Nutritional Significance of Copper--Bering Intertidal System to Spring-Migrating Shorebirds Breeding in Western Alaska. Annual Report, April 1, 1977--March 31, 1978

• Main Authors: Senner, Stanley E., West, George C.
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: University of Alaska Fairbanks. Institute of Arctic Biology. 1978
• Subjects: Vertebrates 520100* > Environment; Aquatic > Basic Studies > (-1989); Water Pollution; 510500 > Environment; Terrestrial > Site Resource & Use Studies > (-1989); 02 Petroleum; Environmental Effects; 520500 > Environment; Aquatic > Site Resource & Use Studies > (-1989); Data; Oil Spills; Surface Waters; Usa; Baseline Ecology; Animals; Alaska; Variations; Isolated Values; Seas; Streams; Pollution; Coastal Regions; Bering Sea; Habitat; 510100 > Environment; Terrestrial > Basic Studies > (-1989); Ecology; 520200 > Environment; Aquatic > Chemicals Monitoring & Transport > (-1989); Rivers; Experimental Data; Migration; Numerical Data; Birds; Population Dynamics; Information; Data Forms; Seasonal Variations; 020900 > Petroleum > Environmental Aspects; North America; 54 Environmental Sciences; Pacific Northwest Region; Pacific Ocean; Estuaries; Pacific; Dunlin; Kachemak
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.2172/5996660; https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1103203/

In the year ending 1 April 1978, significant new dimensions were added to an appraisal of the Copper River Delta system as critical habitat for Dunlins and Western Sandpipers in spring migration. Selective field work was conducted at other sites in Alaska along the migratory-to-breeding continuum of localities between the Copper Delta and northwestern Alaska. Predictions made last year about the differing physiological/behavioral/migration dynamics of the two species have been borne out by the documentation of predicted major stopovers by westerns in Kachemak Bay, Lower Cook Inlet, and the virtual absence of Dunlins from that region, as predicted. Close cooperation with Arneson (RU 3) and Gill (RU 341, Nelson Lagoon) has proven to be mutually advantageous in both putting the Copper Delta into context, and verifying that postulated different migration strategies characterize the two species in fall as well as in spring movements. Both species appear to be highly susceptible to any intertidal habitat degradation in the C-BRD system, although of the two, the Dunlin shows a higher degree of obligate habitat dependency on the C-BRD system itself. By contrast, current understanding leads us to regard habitat degradation in Lower Cook Inlet as at least as serious a threat to westerns as similar events in the Copper--Bering system. A final report of this phase of work is expected to be ready on 1 October 1978. Perturbation experiments (small plot oiling, exclosure pens) are under consideration for possible renewal proposals in 1979.