Geological Survey

Description

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Alaska Science Center (ASC) is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research to support an investigation of polar bear maternal denning. The southern Beaufort Sea subpopulation of polar bears has experienced sea ice loss leading to an increasing trend of polar bears denning on land, which may make them vulnerable to disturbance from anthropogenic activities. Disturbance of denning bears may cause abandonment or early emergence, which have the potential to adversely affect cub survival and population vital rates. The goal of this project is to characterize sound and vibration frequencies from anthropogenic activities that are detectable in polar bear maternal dens and use the resulting data to model the risk of disturbance to denning bears. Will make available 30+ years of data on polar bear denning locations and behavior to facilitate this work. We envision a study of the risk of disturbance of denning polar bears from a variety of anthropogenic activities.

Who can apply

• Others

Contact

Faith Graves 703-648-7356<br/>fgraves@usgs.gov
fgraves@usgs.gov