shift their foraging strategies will determine the fledging success of the nestlings this year.

One of the reasons nesting guillemots are such good monitors of prey availability in nearshore waters is the lengthy time parent birds have to provision their nestlings, as guillemot young stay in the nest for five weeks after hatching. During that time parent birds are foraging for most of each day and returning to the nest nearly once an hour with a fish.

P1010712 — Limited resources cause sibling aggression in nests. Image Credit: George Divoky

The current conditions of diminished sea ice have us approaching our daily nest checks with far more uncertainty than we did in the first decades of our study – when we expected chicks to have a steady growth rate until fledging. In the next few weeks a nest case could contain nestlings in poor condition, signs of hunger-motivated sibling aggression on the younger chick, or a number of large sculpin uneaten by the nestlings due to the size of their spiny bony head.

The one bright spot in our nest checks this year has been site E-11 where the chicks hatched from the first eggs laid this June. These nestlings are extremely healthy having been raised on adult Arctic Cod by two highly experienced parents, both over 20 years of age. The oldest nestling is just two to three days from fledging and demonstrates the benefits of parents laying eggs as soon as spring snowmelt allows.

An editor’s note on sea ice: The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) reports that their 2018 projection for the sea ice minimum extent falls between the fourth and ninth lowest in the 40-year satellite record. You can read more of the agency’s monthly report here.

This field report is part of an ongoing series titled Arctic Change centered around George Divoky’s 44th field season studying Black Guillemots, sea ice, and climate change on a remote Arctic island off the coast of Alaska. To donate and support Divoky’s work on Cooper Island, visit the Friends of Cooper Island website.

Summertime and the Sea Ice is Leaving by Jenny Woodman

Seabirds and Sea Ice by George Divoky

Work Worth Doing by George Divoky

Tags Arctic, Arctic Cod, Black Guillemots, Blob sculpin, Climate Change, Cooper Island, Field Reports, Fledgling, Geolocators, Sea ice

Exploring Ocean Worlds

Discovering Ocean Worlds

The Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus is a 211 foot former East German "fishing boat" fully outfitted for scientific exploration. Image Credit: OET/Nautilus Live

Copy of NAUTILUS DISTANCE-147 — The Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus is a 211 foot former East German “fishing boat” fully outfitted for scientific exploration. Image Credit: OET/Nautilus Live

I stood on the sidewalk swaying on solid ground, a phenomenon dubbed “dock rock” or “land sickness” by those who’ve spent time on boats. I looked over my shoulder at the big blue and white ship from which I had just disembarked with my usual grace and style. High tide made the gangway incredibly steep; I lost my footing and slid all the way down with my gear to the chorus of onlookers gasping.

After being at sea, a combination of exhaustion, adrenaline, and homesickness fueled a multitude of feelings. With a lump in my throat, I thought I might never get the chance to do something so unbelievably cool again. I had just spent two weeks with truly amazing people exploring the ocean floor – with robots.

Last summer, I served as a science communication fellow on board the Oceanographer Bob Ballard’s Exploration Vessel (E/V) Nautilus.

Our expedition took place in Cordell Bank National Marine Sanctuary. The 1,296 square mile sanctuary had nearly doubled in size since receiving its designation as a protected place in 1989. Prior to the expedition, the scientists responsible for managing the sanctuary lacked the resources to fully explore and understand what lived on the ocean floor, miles below the surface. We traveled along the Continental Shelf, exploring underwater canyons and steep cliff faces, collecting video footage and samples that were sent to hundreds of researchers around the country.

These observations were aided by two remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), or robots, named Hercules and Argus. The ROVs work in tandem, tethered to the ship and each other. Argus absorbs the ship’s movements and shines bright lights down on Hercules as it performs delicate maneuvers and operations below. Hercules is outfitted with multiple high definition cameras, a Kraft Predator arm, and a host of sampling tools that aid the Nautilus team in their mission to explore the biology, geology and archeology of wild and unexplored places in the ocean.

Whenever the robots are deployed the video is live streamed all over the world, allowing students, scientists, and fans to explore with the team. This technology takes humans to locations too costly, distant, and dangerous for in-person observations like active underwater volcanoes and hydrothermal vents.

Using the Nautilus’s technology and expertise in Cordell Bank, NOAA scientists were able to identify new deep sea habitats teaming with life. There were jellies, sharks, skates, and over 40 species of rockfish, swimming among deep sea corals and sponge communities – it was a remarkable experience from beginning to end. And, it turns out that last summer was not the last time I’d set foot on the Nautilus.

From August 20 to September 13, I’ll rejoin Ballard’s Corps of Exploration as lead science communication fellow for a joint mission with NASA, NOAA, and various academic centers. The expedition is part of a multi-year SUBSEA (Systematic Underwater Biogeochemical Science and Exploration Analog) Research Program.

We’ll be exploring the Lō’ihi Seamount – an active underwater volcano off the coast of Hawaii. The hydrothermal venting and geologic features found at Lō`ihi (sounds like low-ee-hee) are thought to be similar to what scientists expect to find on other, distant, ocean worlds. We will be testing equipment and protocols as well as collecting samples and video to learn more about this geologically active and unique environment.

