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Habitat Assessment and Marine Chemistry

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Habitat Assessment & Marine Chemistry:
Nutritional Ecology
Contaminants and Oil
Nearshore Habitat
Genetic Stock Identification
Division Activities:
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Posters
Data Sets
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beach combing eelgrass
Scientists beach seining an eelgrass bed.
 
analyzing solutions in the lab
A lab technician analyzing samples.
 
Oil in a small tidal pool
Crude oil persisting in the intertidal.

Habitat Program Manager

Jeep Rice
Auke Bay Laboratories
Alaska Fisheries Science Center, NOAA Fisheries

Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute
17109 Pt Lena Loop Rd
Juneau AK 99801
(907) 789-6020
Jeep.Rice@noaa.gov

The Habitat Assessment and Marine Chemistry Program conducts research on chemical and ecological processes that occur in marine, tidal, and watershed habitats ranging from the Arctic to the Gulf of Alaska. This program attempts to assess bioenergetics in various species and life stages, assess the impact of development and contaminants on these species and their habitats, and map and evaluate their habitat quality. The program comprises a mix of chemists and biologists focused into three project teams:

Nutritional ecology research or bioenergetics, assesses the nutritional value of forage species, including juvenile salmon, as measured by changes in lipid class, fatty acid, and caloric composition of these forage species. The studies seek to evaluate how habitat quality changes seasonally and spatially by understanding how prey organisms allocate energy between growth, reproduction, and fat storage.

Contaminants research quantifies threats from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) to reproductive, nursery, and feeding habitats for various life stages of salmon, herring, and other fish species. Much of this work has focused on understanding the long-term effects of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill.

Nearshore habitat research combines habitat mapping and fish utilization studies to identify use of essential fish habitat. Additional focus has been on identifying sensitive life stages of forage fish and chemical or physical impacts of development on the quality of eelgrass and kelp bed habitats.

Genetic analyses are used to identify independent stocks of fish allowing us to meet international treaty obligations, assess endangered species criteria, and reach fisheries management goals.  A small group of geneticists and technicians genetically analyze fish populations from the forage base to upper-level predators.  Mathematical statisticians within our group then use the allele frequency differences to complete stock assessment analyses.

 

News and Research Highlights

humback fluke  

Juneau Humpback Whale Catalog

A resource for humpback whale fluke identification including 108 fluke photographs as well as general inforrmation about the humpbacks that frequent the Juneau area. More>

 

Recent Publications, Poster Presentations, Reports & Activities

  • Behavioural response of pink salmon fry Oncorhynchus gorbuscha to fresh, weathered, and dispersed crude oil
    MOLES, A. 2009. Behavioural response of pink salmon fry Oncorhynchus gorbuscha to fresh, weathered, and dispersed crude oil, p. 837-847. In Proceedings of the Thirty-second Arctic Marine Oil Spill Technical Seminar on Environmental Contamination and Response, Environment Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. 
     
  • Response to letter to the editor by P.D. Boehm, D.S. Page, and J.M. Neff.
    SPRINGMAN, K. R., J. SHORT, and S. D. RICE. 2009. Response to letter to the editor by P.D. Boehm, D.S. Page, and J.M. Neff. Mar. Environ. Res. 67:259-261. 
     
  • Sablefish Predation on Juvenile Salmon in the Coastal Marine Waters of Southeast Alaska in 1999
    By:  M. V. STURDEVANT, M. F. SIGLER, J. A. ORSI
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2009
    (2009 poster, .pdf, 196KB)   Online.

     
  • Pacific Herring (Clupea pallasii) in Lynn Canal, Southeast Alaska: Endangered, Threatened, or Struggling?
    By:  M. G. CARLS, S. W. JOHNSON, S. D. RICE
    Conference:  Alaska Marine Science Symposium, Anchorage, AK, Jan 2009
    (2009 poster, .pdf, 1.45MB)   Online.

     
  • Winter Energy Dynamics in Two Populations of Juvenile Eulachon in Southeastern Alaska

  • Cardiac Arrhythmia Is the Primary Response of Embryonic Pacific Herring Exposed to Crude Oil during Weathering


See the publications and poster databases for additional listings.
 

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