Students get new view on science — Class takes pictures of Earth with International Space Station camera

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Middle School’s seventh-grade trip photos are a world apart.

There are no snapshots of friends mugging for the camera, no remembrances of funny signs or interesting roadside curiosities, no photographic evidence of practical jokes done while the victim was sleeping.

That’s because the students weren’t the ones doing the traveling. But they were in charge of the camera, and they used their shutterbug and science skills to capture images not seen in any typical vacation slide show — pictures of Earth from space.

The KMS seventh-grade science class participated in ISS EarthKAM, a NASA-sponsored program that allows students to take high-quality photographs from the International Space Station as it orbits the planet.

The program has been going since 1996, and science teacher Allan Miller had students participate in it when he taught at Sterling Elementary School. When he started teaching at Kenai Middle this year, he found that co-teacher Cheryl Schey had done the program at Kenai Middle previously, so they decided to expand it to all seventh-graders as part of science class.

“This is a cool project. It has so many applications. It can be a social studies project, geography, a science project. Now there’s enough data over 10 years you can see some of the effects of climate change. You can see it with real student-generated data. I think that’s fascinating,” Miller said.

With EarthKAM, classes can reserve use of a special digital camera pointed at Earth on the International Space Station for three days at a time. They program it to take pictures at certain exact times — down to the second. Students figure out the longitude and latitude of what they want photographed, and figure when the space station’s camera will be in range by tracking the station’s orbital trajectory, altitude and speed.

“We had these little time zone things where you could see where the space station was going over at certain times and you had to find what you wanted to do, and it had to be pretty precise on where it was,” said Courtney McCauley, a seventh-grader. “And then you just put in the latitude and longitude and all that and where you wanted to take pictures of.”

Miller had the students take pictures of biomes across the planet. McCauley picked a part of the globe she’d like to see for herself one day.

“I like Sydney, Australia, and I want to go there, so I decided to take a picture of Australia. I took a couple pictures, this just happened to be the best of them,” she said.

The area she photographed is the West Coast of Australia, near Port Headland. It’s a section of coastline where copper-colored sand meets the deep blue of the ocean.

“The iron-rich sand and blue of the ocean really contrast each other nicely and there’s some beach in there. It makes some really unique designs. Some you would look at and you would swear it was art. It doesn’t even look like a picture,” Miller said.

“I didn’t know how it was going to turn out. I didn’t know it would turn out in that much detail, but I think it turned out really well. Other ones were good, but I think mine just had like the border and all that, and the water in it,” McCauley said.

It’s a difficult task to capture exactly what you want, Miller said. The altitude of the space station, the speed it’s moving at and a lag time in technology creates about a three-mile margin of error that needs to be compensated for.

“It comes down to luck of the draw, in that you don’t have total accuracy. You think you’re shooting a picture of a coastline and it turns out a nice shot of ocean,’ Miller said.

Student pictures are archived in a massive database, and can be viewed online at www.earthkam.ucsd.edu, by clicking on the Images tab and browsing by school.

“I think just being able to take a picture of anything you wanted and see the picture back and see what it looks like in real life. You may think it looks like something but when you get the picture back it may look like something else. It’s a different point of view than what you see it from,” McCauley said.

Not only did the project contribute to the students’ knowledge of geography, orbital mechanics and other topics, their photos contribute to an archived body of science.

“There are some incredible shots in there. I think students take a real sense of pride because, ‘This is my picture. I took this from space.’ It’s probably the closest thing any one of us will get to being there, that’s for sure,” Miller said.

Except in Miller’s case, that may not be true. He’s still awaiting word of whether he’ll be selected into NASA’s astronaut program. He applied with 4,000 other hopefuls in July, and made the cut down to 120 selected for the interview stage. He went to the Johnson Space Center in Houston in December for a round of interviews and rigorous physical, psychological and intelligence testing.

From that he was selected as one of 40 finalists, and just spent another week in Houston undergoing more medical testing. He’s the only educator left in the running, in a pool with mostly military pilots and doctoral-level scientists, he said.
“It’s just a bit intimidating, for sure,” he said.

Miller will hear in May whether he’s one of the 10 to 15 selected for the astronaut program. If he is, he’ll have to report to Pensacola, Fla., in early June to start learning how to fly jets.

“It’s not going to be a gradual little transition, it’ll be wrapping up school, then taking off,” he said. “We’ll see. I feel real good about how it went. They didn’t find any big medical problems, which is what they were looking for this time.

“It’s going to make for a long couple months waiting, for sure.”

The wait is broken up by some excitement this month, as Miller is spending the week in New Orleans at the National Science Teachers Association National Conference on Science Education, where he will be the first ever recipient of the Dr. Wendell G. Mohling Outstanding Aerospace Educator Award, co-sponsored by the Challenger Center for Science Education and Sally Ride Science.

The award recognizes a teacher who demonstrates excellence locally and nationally in the field of aerospace education. A committee of teachers, professors and scientists selected Miller from a pool of nominees across the United States. He gets $3,000, a free trip to the NSTA conference, and the award will be presented by astronaut Sally Ride at the awards banquet Sunday.

“It’s just so humbling. It’s the first time they’ve presented this award nationally, just for teachers specializing in space and aerospace science. I enjoy what I do, but I don’t think of myself as national class,” Miller said. “And so it’s really humbling to go down there and kind of be representative of all teachers.”

Miller said it will be a thrill meeting Ride, since she’s one of his heroes.

“Talk about someone laying the groundwork for ladies in space and ladies in science, and she continues to be a nationwide leader in science education,” he said.

He’ll be decked out for the honor thanks to support from back home. He went to Malston’s in Kenai to rent a tuxedo for the event, and when owner Ron Malston found out what it was for, he donated the rental.