NASA is watching how the oceanographic community works in unusual environments in order to develop protocols for space exploration. When astronauts eventually make it to distant planets, it is unlikely that they will be able to land their spacecraft and walk on the surface right away. Using robotic technologies similar to what is used in ocean science, those astronauts will conduct their observations from the relative safety of their spacecraft – just like many ocean explorers here on Earth.

In order to allow a very large team of scientists and collaborators to participate from land, most of our dives will run from midnight to 4 p.m., Hawaiian time (HST). You can follow these dives online at www.nautiluslive.org and updates will be posted regularly on the Nautilus’s Twitter feed.

I’ll be standing watch from midnight to 4 a.m. and noon to 4 p.m. – moderating the questions coming in from the audience and helping translate the complexities of this work whenever the robots are deployed.

Last summer, I had no idea what to expect as I nervously put on my headset and sat down at my station for my first watch shift. Over the subsequent hours and days, I learned about the science and biology of the deep ocean and the technology and teamwork that took us to this otherworldly place. I saw my first octopuses in the wild, graneledone boreopacifica, who brood their eggs for 4 years, and I learned that skate egg pouches are called mermaid’s purses. As I prepare to head back out, the work is more familiar, but I’m just as eager to see new and exciting wonders.

I hope you’ll come along and explore this blue planet with us!

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follow her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Why protect 600,000 square miles that most people will never see? by Jenny Woodman

E/V Nautilus 2018 Expedition Season Summaries

Mapping the Deep: The Extraordinary Story of Ocean Science by Robert Kunzig

Notes from the Nautilus by Jenny Woodman

Tags Bob Ballard, Exploration, Lō'ihi Seamount, NASA, Nautilus, NOAA, Ocean, Oceanography, Robotics, ROVs, Science Communication, Storytelling

Arctic Change

Long-term Data Collection Serves Many

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date August 15, 2018

Drew Sauve (standing) and Thomas Leicester set up a noose mat near a roost site in August, the rainiest month of the field season. Image Credit: Drew Sauve

The Black Guillemots on Cooper Island are one of many wild populations that are responding to climate change by changing when they lay their eggs. These Arctic seabirds want to lay their eggs as soon as the winter snow melts and spring begins, because their breeding season—from first access to a nest cavity to departure of chicks—is 80 days, an exceptionally long breeding period for a bird. Parent guillemots have to have their young ready to fly off to sea before fall snow accumulation begins to block entrances to nest cavities. In recent years, with sea ice retreating offshore in late summer, early breeding has the benefit of being able to provision young when the preferred prey of Arctic Cod is still readily available.

While there are decades of data that show spring snowmelt is occurring earlier in northern Alaska and, allowing guillemots to lay their eggs earlier, my research is focused on whether Black Guillemots are evolving to lay their eggs earlier.

George has created a detailed banding dataset, where every parent has a numbered metal band, and a unique colour band combination; all of their nestlings are banded before fledging. Using this data set, I can construct family trees for the birds breeding on the island. Family trees or pedigrees are often used in studies of human health or livestock breeding. In the rare case where we have long-term pedigrees in wild populations, geneticists can use them to determine genetic variation in a trait—in this case, when birds lay their eggs.

The amount of genetic variation or the potential for genetic change in a key trait like egg-laying date could determine whether a population will be able to adapt to climate change.

The analyses we do with a pedigree are similar to what a farmer might do when trying to select cows that produce more milk. Some cows and their families might produce more milk, so the farmer would select those cows when breeding their stock. Instead of cow families that produce lots of milk, I tried to find guillemot families that laid their eggs earlier than others in response to snowmelt. However, instead of a farmer selecting cows I wanted to see if climate change was selecting for earlier breeding guillemots.

Ultimately, there were no family groups that tended to lay earlier than others. Using my farmer example again, this would be like trying to select a cow with high milk output when all the families of cows produced the same amount of milk. The farmer would be unable to improve their herd because all the cows are the same with regards to milk production.

What this means on Cooper Island is that Black Guillemots are unlikely to evolve earlier laying dates to match warmer temperatures and the change in laying-date we’ve observed so far is not because of evolution. Rather individual birds are behaviorally adjusting their laying date due to changes in snowmelt.

Unfortunately, this behavioural response to snowmelt doesn’t seem to be enough of a response as the birds are still struggling to raise offspring in the warming Arctic.

The Cooper Island data demonstrate the power of long-term, detailed data collection. Just as George did not intend to study climate change when he started the study in 1975, I also do not think he intended on collecting data that one day would be useful for building a pedigree with multiple generations of Black Guillemots, but he did just that.

The value of long-term datasets might not always be apparent when starting the study, but much of our understanding of evolution, behavior, ecology, and responses to climate change come from research that span decades. I suspect that the Cooper Island dataset and others like it will continue to be valuable in the future.

Drew Sauve just finished his master’s with the Friesen Lab at Queen’s University, Canada and is starting a doctorate in September 2018 with Vicki Friesen and Anne Charmantier using the Cooper Island dataset to determine whether climate change is causing evolutionary change in chick growth. Drew is interested in evolution, ecology, genetics, and the responses of individuals and populations to environmental change.

