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Current Research Projects
| Survey of the Nation’s Lakes - Cook Inlet Lakes Survey |
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We are taking part in a large-scale effort to catalog the environmental conditions in lakes, ponds, and reservoirs across the United States. The program, known as the Survey of the Nation’s Lakes, is part of an EPA research initiative that develops tools to assess and monitor the status and trends of national ecological resources. We are focusing on 50 randomly selected lakes in the Cook Inlet watershed for Alaska’s portion of the Survey and are collecting an extensive array of chemical, physical, and habitat measurements in addition to sampling phytoplankton, zooplankton, littoral macroinvertebrates, and diatoms from sediment cores. Taken together, the data will provide a thorough characterization of the current ecological conditions while the sediment core diatoms will allow us to infer how conditions have changed over time. |
| Monitoring streams in the Kvichak and Nushagak watersheds of Bristol Bay |
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Beginning in the summer of 2008 we will begin field data collection toward the development of macroinvertebrate and diatom biological monitoring indices for streams in the Kvichak and Nushagak watersheds of Bristol Bay. |
Biological Assessment for Cook Inlet Alaska Streams
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We are currently developing a biological index for the diatom community in Cook Inlet Alaska wadeable streams. We have collected diatoms from over 50 streams in three different years dating back to 2002 to build this index. We are also recalibrating our Cook Inlet Alaska Stream Condition (macroinvertebrate) Index so that it reflects a human disturbance gradient. |
| Tetlin National Wildlife Refugre Baseline Monitoring |
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We are currently finalizing a quality assurance plan to guide the collection of baseline biological data in streams of Alaska's National Wildlife Refuges. In the summer of 2007 we will begin a three-year effort to characterize baseline biology and habitat in three streams of the Tetlin NWR; work in other refuges may follow. |
Kenai Peninsula Marine-derived Nutrient Study |
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Daniel Rinella is cooperating on a project designed to
track the magnitude and effects of nutrients delivered to Kenai Peninsula streams by spawning salmon.
This work is being conducted toward the completion of a PhD from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The project is funded by the Gulf Ecosystem Monitoring program; principal investigators are Mark Wipfli (graduate advisor, UAF), Coowe Walker (Kachemak Bay Research Reserve), and Craig Stricker (U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, CO) |
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Past Research Projects
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