“It’s neat to see other people getting excited about it, too,” Miller said. “There’s thousands of teachers in this district working hard every day, and there just isn’t enough recognition for teachers out there. A lot of times the recognition doesn’t come for years. To have it right when I’m in class is pretty exciting.”

Science of the seasons: Stream debris can be good for fish, insects

The first raft or boat trip on the Kenai River each spring is a new adventure because the river will have changed significantly since the last trip in the fall. There will be new channels and unknown shallows that have to be noted in order to avoid costly repairs to the boat bottom or prop. Along with the substrate changes are the arrival or removal of large logs and, sometimes, entire trees. Sections of a river with significant numbers of logs and stumps are usually given a wide berth by boaters.

Logs and stumps are transients in the river until a large flood or ice jam washes them downstream. Eventually they will end up in the inlet and can create their own hazard out there. While in the river, however, the logs can have a significant impact on surrounding substrates and can become a temporary microcosm of riverine organisms, especially fish.

Most floating trees and logs are the result of normal bank erosion as the river meanders within its flood plain. “Sweepers” are frequently seen on the outside of river bends as the tree-supporting substrate is slowly washed away and trees bend over the river. As more and more of their support washes away, they dangerously skim the river surface until being completely uprooted. Once floating free, the strong current carries them downstream to the first shallow section. The limbs and branches are lighter and have more surface area than the stump and trunk end. Because of this, the heavier stump end tends to get dragged, begrudgingly, downstream.

Once a log or tree becomes “grounded” in the river, it starts changing the river substrates nearby. Water washing up against the unmoving trunk or stump will create a deeper hole below or to the side. Other areas along the log will slow the current so that sand, gravel and cobbles will be deposited there. By deflecting parts of the current, new channels will be created around the log. Some of the substrate and channel changes will in turn cause the log to be washed farther downstream. The process begins again as soon as the tree stops.

Once one log gets solidly lodged in the current, others seem to be attracted. In a fairly short period of time, with the arrival of new trees, large logjams can develop. As the numbers of logs build, so does the impact on the original water-flow pattern. Logjams can cause water to be diverted far from the original course and new side channels can be formed. These side channels create a variety of new pathways for the water to flow downstream.

Streams with numerous side channels are much more difficult to navigate with a motorboat than those with a clearly defined channel. However, rivers with more logjams, as well as an increased number of side channels, seem to have much fewer flash floods compared with rivers that have had logjams removed. By diverting water into numerous areas of the flood plain, the water moves downstream more slowly and is less able to erode away constraining lateral banks.

Various aquatic insects will use trees and stumps for an in-stream residence. Since many insects feed on fine, drifting organic particles found in the water , a spot on a tree limb with water drifting past is the best seat in the house. Some, like hydrospychid caddisfies, build filtering nets on these wooden substrates. Others, like black fly larvae, attach their abdomen to the limbs and filter out fine particles with special antennal fans. Because algae and diatoms will grow on the submerged wooden substrates, algal grazers will also be attracted to the logjam. In streams with soft, muddy bottoms, logjams and submerged trees can be some of the only available insect attachment sites.

For fish, and the astute fisherman, logs and stumps along a river are attractive areas. Because of the deeper channels around the logs, fish can find passageways if they are moving upstream. There are usually sections underneath the logjam where the current is slower than the surrounding stream and these areas are used as a fish refuge. Other fish will remain in the deeper sections underneath the log and wait for drifting or dislodged insects to wash right to them. Light shadows created by the tree or its limbs will also camouflage fish from potential predators. It’s kind of like an all-you-can-eat buffet for the fish in a sheltered restaurant.

Like virtually every other part of a stream or river, there are constant changes in the submerged trees and logs, as well as the rocky substrates around them. While these dynamic habitats can be dangerous for boaters, they can be a blessing for aquatic insects, fish and fishermen.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. He is writing a series of columns on the ecology of the Kenai River watershed.

Bugging out: Mayflies will soon spring into action

March may seem a little early in the spring to talk about mayflies, but they are currently active on the bottom of virtually all of our streams, rivers and lakes.

Resident trout and whitefish here in Alaska use the many species of mayflies for food all year long. Because of this, mayflies are well-known to fly-fishermen, since they are the model for a large number of dry and nymph fly patterns.

It is also well-known that nymph patterns attract fish more frequently than dry flies. This is easily understandable since most mayfly species spend almost the entire year underwater in a nymphal form, and only a day or two as an aerial insect. The mayfly order name, Ephemeroptera, comes from the Greek “ephemeros,” which is a referral to the short-lived adult stage. While many mayflies can survive a couple days as an adult, some members of the group have adult stages lasting less than two hours. During that short aerial life stage, they have to molt once, find a mate, migrate to a water body and lay eggs. Talk about having a lot to do in a short time.

Most mayfly nymphs, or naiads, feed on fine particulate detritus or algae in the water. Some filter the tiny food particles out of the water column with hairs on their legs while others scrape the surface of rocks and gravel. Some species have brushlike mouth parts to scrub algae and detritus from almost any submerged substrate. The grazing of mayflies has been shown to significantly reduce and actually control the algal cover on submerged rocks.

With a very short time to find a mate and reproduce, most mayfly species choreograph their emergence so everyone emerges together. When the proper light and temperatures cues occur, the entire population can emerge in a matter of a few days.

My father used to tell of using snow shovels in the 1930s to clear walks and roads in July after the Hexagenia mayflies emerged en masse from the Mississippi River near La Crosse, Wis. Several years ago there was such a large emergence of these same mayflies from Lake Erie that the swarm was picked up on radar and were thought to be unidentified airplanes in the area.