Tags Arctic, Climate Change, Climate Data, Cooper Island, Data, Geolocators, Long-term data, Pedigree, Research, Sea ice

Arctic Change

Hatched!

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date August 11, 2018

A parent brings Arctic cod to their hungry chick waiting at the nest. Image Credit: George Divoky

Hatching is finally over with one very late egg hatching today after having been incubated for 34 days; 28 days is normal. The oldest nestling is 16 days old; the chick is gaining weight and doing well like all of the other 45 nestlings.

While the main pack ice is well offshore, the Marginal Ice Zone, where ice covers from 18 to 80 percent of the ocean’s surface, extends south to the entire Alaskan Beaufort Sea coast, including Cooper Island. The seascape visible from the north beach now has widely scattered floes, some with rather high vertical relief breaking the horizon, in a nearly flat calm sea. This differs greatly from what was present last year when the first week in August had no ice visible with large swells breaking on north beach. More importantly, last year at this time the sea surface temperature was well above 4 degrees Celsius while this year it is less than 2 degrees Celsius. The guillemot’s preferred prey, Arctic Cod, are typically found in waters from -2 to 4 degrees.

Labeled — A Multisensor Analyzed Sea Ice Extent (MAISE) image shows why George is seeing ice off of Cooper Island. Image Credit: National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC)

The ice and water temperature conditions are ideal for the parent birds provisioning. Arctic Cod has comprised well over 90 percent of the prey being fed to chicks this year. The two oldest chicks, hatched on July 21, weighed 35 grams at hatching and now weigh 275 grams and 245 grams – the larger of the two experiencing an almost seven-fold weight increase in a 15-day period. A growth rate that rapid requires readily available prey that is both abundant and high energy, as well as two dedicated parents to return to the nest site with a fish every hour. Similar high growth rates are occurring at other nests.

This condition of the nestlings could not be more of a contrast with early August last year. Then, there was widespread mortality of younger siblings as parents could only find enough prey to maintain a single nestling. Arctic cod were absent for much of the nestling period with sculpin and juvenile sand lance comprising most of the prey. Guillemot parents turn to these alternative prey only when Arctic Cod are not available. Sculpin, with their large bony and spiny heads, are hard for nestlings to hold and swallow. They are frequently rejected with numbers building up in nest sites as the young wait for a more preferable fish.

Blob sculpin, bony fish guillemot chicks struggle to consume, lay uneaten in a nest case. Image credit: George Divoky

For the moment our daily nest weighing and measuring of guillemot nestlings has been a very positive experience. However, based on what we have seen in the last decade, we know that conditions can change rapidly in August. A strong south wind could move the ice well out of the guillemots’ foraging range or warmer waters could move eastward from the Chukchi and drive away Arctic Cod. We also know that larger and older nestlings are more able to survive changes in prey availability and that the current high growth rates will allow more individuals to survive to fledging.

This post was updated on August 11.

Alaskan Black Guillemots Fight Ice Retreat by Jonathan Amos

Energetic Value of Prey Species Utilized by Black Guillemots (Cepphus grylle) on Cooper Island, an Arctic Barrier Island by Ann Robertson et al.

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Breeding, Climate Change, Cooper Island, Field Reports, Science Communication, Storytelling

Arctic Change

Soggy Fieldwork

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date August 2, 2018

Cooper Island chicks in 2012. Image Credit: George Divoky

2012 Chicks — Cooper Island chicks in 2012. Image Credit: George Divoky

August is the rainy month of our field season, and the first day of the month was tough for us. During our morning nest checks, it wasn’t easy to keep our hands warm in a steady soaking rain, coupled with a windchill of 27 degrees Fahrenheit.

The fingerless gloves I wear daily in the summer are a godsend for handling eggs and nestlings–wet fingerless gloves at temperatures near freezing are only slightly better than no gloves at all.

NanukCase2015 — George collecting data at nesting case in 2015; the cases were added once polar bears became regular visits on the island. Image Credit: George Divoky

The cold, wind and rain (and numb fingers) were made more bearable by the fact that our nest checks found hatching high at nests that are still being attended. All the chicks seem to be doing well in their first few days.

After hatching, guillemot nestlings are incubated by their parents for about a week. The parent’s defeathered brood patch (present in both males and female parents) warmed the egg for the last month and now provides heat to the nestlings, reducing their caloric needs.

In a breeding season where good news about the Cooper Island guillemot colony is at a premium, there are a good number of nestlings being warmed by their parents in the remaining active nests. Nearly 40 chicks are currently in the colony with a few more eggs expected to hatch soon. While overall hatching success will be low with so many nests having eggs abandoned shortly after laying, hatching success for nests that have been regularly attended will be high.

Given the high overwinter adult mortality and decrease in pairs and number of birds that did not lay or incubate eggs, this has not been a good year for the colony. But that does not mean it is a bad year for all pairs – and focusing on the success of individual nests provides a sense of optimism.

