Daniel Cushing

Pole Star Ecological Research LLC

Introduction Seabirds are abundant, conspicuous members of marine ecosystems worldwide. Synthesis of distribution data compiled over time is required to address regional management issues and understand ecosystem change. Major challenges when estimating seabird densities at sea arise from variability in dispersion of the birds, sampling effort over...

We used seabird surveys and concurrent oceanographic observations in the Northern Gulf of Alaska during spring 1998-2019 to evaluate how seabirds responded to temperature variability, including a protracted marine heatwave, in a highly heterogeneous ecosystem. We examined temporally changing distributions of seabirds along the Seward Line, a 220 km...

The Arctic Marine Biodiversity Observing Network monitors biological assemblages on taxonomic scales ranging from microbes to seabirds on the northeast Chukchi Sea shelf to improve understanding of their responses to changing environmental conditions, including climate change. Here, we compare two years, 2015 and 2017, the latter characterized by a...

Some of the longest and most comprehensive marine ecosystem monitoring programs were established in the Gulf of Alaska following the environmental disaster of the Exxon Valdez oil spill over 30 years ago. These monitoring programs have been successful in assessing recovery from oil spill impacts, and their continuation decades later has now provide...

During the Pacific marine heatwave of 2014-2016, abundance and quality of several key forage fish species in the Gulf of Alaska were simultaneously reduced throughout the system. Capelin (Mallotus catervarius), sand lance (Ammodytes personatus), and herring (Clupea pallasii) populations were at historically low levels, and within this community abr...

In the northern Bering Sea and eastern Chukchi Sea, 2017–2019 were record-breaking years for warm ocean temperatures and lack of sea ice. The region supports millions of seabirds that could be affected by shifts in prey distribution and availability caused by changing environmental drivers. However, seabirds are highly mobile and often flexible in...

Common and thick–billed murres are among the most numerous and widespread seabirds in the northern hemisphere though they appear to be especially susceptible to mass die–off events. During the spring and summer of 2018, the Bering Sea experienced warmer than average sea temperatures following a winter of unprecedented, near complete lack of sea ice...

An array of eight Distributed Biological Observatory (DBO)sites serve as long-term monitoring areas for three geographic regions: the northern Bering, eastern Chukchi, and Beaufort seas. The locations of the DBO sites were largely determined based on abundance and diversity of benthic invertebrates. It is not clear how well these fixed sampling sit...

Over recent decades, marine ecosystems of Prince William Sound (PWS), Alaska, have experienced concurrent effects of natural and anthropogenic perturbations, including variability in the climate system of the northeastern Pacific Ocean. We documented spatial and temporal patterns of variability in the summer marine bird community in relation to hab...

Research and monitoring activities over the 28 years since the T/V Exxon Valdez ran aground and spilled oil into Prince William Sound, Alaska have led to an improved understanding of how wildlife populations were damaged, as well as the mechanisms and timelines of recovery. A key finding was that for some species, such as harlequin ducks and sea ot...

We tested a method for identifying important daytime marine habitat used by the Kittlitz’s Murrelet, a rare glacially associated seabird, in Prince William Sound, Alaska. We used a context-dependent modeling framework based on a paired logistic regression model of presence- only data and landscape variables to predict marine habitat used across 17...

We tested a method for identifying important daytime marine habitat used by the Kittlitz’s Murrelet, a rare glacially associated seabird, in Prince William Sound, Alaska. We used a context-dependent modeling framework based on a paired logistic regression model of presence-only data and landscape variables to predict marine habitat used across 17 f...

We studied the diet of the Western Screech-Owl (Megascops ken-nicottii) at the northern edge of its range, in southeast Alaska. To describe the diet in the breeding season we collected pellets from beneath roost trees or nest cavities of 10 radio-marked owls, their mates, and their young. Mammals (found in 46 of 48 groups of pellets, 98%) and inver...

Pentatricopeptide repeat proteins (PPRPs) constitute one of the largest superfamilies in plants, with more than 440 identified in the Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) Heynh genome. While some PPRPs are known to take part in organelle gene expression, little is known about the broader biological contexts of PPRP gene function. Here, using developmental- an...