Once the females have mated, they head to a stream, river or lake and fly just above the water surface to drop small packets of eggs. The flying female will often fly up and down over the water, each time touching her abdomen to the water surface and releasing a few more eggs. This behavior will go on until all her eggs, 500 to 3,000, are released. Incidentally, this is when trout rise and start taking insects off the surface of the water or start jumping out of the water after aerial insects. Because the female mayfly is carrying masses of energy-rich eggs, it is a sought-after meal by many fish species.

Mayfly eggs immediately start to absorb water once they are deposited. They become sticky and end up bound to rocks, leaves, twigs or vegetation. Depending on the species, they may hatch right away or possibly remain in diapauses for several months.

Depending on the species and the temperature regimes, some species can produce several generations a year. In colder climates like here in Alaska, most mayflies have only one generation per year. Sometimes, in cold years or very old habitats, it may take two years to complete one generation.

In the fast-moving current of streams, mayflies use a couple strategies to keep from being washed downstream.

Since currents are much reduced right up against a rock, one approach is to have their thorax, head and legs flattened so they can remain very close to the substrate. Others have modified thoracic gills that act like a giant suction cup, which then holds them against the solid substrate. Yet another group of mayflies use a disk of fine hairs on their abdomen that can also act like a suction cup to hold the insect in place in spite of the current. Incidentally, there are several species using this approach in the Kenai River.

Another survival approach for these aquatic insects is being streamlined or torpedo-shaped.

This shape allows fast-moving water to pass by the mayflies without washing them downstream. By wriggling their abdomen they can swim much like a fish and move about in fast-moving water. This same technique enables mayflies in lakes to quickly move to hiding places and escape predators.

Mayflies are one of the most common aquatic insect orders, and they are found in fresh water all over the world. Apparently their many adaptations for survival in different habitats have enabled them to survive for millions of years. They are among the oldest of the insects and date back to the Carboniferous period.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. He is writing a series of columns on the ecology of the Kenai River watershed.

Science of the seasons: Textbook case of collaboration

Did you ever wonder what it takes to write a book on topics like the “Birds of Alaska” or the “Insects of South-Central Alaska?” Is it possible for one person to have visited every part of Alaska? And have they been able to find every bug or bird that is found there?

Sometimes one person actually can put together a book about something they have studied extensively for a long period of time. In virtually every case, the author has done extensive field observations and some of these are from a lifetime of collections and investigations. As an example, Dominique Collet, who has recently written the above-mentioned insect book, has an extensive personal collection of insects from many parts of Alaska.

However, most authors look beyond their own experiences and collections. There are a variety of species lists that can be examined, as well as historical records to be perused. As an example, the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge is currently compiling a list of all the species of organisms that have been identified from the refuge.

In some cases these records can be very old. For instance, there are extensive ship’s logs and records of the animals that were seen or collected by G.W. Steller during Vitus Bering’s voyages from Russia to Alaska in the 1700s. It was fairly common for early exploring ships to take a naturalist on voyages to record the biota that were encountered. Charles Darwin was such a naturalist on the famous voyage of the Beagle.

Museums throughout the world are repositories for ship’s logs and many extensive biological collections. If well-preserved, well-cared-for and properly documented, these collections can be used by researchers and specialists for a great many years. Darwin’s many biological collections from the early 1800s can still be examined in the British Museum. Most authors will spend considerable time examining the collections held in various museums.

Many authors will be well-versed in the specific biota of an area but will join with others who have collected specimens from additional areas. Professors Ken Stewart, of Texas, and Mark Oswood, formerly with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, have written a book on “The Stoneflies (Plecoptera) of Alaska and Western Canada.” Together they compiled a vast collection of stoneflies. They have both visited many parts of Alaska, collecting stoneflies wherever they went.

In addition, there are many other colleagues in Canada and the U.S. who have shared their Alaska collections with them. In the book, they describe all the specimens they have examined, list the hundreds of biologists who have collected them and list where the insects were found. I have personally been sending them stonefly specimens from Alaska for almost 30 years.

Because many book topics are so large, it is common for several authors to join together to create a book on a particular group of organisms. This is common when there are vast numbers of different subcategories within the overall group. The most authoritative book on identifying aquatic insects is “An Introduction to the Aquatic Insects of North America.”

It was put together by three specialists — Rich Merritt, Ken Cummins and Marty Berg. Instead of being listed as authors, they are described as “editors.” While each wrote a section of this 1,214-page book, they have invited a variety of other international experts to write a section (with identification keys) about a specific order or family of aquatic insects. The number of insect groups covered in this book is so large that it is almost impossible for any one author to know them all. In this case, it has taken a large team to put together one book.

One of the hallmarks of taxonomists — specialists who identify and name newly discovered species — is a willingness to work with others on identifying unusual, unknown or new specimens. There is a constant sharing of specimens between specialists as they collaborate to understand the scope of any particular group of organisms.

As a new graduate student many years ago, I found the aquatic insect taxonomists and the authors of many of the well-known identification books were some of the most gregarious, engaging and helpful scientists I met.

A highlight of attending international meetings on aquatic ecology is seeing the cooperative and collegial work among so many taxonomists, as they try to understand the great variety of life that surrounds us.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. He is writing a series of columns on the biology of the Kenai River watershed.

Shooting for the stars — Kenai teacher in the running to become NASA astronaut

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Like many kids growing up in the Apollo era, Allan Miller wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up. Somewhere along the line of adolescence, college, adulthood, kids and careers, most give up that dream and make peace with being earthbound.

Not Miller. At 45, he’s getting another chance at outer space.