Some parents will be able to fledge one or even two chicks this year, though it will certainly not be as easy as it was for parents breeding here in the 70s and 80s when sea ice was just offshore and prey abundant. The nestlings hatching now (at 35 grams) will have to undergo a 10-fold increase in weight before flying off after five weeks of being fed by their parents. Their growth and survival will depend on the abundance and availability of fish in the adjacent Arctic Ocean.

August has always been the month when the warming Arctic has had the most effect on the productivity of the Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony. We are hoping conditions this August will allow many of the newly hatched chicks to be flying out to sea later this month – and returning in a few years to breed and maintain the colony.

Field Team Update

Drew Sauve and Thomas Leicester arrived on the island on July 22.

Drew completed a master’s at Queen’s University in Kingston Ontario this past spring analyzing heritability and plasticity in timing of egg laying in the Cooper Island Black Guillemots. He is continuing for a doctorate that expands on his master’s and includes genetic analysis of the individuals breeding on Cooper. Our daily fieldwork includes collecting feathers and other tissue for him to analyze in the lab.

Thomas is an undergraduate I met through my collaboration with Kyle Elliott of McGill University. This is Thomas’s first ornithological fieldwork and it’s been enjoyable to explain the data gathering techniques and what the data sets tell us about both the guillemots and the Arctic environment.

Having Drew and Thomas on the island has provided the personnel needed to capture more birds as they roost next to the pond in the middle of the colony. Using mats with monofilament nooses we have been able to catch and give color bands to 20 birds that fledged from Cooper Island but have yet to join the breeding population. Two of these birds were nest mates in 2015, fledging from nest I-7, which their male parent still occupies, alone because their female parent was one of the birds that died this past winter. She has not been replaced by a new recruit this year.

– George

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Climate Change, Cooper Island, Field Reports, Sea ice

Arctic Change

Loss and Brief Moments of Hope

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date July 27, 2018

Cooper Island Black Guillemot in May 2017. Image Credit: George Divoky

Nature, when observed or monitored for any extended period, typically provides a predictability that is reassuring in its consistency and sufficient surprises to keep one engaged.

For over four decades, my first task after I set up camp was a census of the Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony. This year was an excellent example of this balance of the expected and unexpected.

Banded — Colorful bands make it easy to identify familiar birds and newcomers (without bands). Image Credit: George Divoky

Since the 1970s, the majority of the birds breeding in the colony have had, in addition to a numbered metal band, a unique combination of color bands allowing identification with binoculars of individual birds. My census of the colony consists of recording the number of occupied nest sites and the color band combinations of the individuals occupying each site. This allows me to determine the birds who survived the winter since last year’s breeding season and whether they have retained the same nest site and mate.

Black Guillemots, like most seabirds, have high annual survival of adult birds and high mate and nest-site fidelity. On average 90 percent of the individuals breeding on Cooper have returned the following year with mate and nest-site fidelity over 95 percent. With loss of breeding birds so uncommon and changes in mate and nest site so rare, past censuses consisted primarily of confirming last year’s pair was again occupying a particular nest site. For the small number of nests where one member of a pair did not return, there typically was a new recruit already occupying the vacancy by the time of my census–either a bird banded as a nestling on Cooper Island or an immigrant, indicated by its lack of any bands.

In the past, the high survivorship of breeding birds meant that some of the individuals I resighted each June were ones I had seen for over 20 years, and in many cases had known since I had weighed them daily as a nestling. The resightings of these individuals as adults provided an annual touchstone that was an important part of both my emotional and scientific connection to the colony.

My initial census of the colony this year was unlike any in the past. The loss of breeding birds over the winter was the highest on record. Nearly one-third of the 170 birds that bred in 2017 not returning to the colony in 2018.

As mentioned in an earlier post, many of the 50 pairs that had eggs this year (down from 85 in 2017 and 100 in 2016) consisted of widowed birds that both lost a mate over the winter. The decrease in breeding population was exacerbated by the paucity of previously nonbreeding birds present to recruit into the breeding population. Some established breeders widowed over the winter are the sole occupants of their nest sites. Even pairs that did survive the winter have shown much lower mate and site fidelity than I have observed in previous years.

The disturbingly high percentage of birds lost to overwinter mortality comes as a major surprise but a simple percentage fails to capture the full impact of what I experienced during this year’s census.

Screen Shot 2018-05-18 at 1.36.12 PM — George’s “Cover Girl,” featured here on a December cover of Audubon Magazine, didn’t return to Cooper Island this year. Image Credit: Peter Mather for Audubon

Many of the individual birds I have known for decades were among those absent from the colony. Most notable was Yellow-Gray- Green, a 21-year-old female banded as a chick in 1996 and breeding on Cooper since 2001. She was featured on the cover of last winter’s Audubon magazine. Another individual absent this year with an even longer history on the island is White-Gray-Blue, who fledged from Cooper in 1989 and bred on the island during 23 years of rapid environmental change including of decreases in sea ice, warming ocean temperatures, increased polar bear nest predation and major shifts in prey availability.

