Stabilization of the Yaquina Bay shoreline along the northeastern edge of the Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) campus became necessary to halt erosion that threatened both HMSC critical infrastructure (seawater storage tank) and public access to the HMSC Nature Trail. A Dynamic Revetment (gravel beach) was installed in November, 2011...
Increasingly diverse interests in commercial and recreational use of marine resources are creating new challenges for coastal ocean management. One concern of increased offshore use and development off the Oregon coast is the potential impact on marine bird populations. We summarized the primary surveys of seabird breeding colonies and at-sea...
The Hatfield Marine Science Center (HMSC) is an interagency campus in Newport, Oregon with
a mission of research, education and outreach in marine sciences through collaborative
partnerships. Located on a 49 acre site on Yaquina Bay, Oregon, it is adjacent to diverse
habitats, many of which are subject to action...
Interest has increased in developing renewable energy sources to reduce U. S. dependence on oil. Policy makers and resource managers now are considering power generation technologies proposed for development along the Continental Shelf of the U. S. Pacific coast beyond state waters. This region supports abundant populations of seabirds and...
In 2009, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife initiated a process to incorporate information about climate change and its effects on fish, wildlife, and habitats into the Oregon Conservation Strategy. The agency acknowledged that climate change is already affecting Oregon’s species and habitats and that future climate change represents...
Monitoring reproductive success, prey species composition, and colony size of marine birds has been proposed as a method of assessing changes in marine systems that are otherwise difficult to sample (Cairns 1987). I measured inter-annual and intra-seasonal variability in reproductive parameters, taxonomic composition of the diet, and adult body condition...
Populations of organisms are influenced by both top-down (predator driven) and bottom-up (environment or resource driven) effects. Seabird research has largely focused on bottom-up factors influencing reproduction, with little emphasis on top-down. Our goal was to better understand top-down impacts on colonial nesting seabirds over a range of spatio-temporal scales....
Variable ocean conditions can greatly impact lower trophic level prey assemblages in marine ecosystems, with effects propagating up to higher trophic levels. Our goal was to better understand how varying ocean conditions influence diets and niche overlap among a suite of low- to mid trophic level predators. We studied the...
Full Text:
, Rebecca Chuck, ShawnStephensen, David Ledig, Dawn Grafe,
Amy Kocourek, and the late David Pitkin. Thank
Ocean conditions can greatly impact lower trophic level prey assemblages in marine ecosystems, with effects of ocean state propagating to higher trophic levels. In many regions throughout their range, common murre (Uria aalge) exhibit narrow dietary breadth in feeding chicks and therefore are vulnerable to recruitment failures of dominant prey...