“I’ve always been fascinated by space,” Miller said. “My earliest memory is sitting on my dad’s lap, watching Neil Armstrong land and walk on the moon.”

The Kenai Middle School science teacher spent last week in Houston at the Johnson Space Center undergoing interviews and rigorous physical, psychological and intelligence testing to determine if he’ll be picked for NASA’s astronaut program. He and 4,000 other hopefuls applied for the program in July, and Miller made the cut down to the 120 selected for the interview stage. They’re being brought to Houston in batches of 20.

“I didn’t even think they’d give me a second look when I applied. I was very surprised when they gave me a call,” Miller said. “I lost 28 pounds because I don’t want to present myself as an overweight 45-year-old. I’m doing my best youthful impression. Anything to hide the wrinkles.”

Of the 450 astronauts in history, three were 45 or older, Miller said. But even so, he’s got some marks in his favor. For one thing, he’s already been through the selection process. He applied during the last round of applications in 2003 and also made it to the physical examination stage before NASA disqualified him because testing showed abnormalities with his eyes.

Tests since then show the abnormality was benign, and he was invited to apply again.

“Anytime NASA sees something they don’t understand medically, you’re out of the game entirely. It turns out I was just born with big optical nerves, bigger than most. They decided I just have weird eyeballs,” he said.

Being a military pilot is no longer the most direct route to becoming an astronaut, which is good for Miller because his early aspirations of joining the Air Force were squashed by his poor, 20/100 vision. Nowadays, NASA considers doctors, scientists, engineers and even teachers who can inspire the next generation of astronauts.

“When I walked into it five years ago, the most shocking part of it was to meet the other 19 people down there. I was just so humbled and feeling inadequate,” Miller said of the cancer researcher, Navy test pilot, people with multiple doctorate degrees and scientists in obscure fields of study who were in his interview group.

“You almost needed a translator when you asked, ‘What do you do?’ I spend my day hanging with seventh-graders. I just look at myself and go, ‘Why am I here?’ But they know who they’ve invited, and for whatever reason, I’m worth the recall.”

Miller speaks Russian, after teaching English in the Soviet Union from 1987 to 1988, teaching Russian at Skyview High School for six years, and being a translator for the Russian biathlon team in the 2002 Winter Olympics (he’s also been a cross-country ski and biathlon coach) and for an exchange program between Alaska and Magadan, Russia. That skill would be useful on the International Space Station working with its Russian inhabitants.

And he’s got a science background. Miller worked with the National Science Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., and participated in a research trip to Antarctica two years ago.

Since his last go-around with NASA in 2003, Miller has been actively involved with bringing outer space down to Earth in the classroom. When he taught at Sterling Elementary, prior to his sabbatical with the National Science Foundation, he established it as a NASA Explorer School, which opened up a host of projects in which students could participate. At Kenai Middle, where he teaches now, he just finished a project where students linked with the International Space Station and took pictures of Earth.

“The neat thing about NASA is they really have the corner on the market of inspiration,” Miller said. “What’s more inspiring than rockets?”

Science comes to life when it’s not just from a textbook, he said. Instead of reading about cells and cytoplasm on a page, he has students do a project simulating NASA’s Phoenix Mission, which put a lander on Mars to look for signs of life. So many of the advancements the space program has made seemed like science fiction 15 years ago, so it’s exciting to learn about new technologies and discoveries as they’re happening, Miller said.

“I just want kids to come away with an awe and wonder of science,” he said.

That’s a large part of Miller’s motivation for pursuing the astronaut program — he’s learning a lot that he can take back to the classroom.

“My passion is kids and education. For me, it’s just another part of being a good teacher,” he said.

NASA will continue its interview and testing process through the end of January and select 40 to 50 candidates to move on to the next round. From those, 10 to 15 will be picked for the astronaut program, Miller said.

The mission they’d be involved in includes spending three to six months on the International Space Station doing human physiological research to find out how to combat problems astronauts face when spending long periods of time in space, like bone and muscle loss from being in zero G, radiation exposure, immune system issues, and discovering ways to recycle water and grow food in space. Solving those issues would help make a manned mission to Mars possible.

If Miller is selected, he and his family — wife, Joan, and kids Xander, 9, Mackenzie, 7, and Sasha, 3 — would move to Houston. He’d spend four to five years training before flying a mission to space sometime in 2013 or 2014. Joan has been wonderfully supportive of him pursuing his dream, Miller said, and their kids are getting used to the idea.

“The big worry at this point is how much hockey is there in Texas. That’s the crisis decision,” Miller said. “They’re excited about it, but at the same time, it’s change. … The thought of Dad sitting on top of 7 million pounds of thrust is scary, and that comes with great risk.”

Miller said he wants to show his kids that some risks are worth taking if it means following your dreams.

“I think it’s a good life lesson. Sometimes life opens opportunities for you and you walk through the door,” he said.

He’s also prepared to show them how to make the best of things when they don’t work out as planned.

“This is so far from selected. It’s just a very, very remote chance,” he said. “It’s an honor to get to this level, especially to be there a second time. It could turn out to be nothing more than a wonderful pat on the back from NASA, and thank you for the time and some sunshine in December.

“If it doesn’t happen, sure, I’ll be disappointed, but so many things have happened in pursuit of those goals that wouldn’t have happened otherwise.”

Imagination blasts off — Special guests spark interest in science

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Kenai Middle School students had some auspicious guests in class Friday, all the way from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, including their own teacher.

“I see you, Mr. Miller!” a few voices piped up as the videoconference link was established, letting the students see their science teacher, Allan Miller, and Miller see the 50 students in his classroom.