While examining this year’s colony census at the level of the individual bird, versus a review of declining numbers is disheartening, it also provides some reasons for optimism–a rare feeling this field season.

My census found that a number of birds fledged from Cooper in recent years recruited into the breeding population this year, starting what I hope will be a long and productive career as breeders. These birds, and their young–the fledging chicks we hope they produce later this summer–provides one both with optimism and motivation to maintain the long-term study. As Hannah Waters pointed out in her excellent article in Audubon magazine, the guillemots are going to have to adapt and evolve for the colony to survive in a rapidly warming Arctic.

The hope that this year’s first-time breeders and their young will find a way to maintain the colony during the major changes occurring in the Arctic allows me to maintain a positive attitude as I continue to monitor this year’s breeding season.

Can These Seabirds Adapt Fast Enough to Survive a Melting Arctic? by Hannah Waters

Arctic Worries by Jenny Woodman

George Divoky’s Planet by Darcy Frey

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Breeding, Climate Change, Climate Data, Cooper Island, Field Reports, Sea ice

Arctic Change

Arctic Worries

A lone Black Guillemot and sea ice off Cooper Island. Image Credit: George Divoky

Black Guillemots and sea ice off Cooper Island. Image Credit: George Divoky

Mandt’s Black Guillemots. Image Credit: George DIvoky

George Divoky frets–with good reason. In 2016, CNN Correspondent John D. Sutter called him the man who is watching the world melt. The description is as distressing as it is apt.

George sends us regular dispatches from a small field camp on Cooper Island, about 25 miles east of Utqiaġvik, where he has studied a colony of nesting Mandt’s Black Guillemots for the last 44 years. Since his work began in 1975, the research has morphed into one of the longest-running studies of seabirds, sea ice, and climate change.

Guillemots look like small penguins headed off to a fancy party replete with ice sculptures and all-night dancing. Unlike other seabirds that migrate out of the region seasonally, they live out over the frigid waters year-round, only returning to land to breed and fledge their young–this makes them an excellent indicator of how climate change is impacting the Arctic.

Weather delayed the start of this research season in early June. While warm temperatures in the Arctic have made headlines in recent months, unusually late snow and ice kept the guillemots from reaching their nesting boxes until mid-June; the first egg was laid on June 24.

His communications are tinged with an effort to buoy spirits–I’m guessing his own more so than ours. This week, the bad news came first: a 29-year-old female died. He wrote that she had been banded during the first George Bush administration. (While many humans rely on a simple Gregorian calendar, George’s memories appear to be synchronized according to a timeline rooted firmly in geopolitics.)

Bad news was followed with happy; two siblings from the 2014 cohort returned and recruited partners for breeding.

Otherwise, it’s been a stormy week on the island. On July 20, he wrote that the wind was finally dying down. A bad week for the infrastructure, the camp’s weather station was blown over and part of the heavy-duty WeatherPort tarp separated from the frame, which caused a number of things to get wet. On Wednesday he saw record high rainfall for that date.

Egg laying hit an all-time low this year, with fewer breeding pairs than any previous year.

He’s asking questions about how changing ice conditions will impact these seabirds – his seabirds. In his most recent field report, he spoke at length about the relationship between the guillemots and nearshore sea ice. The location of the sea ice impacts how far parents will have to fly to access suitable prey for their chicks. Increased travel time means greater energy expended by parents – for seabirds that live predominantly out in open waters, it’s all about balancing resources and energy. The presence or absence of sea ice combined with the temperature of the ocean waters impacts the availability of Arctic Cod, the small nutritious fish the guillemots prefer.

George hopes the slowly departing nearshore sea ice will keep ideal prey in foraging range for the seabirds. He wrote, the cod is “urgently needed for the colony to reduce its current population decline.”

A MODIS image from July 11; snow and ice are cyan color while clouds tend to be more grayish. Image Credit: NASA Worldview

A MODIS image from July 16; snow and ice are cyan color while clouds tend to be more grayish. Image Credit: NASA Worldview

David Douglas is a research wildlife biologist for United States Geological Survey (USGS) Alaska Science Center; he and George are frequent collaborators. This week he emailed the MODIS images displayed above and wrote that Cooper Island was pretty well surrounded until July 16 when the persistent ice immediately around the island broke up and melted.

Studies like George’s will help scientists to better understand the ramifications of long-term warming and less sea ice for wildlife in the region. Impacts to wildlife will directly affect the lives of the people who depend on subsistence fishing and hunting for survival.

Warming Arctic conditions have persisted with 2018 reaching record lows for sea ice extent, according to a report published by NOAA and University of Alaska Fairbanks’s International Arctic Research Center.

Late ice formation and early retreat in the Chukchi and Bering Seas impacted local communities by making travel for subsistence hunting and fishing dangerous and, at times, impossible. Storm damage and erosion was worsened by exposed shorelines, left unprotected by a lack of sea ice. Island villages and coastal communities experienced flooding and property damage as well. You can read more about the storm impacts here and here.

The report attributes late and minimal ice coverage to warmer temperatures, particularly over the last four years. Increased temperatures combined with stronger storms helped break up weaker ice.

