ENRI sponsors marine symposium here, with 17 ENRI participants

The UAA Environment and Natural Resources Institute (ENRI) sponsored the 2012 Alaska Marine Science Symposium (AMSS), in which 17 ENRI researchers participated.  The AMSS, held Jan. 16-20 at Anchorage's Hotel Captain Cook and Dena'ina Center, is an annual gathering of scientists, students and government agencies involved in marine research in Alaska waters. ENRI scientists presented research findings on topics ranging from the impact of floating plastic debris on the marine environment to the relationship between deglaciation and the marine foodweb in the Gulf of Alaska.

ENRI research topics featured at the 2012 AMSS included the following:

• The relationship of marine plastic debris to Persistent Organic Pollutants in the marine ecosystem
• Comparative isotopic studies as a method of studying the foodweb ecology of Low-Arctic (Aleutian) and High-Arctic (Greenland) seabirds
• Combining local knowledge and western scienctific techniques to study  freshwater seal populations in Lake Iliamna
• Distribution and ecology of zooplankton and juvenile pelagic fishes in the Copper River plume (Gulf of Alaska)
• Isotopic  characteristics of Beaufort Sea polar bear tissues and diet: Food web ecology of a top predator
• Agent-based modeling of mammal-eating killer whales and their prey

Read the abstracts (PDF) here.