Miller was in Texas last week undergoing interviews and testing for NASA’s astronaut program. He’s one of 120 from a field of 4,000 applicants still under consideration in the nearly yearlong application cycle. NASA is in the process of winnowing that batch down to 40 or 50 by bringing them to Houston in groups of 20 for interviews. By spring, 10 to 15 will be picked to be the next astronauts.

Miller rounded up some of his fellow applicants and others he met at the Johnson Space Center to talk to his students back in Alaska. They each told a little about their backgrounds, if they were applicants, or their jobs for NASA if they worked there. Then the students got to ask questions. True to middle school form, the students had a few curveballs for their guests.

“Would people say you’re cool?” was a question for an astronaut in training, who will fly a mission to the International Space Station in February.

The answer came with a laugh: “I have a 13-year-old back home who would probably say, ‘No way.’”

Students also wanted to know how long training takes before going to space (2.5 to three years), how big the International Space Station is (each of the seven or eight modules is the size of a school bus) and how astronauts train to do spacewalks (practice in a swimming pool).

A professor from Stanford University talked about his research trips around the world and the different opportunities students have for research and study with NASA, including a recent test of worms and bacteria from toilets sent into space.

He’s taught at the college and elementary school level, and said younger students are his favorite to talk to, “Because you guys actually pay attention.”

“Do you mean that, or are you just saying that to make us feel better?” a student wanted to know.

Two Navy jet pilots were a big hit with the students and got several questions about the kinds of jets they fly, how they got to be pilots and if they like flying jets.

“Absolutely. It definitely beats working for a living,” one of them said.

Another candidate talked about his job building satellites and his history playing football at Purdue University, a medical doctor told students he wished he had a teacher like Mr. Miller when he was their age, and a scientist with a doctorate degree told them how much he enjoyed going to school:

“How would you feel if, by the time you graduated from high school, you were only halfway done with school?”

Miller did a slide show of photos from Mission Control and other areas of the space center, and some shots of the tests he underwent, including one of him in shorts undergoing body measurements.

“Sorry about that. You really didn’t want to see that image, did you?” he said.
The final speaker was a mechanical engineer specializing in robotics that Miller had met when he applied for the astronaut program five years ago.

He showed students how far robotic hands have come over the years and showed some robots developed for space missions. The robots included “Robonaut,” a humanoid figure; a flying camera reminiscent of a training device Luke Skywalker fought in the original “Star Wars” movie; and “Spidernaut,” with eight legs to distribute its weight so it could walk on delicate surfaces.

His current project is designing wheels for rovers being developed for missions on the moon and Mars.

“What is the first robot you ever built?” a student asked.

“If you count Legos, then Legos,” he answered. After that, it was a version of Robonaut.

After a half hour, it was time for students to participate in a school fire drill, and Miller to get back to attempting to become an astronaut. But that doesn’t mean he stopped being a teacher.

He signed off with a yes or no question that would determine whether he assigned homework over Christmas break:

“Who wants to be a scientist or engineer when they get older?”

No glow — Low point in sunspot cycle means little chance of Northern Lights

By Jenny Neyman
Redoubt Reporter

Clear night skies are a trade-off in Alaska. They make for frigidly cold temperatures, but they also make it possible to see one of the most colorful perks to living in the North — the aurora borealis.

Except this year. When it’s clear, it’s just cold, with little chance of getting a light show.

Aurora displays are caused by sunspots — magnetic storms on the sun. Sunspots produce particles — mostly electrons and protons — called solar wind, that shoot out toward Earth. When solar wind particles collide with Earth’s magnetosphere, it can cause light emissions as the particles slam into the atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere.

Sunspot activity runs on an 11-year cycle, with some years being active, and some not so much. This would be a not-so-much year.

Andy Veh, professor of astronomy and physics at Kenai Peninsula College Kenai River Campus, said the sunspot cycle was at its maximum activity level in 2000 and 2001, and will be most active again in 2010 and 2011. But 2006 through 2008 is the low point in the cycle.

“Right now it’s, well, if you get a clear night, which are few and far between, and then you look, if it’s not there, it’s not there. If you have good luck, then it’s there. I have to admit I didn’t see any last year. This year, maybe one, I’m not sure. If they don’t move a lot, it’s tough to distinguish them from high clouds,” Veh said.

But just because the northern lights are a no-show this winter, doesn’t mean people should ignore the night sky. There are plenty of other reasons to look up.

“Instead of looking at the aurora, I noticed that Venus is out,” Veh said. “I was surprised when I saw it. I thought it was too far below the horizon in Alaska, but it’s really nice. It’s really bright when you’re driving at night to the south.”

When clear skies do happen at night, Veh recommends taking advantage of them.
“Astronomy is really hard in Alaska. It has to be really cold in order to get clear skies. So every other week we get a couple of nice nights,” he said. “The winter sky is nice because when they’re out, the brightest stars are in the winter.”

Orion, Taurus and Gemini are plenty bright and visible to the naked eye. Saturn can also be seen this time of year, rising after midnight in the east.

The Geminids meteor shower was covered by clouds last week, but the Quadrantids meteor shower may be visible to early risers on Jan. 4. Watch the sky around 6 a.m. for streaks of lights.

A good viewing spot away from man-made lights makes it easier to appreciate nature’s night lights. Veh said traveling on the Sterling Highway toward the mountains offers some dark pullouts that are good for stargazing. In town, Bridge Access Road is a decent spot, although passing traffic can interfere.

“The Kenai beach, as far as accessibility is concerned, the beach is good because you have a free view to the west and south, which you don’t have anywhere else,” he said.

Just don’t forget your mittens, since clear nights this time of year usually mean temperatures at or below zero.

Winter solstice: 5 hours, 41 minutes and counting

According to Wikipedia, “The winter solstice occurs at the instant when the sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer.”