In 2018, there was less sea ice in the Bering Sea than any year since 1850, when commercial whalers began recording this data. Experts agree, loss of sea ice is a result of climate change. Continued warming creates a feedback loop where warming temperatures melt ice; without a reflective snow and ice covering, the ocean absorbs more of the sun’s warming rays and temperatures continue to rise.

As for future winters, what can people expect to see if warming continues at current rates?

“Communities need to prepare for more winters with low sea ice and stormy conditions. Although not every winter will be like this one,” concludes the report, “there will likely be similar winters in the future. Ice formation will likely remain low if warm water temperatures in the Bering Sea continue.”

And for George’s seabirds? How many birds will successfully fledge this year? How many will return next?

We’ll just have to wait and see.

This piece is part of an ongoing series titled Arctic Change centered around George Divoky’s 44th field season studying Black Guillemots, sea ice, and climate change on a remote Arctic island off the coast of Alaska. To donate and support Divoky’s work on Cooper Island, visit the Friends of Cooper Island website.

Historic Low Sea Ice in the Bering Sea by Kathryn Hansen for NASA Earth Observatory

Arctic Sea Ice a Major Determinant in Mandt’s Black Guillemot Movement and Distribution During Non-Breeding Season By G. J. Divoky, D.C. Douglas, and I.J. Stenhouse

Melting Arctic Sends a Message: Climate Change Is Here In a Big Way by Mark Serreze

The First Frontier: Creating a Climate Displacement Fund for Displaced Alaska Communities By Wen Hoe

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Breeding, Climate Change, Climate Data, Cooper Island, Field Reports, NOAA, Ocean, Satellites, Science Communication, Sea ice, Seabirds, Utqiaġvik, Wildlife

Arctic Change

Seabirds and Sea Ice

MODIS June — MODIS image from June 5; snow and ice have blue/cyan color, while clouds will be lighter gray/white. Image Credit: David Douglass/USGS

Over most of its range the Black Guillemot is a nearshore seabird, occupying coastal waters during both the breeding and nonbreeding seasons, as do other members of the genus Cepphus. Pelagic or open ocean waters can offer abundant prey resources, but these options are often distant, patchy and unpredictable.

The nearshore typically offers seabirds a smaller but more reliable source prey base consisting of forage fish and benthic fauna from the ocean floor such as crustaceans or mussels.

The Arctic Ocean has extensive sea ice cover in the nearshore for the majority of the year; this presents a number of challenges to a nearshore species. Our work on the Cooper Island Black Guillemots has revealed a number of ways in which the species has met these challenges.

The current view from my cabin window illustrates one of the major problems guillemots face in the Arctic. Sea ice extends from the north beach of the island to the horizon and covers Elson Lagoon to the south. The only water available to the guillemots is a brackish pond in the center of the colony that provides no prey but is deep enough to provide sanctuary if the guillemots need to dive when pursued by an owl or falcon — regular visitors to the island.

MODIS July — MODIS image from July 9; snow and ice have blue/cyan color, while clouds will be lighter gray/white. Image Credit: David Douglass/USGS

While guillemots arrived on the island almost a month ago and egg laying is now complete, until recently the closest predictable open water where guillemots could find prey was approximately 20 miles away, off Point Barrow where winds and currents shift the sea ice creating an area of open water. This opening is called a lead. The Cooper Island guillemots stage there in April and May before coming to the island. (Editor’s note: Leads are important for wildlife, because they allow for access to oxygen in the case of seals and walruses and prey in the case of seabirds; you can read more from the National Snow and Ice Data Center here.)

This distance between the Cooper Island guillemots’ nesting colony and access to their prey resources during egg laying and incubation is in sharp contrast to what guillemots breeding in subarctic or temperate waters find at their breeding colonies. These birds occupy waters directly adjacent to colonies well before egg laying and foraging areas may even be within sight of nests. The birds breeding on Cooper Island (and likely all colonies of Mandt’s Black Guillemot Cepphus grylle mandti, the high Arctic subspecies of Black Guillemot) have responded to this spatial disconnect by having a well-defined periodicity in their daily colony attendance. Every day, the parent not incubating eggs and all nonbreeding individuals vacate the colony from approximately noon until midnight. The birds fly individually or in small groups to open water where they can feed for almost half the day before returning to the colony just as the “midnight sun” is at its lowest point in the sky.

BeachwCases 2015 — Cooper Island beach with nesting boxes from 2015. Image Credit: George Divoky

While it seems individual birds could fly offshore to open water to feed anytime during the day, there are a number of possible reasons the observed colony-wide pattern of attendance and abandonment developed. For the half of the day when the guillemots are absent – from approximately noon to midnight – there is no evidence that Cooper Island supports a colony of Black Guillemots. It appears to be just a barren sandbar that happens to inexplicably have 200 scattered black plastic cases along with a small cabin surrounded by a bear fence. Falcons, Snowy Owls, and other predators moving along the barrier islands would have little reason to be attracted to this place.

