Links
Mission 2007
MIT Homepage
Team Webpage
Team 6 Members
Chi Chiang
Adina Fischer
Stephanie Lee
Zachary Watts
Contact info:
slee1@mit.edu
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September 12, 2003
Team
6 Goals
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Gain an comprehensive understanding
of the migratory patterns of species in the land, water and aire in
the 1002 area
Find if this area is critical to any species
(e.g., it serves as a breeding ground)
Focus on a key species that will be the most
impacted by oil drilling, or a species that will impact humans the
most if lost
Collaborate with team 7 to examine interactions
between migratory and non-migratory species
Collaborate with team 5 to examine interaction
of migratory species with the ecosystem
Give team 2 and 3 recommendations of times during
the year that would be most damaging to species
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September 22, 2003
Preliminary Research on bird species in ANWAR
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There are over 180 bird species
that migrate to the ANWR region. However, only a fraction of this
number actually migrate to the north slope and even fewer use it as a
breeding ground. The land is used for breeding grounds, stopovers,
molting ground and feeding grounds
major bird species that use the north slope as a breeding ground:
- lapland longspur
- long-tailed duck
- yellow-billed loon
Breeding months: late May to early September
pictures from: www.anwr.org/backgrnd/birds.htm
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October 10, 2003
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Currently, I am reading
"Wildlife resources and vulnerabilities summarized for 1002 area of ANWR" found in Oil & Gas Journal, published Apr 28, 2003
this article describes the region of 1002, and goes in depth about several
major species. I am interested in the research done on snow geese in
the area.
- there are about 500,000 snow geese that migrate to the area
of 1002 in the summer months
- they stop for 2-4 weeks before continuing on a 1300 mile journey
to northern Alberta
- they are easily disturbed by noise-producing activities, which
could present a major problem for oil drilling
- repeated disruptions cause the birds to not return to the
same area, which can significantly reduce the amount of food available to
them. this affects their survival rate since their flight to their
next stop is so intensive and they need to store up on energy.
- one proposed solution would be restricting hours of production
so as to minimize noise during the times at which the geese are feeding
image taken from www.saskschools.ca/~gregory/ arctic/Abirds.html
Another article, "Artic Refuge Coastal Plain Terrestrial Wildlife Research
Summaries" also investigates snow geese. This article can be found at
http://www.absc.usgs.gov/1002/section9.htm.
- they migrate to 1002 late August and stay until mid-September
- it includes a map of the density distribution of snow geese
which will be helpful in determining where drilling would take place so as
to do the least amount of damage
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October 20, 2003
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I have recently been reading a study on marine birds
and waterfowl in the north slope area. it can be found at http://www.absc.usgs.gov/research/seaducks/documents/Monitoring_Beaufort_Sea_Waterfowl_and_Marine_Birds.pdf
summary
- there has been a decline in the number of sea ducks and other
marine birds in the area, which raises concern about the impact oil drilling
will have on them, especially if there is a spill
- sea ducks are especially vunerable during their stay on the north
slope because the time they spend there is for molting. This leaves
them unable to fly for 3-4 weeks
- molting also requires a large amount of protein to regrow feathers.
Oil drilling could potentially disrupt the ducks' foraging capabilities,
depriving them of much needed nutrients
- however, the study showed that the ducks' foraging patterns are
not significantly altered by minor disturbances, which perhaps suggests that
oil drilling will not have a large impact on them
- another study they performed showed that seismic activity does
disturb ducks. Their results show a decline in population in a certain
area where seismic activity starts, although underwater seismic activity
had no effect on them
- common eiders were also studied because they nest and breed almost
exclusively on the north slope.
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