That may be the most precise and necessary definition. In slightly more plain English, one can also say that the winter solstice occurs when the Earth’s axis in the northern hemisphere is tilted the farthest away from the sun, which also means that the sun appears the closest on the southern horizon at noon, which produces the shortest daytime and longest night of the year.

Since the Earth takes 365 and one-fourth days to orbit the sun, the true time of winter solstice shifts by six hours each year. And since time zones are generally spread from Hawaii and to Japan, the winter solstice can occur on the calendar between Dec. 20 and 23.

However, I checked tables, and in Alaska the winter solstice always seems to be Dec. 21, with five hours, 41 minutes, of daytime for Soldotna and Kenai.

It’s interesting to note that the earliest sunset and latest sunrise do not happen on the same date as the winter solstice.

In Alaska this winter, the earliest sunset occurs Dec. 17 at 3:53 p.m. for the central Kenai Peninsula, while the latest sunrise will be Dec. 27 at 10:12 a.m. for the central Kenai Peninsula.

This has to do with the tilt of the Earth’s axis and the Earth’s elliptical orbit. Although the rotation of the Earth is constant at 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09 seconds, the length of a day changes due to these two factors.

While the tilt of the Earth’s axis is constant in space – 23.5 degrees from the perpendicular of its orbit – it changes with respect to the sun during our orbit. We notice both throughout the year because stars at night always reach the same highest or lowest point in the sky above the southern and northern, respectively, horizons. That’s why the North Star Polaris is always in the same spot. In contrast, the sun appears very high in the summer and very low in the winter.

Because of that change in axial tilt with respect to the sun, the length of day is changing as well throughout the year. For those wanting a more lengthy explanation, check out http://www.larry.denenberg.com/earliest-sunset.html.
The second part is that, due to the Earth’s orbit being slightly elliptical, Earth is sometimes a little farther and sometimes a little closer to the sun. Therefore, the gravitational force between Earth and the sun changes a bit, which changes Earth’s speed in its orbit a little. We are fastest at 67,700 mph when we are closest to the sun around Jan. 3, and slowest at 65,500 mph when we are farthest from the sun around July 4.

Earth orbiting adds almost four minutes to its rotation, which makes for a day being an average of 24 hours long. But due to Earth orbiting faster or slower at times, and due to its axis tilt changing with respect to the sun, a day may be up to 29 seconds longer or shorter. That adds up throughout the year and, in turn, changes the exact time of local noon throughout the year. Since sunrise and sunset times are symmetrical before and after noon, that adds a slight variation.

Hence, the earliest sunset and the latest sunrise happen on different dates from the winter solstice.


Andy Veh is an astronomy and physics professor at Kenai Peninsula College Kenai River Campus.

Clear for landing — Flight ends a little too smoothly for pilot’s liking

Takeoffs and landings in a small plane can sometimes be a challenge in the wintertime, especially when there is snow covering the runway. With a little practice, I have found that my softest landings are ones on a runway with 3 to 6 inches of fresh snow covering the pavement. If I do it just right, I won’t know that I’m on the ground until the plane starts to slow down below flying speed.

A couple fellow pilots invited me to join them for a picnic at Snag Lake last fall. They assured me the ice was plenty thick, and if I could take off and land at Soldotna’s airport, I could land and take off from Snag Lake. I followed them north and was No. 3 landing on the lake. They were absolutely correct. Landings and takeoffs from the lake were like landing on a mile-long, snow-covered runway. I can do this! We had a great picnic, too.

The next weekend I gathered my ice fishing gear, loaded the plane and headed for Snag Lake to see if there really were any rainbows under the ice. During the week, the gale level winds had blown virtually all of the snow off the lake. The temperatures had been below zero all week, so I knew the ice was still solid enough to support the plane and its occupant again. As I lined up to land on the superwide runway, something was very different.

Approaching a touchdown, my brain told me I was about to take a bath. I could see aquatic vegetation and the lake floor flashing past under the wing. I was about to settle into this aqueous mass and take a very cold dunking. How can this be?

I then realized that the plane was slowing and I was already in contact with the glassy smooth and crystal clear surface of the lake. I had somehow landed on the water but hadn’t sunk yet. As I taxied to the place where I wanted to fish, the water was so clear that I could see submerged stumps and unknown dark things passing by underneath. I awaited the sinking of the plane into the water. When would it start? I finally taxied up on a small patch of remaining snow, somehow figuring that if I couldn’t see to the bottom of the lake, I would be safer. Is that silly or what?

Stepping out of the plane, I found myself a little apprehensive of stepping off the snow patch for fear of sinking into the crystal-clear water, only to find it was crystal-clear ice. Could something that clear hold my ample girth? I wasn’t sure. It was spooky, to say the least.

I drilled a hole in the ice and it was 18 inches thick — plenty thick! As I waited for the fish to visit my tantalizing menu, I kept feeling like I was floating on the water surface, awaiting the gentle waves. The fish were big and hungry, but I’ll save the fish story for another time.

Departing Snag Lake gave me the exact same apprehensions as landing. I kept thinking about what it would feel like when I sank into the water I could see through so clearly.

Once I was airborne again, I kept telling myself that there was no reason to worry about landing on the glassy smooth ice and that I would return for another ice fishing trip. I did return several times, but each time my brain told me I was going for a midwinter swim.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus and a pilot.

Cold feet don’t foul up ducks — Waterfowl have several strategies for keeping tootsies toasty during icy months

Throughout winter, many Alaskans participate in various outdoor activities like skiing, skating, snowshoeing, ice fishing and snowmachining. A common problem for all participants is keeping their feet warm. There are a variety of possible solutions for cold feet: waterproof and breathable boots, extra socks, highly insulated boots and even heat-generating chemical or electric warmers.