The timing of the birds’ departure and return may be related to changes in air temperature and its effect on ice formation. On nights when the air temperature is below freezing (as it was last night), I have frequently observed the formation of new ice on the surface of the few spaces of open water in the sea ice directly adjacent to shore. This newly formed ice melts in the morning as air temperatures rise. Nocturnal formation of new ice in the waters adjacent to the pack ice reduces the amount of open water available for guillemots to dive for the prey.

This temporary daily reduction in foraging area could be expected to have been pronounced during the Last Glacial Maximum when air temperatures were lower and the ancestors of the Cooper Island guillemots occupied an Arctic refugium. The current pattern of colony attendance for the Cooper Island colony – foraging during the warmest part of the day and attending the breeding colony at night – could have evolved as a way of maximizing the amount of open water available for guillemots.

The large expanse of shorefast ice north of the island this year is persisting later than expected compared to recent years. While the nearshore ice may now be forcing the Cooper Island guillemots to fly further in search of prey, it could benefit the colony later this summer should ice remain in the nearshore close to the colony. In recent years a lack of sea ice when the guillemots are feeding young resulted in increased nestling mortality as higher sea surface temperatures reduced the availability of Arctic Cod, the guillemots’ preferred prey.

Should this year’s nearshore ice break up slowly over the next month, Arctic Cod could remain in the guillemots’ foraging range and allow increased chick growth and fledging success. The latter is urgently needed for the colony to reduce its current population decline. First eggs will be hatching in about two weeks and our daily weighing of nestlings and prey observations should demonstrate how much this year’s persistent sea ice has affected the guillemots’ nearshore environment.

Arctic Sea Ice a Major Determinant in Mandt’s Black Guillemot Movement and Distribution During Non-Breeding Season by G. J. Divoky, D. C. Douglas, I. J. Stenhouse

All About Sea Ice by National Snow and Ice Data Center

Summertime and the Sea Ice is Leaving by Jenny Woodman

Take the A-Train to the Arctic by Jenny Woodman

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Climate Change, Climate Data, Cooper Island, Field Reports, Ocean, Science Communication, Sea ice, USGS

Arctic Change

Long-term Decline Accelerates in Arctic

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date July 15, 2018
1 Comment on Long-term Decline Accelerates in Arctic

George collecting data at nesting case in 2015; the cases were added once polar bears became regular visits on the island. Image Credit: George Divoky

The Cooper Island Black Guillemot colony experiences a major decrease in breeding pairs as long-term decline accelerates.

As of July 6, egg laying ended at the Cooper Island colony and the number of breeding pairs is the lowest it has been in four decades. Only 50 guillemot pairs have laid eggs, down from 85 pairs last year, 100 pairs in 2016 and 200 pairs in the late 1980s.

Screen Shot 2018-07-15 at 9.20.57 AM — Cooper Island breeding pairs over the years; it is important to note that the number of available sites has not decreased as the population has decreased, meaning some environmental factor has likely been decreasing the population. Image Credit: Jenny Woodman

A primary reason for the decline was increased overwinter mortality, with almost one third of the last year’s breeders failing to return to the colony. The long-term average for overwinter mortality is ten percent. Also contributing to the decline was a paucity of recruits to occupy the vacancies created by the mortality. Many of this year’s pairs are composed of two birds that lost mates over the winter. All recruitment that did occur were of birds that had fledged from Cooper Island. Immigrants used to constitute the majority of birds recruited into the breeding population.

A potential reason for the high mortality is the lack of sea ice in the area traditionally occupied by Cooper Island guillemots in winter. The unprecedented lack of sea ice over the Bering Sea shelf likely forced birds to occupy the ice edge in the Arctic Basin north of the Bering Strait, where prey resources may not be as abundant.

The 15 geolocators recently removed from returning birds will allow determination of the winter distribution.

The number of breeding pairs also declined due to the number of pairs maintaining nest sites but failing to lay eggs. Nonbreeding by experienced birds and established pairs has been extremely rare on Cooper Island but this year there are 20 such pairs. The presence of such birds, unable to initiate clutches after occupying a nest site, is an indication that overwinter or spring conditions caused both a decrease in the condition of returning birds as well as increased mortality.

Eggs will begin hatching in the third week of July and one has to hope fledging success will be high.

The Earliest Year by George Divoky

Summertime and the Sea Ice is Leaving by Jenny Woodman

In the Arctic, the Old Ice Is Disappearing by Jeremy White and Kendra Pierre-Louis (2018)

Sea Ice by Michon Scott and Kathryn Hansen for NASA Earth Observatory

Tags Arctic, Black Guillemots, Breeding, Climate Change, Cooper Island, Earth observation, Field Reports, Geolocators, Sea ice, Utqiaġvik

Exploring Ocean Worlds Sea Sentries

Exploring an Ocean Wilderness

Post author By Jenny Woodman
Post date July 9, 2018

Chase-180705-9255 — A rare Nazca Booby sighting brought joy to the team of wildlife observers on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Precious moments are abundant at sea, but, like most things, there are challenges. Gorgeous sunsets and getting close to wild creatures most people will never witness also comes with long hours, bouts of seasickness, and being away from loved ones.

