steph lee's website

Steph Lee's Website
Group 6- The Ecology of Migratory Species Found at ANWR

Links Mission 2007 MIT Homepage Team Webpage Team 6 Members Chi Chiang Adina Fischer Stephanie Lee Zachary Watts Contact info: slee1@mit.edu	September 12, 2003 Team 6 Goals	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
	September 22, 2003 Preliminary Research on bird species in ANWAR	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: pectoral sandpiper semipalmated sandpiper lapland longspur long-tailed duck yellow-billed loon Breeding months: late May to early September pictures from: www.anwr.org/backgrnd/birds.htm
	October 10, 2003	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
	October 20, 2003	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.

last updated: 10-10-03