But what about the waterfowl that remain along the rivers and streams all winter? Do they make Bunny Boots for ducks?

There are several species of ducks, mergansers and even swans that frequent the Kenai River watershed all winter long. They can usually be found in or near open water sections because that is where they can feed and it provides them protection from terrestrial predators like fox, coyotes, wolves and lynx. Nonswimming ducks can be found standing or lying on ice for long periods of time and they do not freeze. What’s their secret?

Waterfowl actually allow their feet to get very cold, keeping them just above freezing temperatures. Since their feet contain mostly bones and tendons surrounded by thick skin, there isn’t a critical need for the feet to stay any warmer. All of the muscles moving the feet are in the upper legs, and they are maintained at normal body core temperatures of 102 to 106 degrees Fahrenheit.

If we immersed our feet in icy water for any length of time, our body core temperatures would drop drastically. Waterfowl do it all day long and are easily able to keep their core temperatures fairly steady. How?

Physiologically, waterfowl have a special blood vessel system at the start of their legs called a “counter current exchanger” that warms the blood returning from the feet. Cold venous blood coming from the feet runs very close to warm arterial vessels carrying blood toward the feet. The blood leaving the body is cooled and the returning blood is warmed. This way, very little heat is actually lost to the outside world from the feet.

While it might appear that their feet could actually freeze, the supplying arterial blood vessels can be dilated or constricted to allow just enough extra warm blood into the feet to keep them from actually freezing.

There are also several behaviors that these birds can use to help keep their feet warmer or to reduce body heat loss. One method is to stand on only one foot. When on one foot, the other can be tucked up close to the body and kept warm within the insulating feathers. If you observe this one-foot stance behavior, watch to see that they will periodically switch feet.

Another common behavior is for the waterfowl to rest completely on the ice with both feet tucked up into the breast feathers. Their breast plumage provides amazing insulation, and they are able to maintain their body temperatures while sleeping on the ice. Their heads and beaks can also be tucked under a wing or buried in the feathers to preheat the air they take in and to retain some of the heat they lose during respiration.

This superb insulating quality of waterfowl breast feathers is well known and used in popular winter clothing filled with duck or goose down. Perhaps the very first down jackets were made by a number of Alaska Native populations. Dozens of waterfowl breast skins were sewn together to make very warm winter coats. Examples of these bird-skin coats can be seen in a number of Alaska museums.

In the case of waterfowl, they really do have “cold feet and a warm heart.”

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. He is writing a series of columns on the biology of the Kenai River watershed.

River watch: Leaves play vital role in health of salmon streams

Riparian vegetation includes the trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that surround any stream. This vegetation is critically important for the Kenai River, Anchor River, Quartz Creek and most streams on the Kenai Peninsula. These plants provide dropped leaves, bud scales, twigs and even pollen grains that end up in the streams. This vegetable matter provides the energy that supports a majority of the aquatic insects and invertebrates that in turn are food for the fish populations of the receiving streams.

Leaves descend in a short but major pulse in the fall. If an average tree has close to 200,000 leaves, leaf fall can mean a huge organic material influx for the stream. These leaves are at first unusable by the insects until they are attacked by aquatic bacteria and fungi. A few days after inoculation by these bacteria and fungi, the protein content of the leaves actually rises and they become a favorite for a special group of insects. The nymphs and larvae of a couple species of stoneflies and craneflies will skeletonize the leaves and create large amounts of very fine particles that drift downstream. (We’ve all seen the nonbiting cranefly adults when we see a critter buzzing around that looks like a mosquito on steroids.)

These finely chopped-up leaves then become the food of choice for a great many aquatic insects found in these streams. The most common caddisfly in the Kenai River, Brachycentrus, sits on rocks in the stream and catches these fine particles with leg hairs. Some other caddisflies, like Arctopsyche, use specially spun underwater nets to trap the fine particles for their dinner. Many of the mayfly larvae, as well as a great many of the midges, use these leaf fragments as a major food item, too. Black fly larvae — we call the pesky adults “whitesocks” — have specially evolved antennal fans that are used to trap these chopped-up leaves as a major portion of their diet while in the larval stage. Additionally, there is a whole host of nearly microscopic invertebrates (many are related to shrimp) that also use these particles in our streams and rivers.

As every fly fisherman knows, these insects and invertebrates are a major source of food for the resident fish. So, we tempt rainbows, grayling and even lake trout with our fur and feather mimics of these insect larvae and adults. Less widely known is the reliance of our young salmon fry on the smallest of the invertebrates and insects. The more insects our salmon fry can eat, the bigger they will be and the greater their survival will be when they head out to the ocean.

It has been shown that streams with hefty riparian input will support large insect populations and in turn a large population of salmon and trout. The Kuparuk River on the North Slope has almost no riparian input and has very few insects that support only a very small population of grayling. Riparian input each year plays a major role in the overall food chain for our resident fish and the temporary salmon found in our peninsula streams.

There are federal- and state-mandated building and logging setbacks from streams and rivers for very good reasons. Obviously, we don’t want our structures to suffer flood damage and we don’t want our close proximity to the stream to be a source of stream pollution, either. However, the stream’s need for the leaf input each fall is often overlooked, even though these leaves are an important energy engine that fuels the stream and the fish populations. The take-home message is to preserve the riparian vegetation along all of our streams.


David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. He is writing a series of columns on the biology of the Kenai River.

Science of the seasons: Shedding moonlight on daylight saving time

As we leave daylight saving time behind and set our clocks back an hour Sunday, I don’t want to start a discussion on its merits or lack thereof.