California Group Director for Point Blue Conservation Science Jaime Jahncke went on his first science expedition in 1994; it was a cruise to assess anchovy stocks off the coast of Peru where he grew up. “Being at sea is fantastic. You can see things that no one else can see like a breaching whale or a rare bird,” said Jahncke. “But if you are sick it is pretty awful because there’s nothing you can do to escape the thing that’s making you sick.”

We’re off the north-central coast of California on the NOAA Ship Bell M. Shimada for a marine mammal and seabird survey. A team of scientists has spent the last week logging wildlife sightings and collecting water and biological samples as part of a long-term effort to monitor National Marine Sanctuary ecosystems.

A humpback whale with the North Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Brown Pelican off the coast of north-central California. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Three Mola mola, or ocean sunfish, spotted near the Farallon Islands. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

On the last day of this cruise, members of the wildlife observation team spoke a little bit about this work and why they think protected places like our National Marine Sanctuaries are important. The following is written in their own words, which have been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Jan Roletto

She is chief scientist and research coordinator for Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary; Roletto has been going out to sea regularly since the late 90s.

I miss my husband, dog, and cats, but I live near where I work so you’re never really that far from home. That is one of benefits of place-based monitoring; with species-based monitoring, you have to go to where the animals are.

My job is really diverse. I like being able to put the pieces of the puzzle together for an unknown question. As research coordinator, my job is to find researchers who are doing work relevant to the sanctuary – people like Carina Fish who are studying the impact of ocean acidification on deep sea corals.

Long-term monitoring data isn’t exciting – it’s doesn’t get the “oohs and aahs” but it is really important. You can’t identify what’s really special or different without long-term monitoring data. For example, we can do rapid damage assessments because we have this data. Long-term monitoring is like a savings account. You put the data aside – you put a little away and when the need arises you have it. We wouldn’t be able to talk about climate change, about long-term change, if we didn’t have that long-term monitoring data.

It’s satisfying to have all this data when there’s an event like an oil spill incident – a leaky vessel or an accident – and be well prepared to respond. We’ve used ACCESS and Sanctuary data so it’s satisfying to be able to say, “This is what it looked like before; this is what it looks like now; and, this is what it will take to make to restore it to that previous state.”

Sanctuaries are important because U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service protects populations; sanctuaries protect habitats. You can’t have good populations of whatever is out there without homes – can’t have one without the other. We take care of the grocery store and the apartment building and fisheries takes care of the things that live there.

Kirsten Lindquist

Lindquist is the ecosystem monitoring manager for the Greater Farallones Association (GFA); she’s the birder for this cruise and has been going out to sea for 18 years.

I think the long days with no breaks (in terms of working 10 or 30 days straight) are hard. You get some intermittent weather breaks, but nothing you can plan for. You do get tired.

I love being in the ocean wilderness and the extreme environment — seeing all the different faces of it. On shore, people go to national parks and they can be there and experience them in a way that people don’t have the chance with oceans 40-plus miles off shore. I think if people did, they would understand why [National Marine Sanctuaries] are so special and why they should be protected.

Dru Devlin

Devlin is a research associate for Greater Farallones Association and wildlife observer on this cruise; she has been working on programs at sea like ACCESS since 2005.

The break in the normal routine is challenging. I love to come out here and then it’s great to get back home, but when I’m home, I can’t wait to be back out here.

It’s physically hard standing in weather and sun for the long hours – the change in diet and exercise too, but I love it. I miss my family, but I think it’s important for my son to see his mom do something that’s important to her and something that is important to others.

I like being part of a team and part of something that contributes to the knowledge base. Being out on the ocean is a touchstone of who I am – it inspires me to keep doing this work. It’s gratifying over the years to see what we’ve contributed to the knowledge base and how much more there remains to do.

Marine sanctuaries protect valuable resources like the biodiversity of life we see here – from the rich basis of life, the phytoplanktonic stuff all the way up to the largest mammals on Earth. If we don’t study it, we won’t know what we have – hopefully others see the value in that.

Taylor Nairn

She is the data manager for Greater Farallones Association and the data logger in this expedition; this is Nairn’s fourth year at sea.

Every cruise is different. The weather is pretty hard, but you can get through it and that feels good. The lack of privacy is hard too – after a while I need to turn inward, but it’s also good to be forced to get out of it.

I love the sense of adventure and independence. The sea is one of the last wildernesses and getting to experience that is really magical. Wild spaces have intrinsic value. True wild spaces and ecosystems are valuable in and of themselves.

Science Team ACCESS Cruise July 2018 — ACCESS Cruise Science Team, July 2018. Image Credit: Julie Chase/ACCESS/NOAA/Point Blue

Jenny Woodman, Proteus founder and executive director, is a science writer and educator living in the Pacific Northwest. Follower her on Twitter @JennyWoodman.

Tags Climate Change, Conservation, Exploration, Farallon Islands, National Marine Sanctuaries, NOAA, Ocean, Point Blue, Science Communication, Seabirds, Whales

Read more

Read more

This post was updated on August 11.

Read more

Field Team Update

Read more

Read More

Read more

Read more