I’d rather talk about why we have time zones in the first place. Historically, each location on Earth had its own time, still called local time. It is defined by the sun reaching its highest point in the sky — which it does so exactly in the south. That’s called local noon. Local noon doesn’t depend on latitudes but on longitude only, hence we find time zones spread across a world map horizontally.

Local noon makes sense as it describes time conveniently at each longitude. A keen observer can be replaced by a good time piece.

The disadvantage came — big time — with the change in communication and especially transportation needs of the 19th century: train schedules didn’t just include the travel times, but they needed to accommodate the change in time depending on each destination’s longitude. The solution to that was to set up time zones, with New Zealand being the first country to do so in 1868, the United States and Canada in 1883 (by law in 1918). In 1884, 25 nations (12 American, 11 European, as well as Liberia and Japan) met for the Meridian Conference in Washington, D.C., and established Greenwich as the Prime Meridian and created 24 time zones of 15 degrees longitude each.

There are exceptions to the latter, especially concerning national and state borders. Usually these exceptions are subtle: Ogallala, Neb., is on Mountain Time while Plateau, Texas, is on Central, even though it’s two degrees farther west. Some exceptions are more extreme: all of China is on one time zone, although the country spans 60 degrees (and therefore should technically be divided into four time zones). Lublin in Poland and Santiago de Compostela in Spain are in the same time zone, even though they are 30 degrees apart. In contrast, Russia is in accordance with the meaning of the Meridian Conference, spanning 10 time zones over 160 degrees.

Alaska is on one time zone (with the exception of the Aleutians West of Umnak Island), although Ketchikan and Nome are 35 degrees apart. What that means is Southeast Alaska’s local noon occurs near 12 noon, central Alaska’s local noon is around 1 p.m. and Western Alaska’s local noon around 2 p.m. Sunrise and sunset are equally shifted, with Yakutat having both its sunrise and sunset 1.5 hours earlier than Bethel throughout the year.

Harvest moon

The harvest moon is the full moon closest to the autumnal equinox, and therefore occurs within two weeks before or after Sept. 22. At that time of the year the moon is in the constellations of Pisces and Aries, which stay close to the horizon when they rise in the east; hence the moon stays close to the horizon, as well.

That gives rise to a couple of phenomena. One is based on the physics of diffraction: close to the horizon, moonlight (which is reflected sunlight) has to travel through more of Earth’s atmosphere. Air, which is mostly nitrogen and oxygen molecules, scatters more of the blue part of the spectrum, leaving the moon more reddish.

The other is completely psychological: what is called the moon illusion makes the moon appear larger closer to the horizon than up in the sky (although either are of the same angular size). Even though there is no single hypothesis explaining the effect and different people may experience it differently, one such hypothesis holds that to us the moon looks farther away on the horizon than somewhere in the sky (where it is surrounded by sky) – because it is still of the same angular size. By appearing farther away, it also appears to be bigger. In other words, this is not what the moon really looks like, but it’s based on how our brains interpret what our eyes see. Good comparisons are optical illusions that fool all of us (like the same size dots where one appears larger than the other, the parallel lines that appear nonparallel, etc.).

Also, while the moon’s orbit around Earth is a nice ellipse, describing its motion and appearance relative to the horizon becomes quite complicated, because two different spherical coordinate systems are merged. One consequence is that while, on average, the moon rises 50 minutes later each night, during the fall it rises only 30 minutes later each night. Therefore twilight turns quickly into a brightly lit evening, assisting farmers to get their crops in.

Andy Veh is a physics and astronomy professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. E-mail your science questions to redoubtreporter @alaska.net.

Polar mystery rocks! Class wrapped up in missing artifacts case

By Clark Fair
Redoubt Reporter

An excited, boisterous group of eighth-graders in the first-period language arts class at Kenai Middle School became suddenly subdued Thursday when Assistant Principal Vaughn Dosko arrived with a police officer.

Dosko apologized for the interruption, then pulled aside co-teachers Cyndi Romberg and Allan Miller to explain he had just received a rather disturbing e-mail from the London Museum. The students in the class, who had just been discussing an upcoming writing project, made no pretense of minding their own business.

As some of the students eyeballed Officer Mitch Langseth, Dosko read the e-mail aloud; it said, in essence, that Kenai Middle School was in possession of museum property that had been taken without proper authorization, and that the museum wanted the property returned immediately.

INTERPOL, the international criminal police organization, had asked the Kenai Police Department to dispatch Officer Langseth to make certain that the transfer of property took place.

The property in question was an emperor penguin egg, preserved from a 1911 Antarctic expedition. According to the e-mail, the egg had been packaged with an assortment of polar rocks in a wooden crate and shipped by the National Science Foundation to the school to help the students with their study of polar science and provide them with more information for their writing project.

Only the day before, the students had arranged the rocks, the egg and other related items in a display case in the hallway just outside the classroom. When the students and teachers followed Dosko and Langseth out to retrieve the egg, they discovered inside the locked case an empty space where the egg had been. A few of the polar rocks also were missing.

Although some of the students were immediately skeptical, wondering aloud whether this was just an elaborate ruse perpetrated by Miller and Romberg, an in-class investigation took place. Officer Langseth openly questioned students as their worried teachers scrambled to provide helpful evidence.
With the students’ help, Langseth determined that the last time anyone had seen the egg in the case was 2:45 p.m. the previous day. It was also clear that the fingerprints of nearly every member of the class could be found on the glass of the case. Who then, Langseth wanted to know, could get into the case without breaking it?

Principal Paul Sorenson became a suspect because he was an avid rock collector and had a key to the case.

“He was really, really interested in it!” called out one student.

Dosko himself was a suspect because he loved birds and also had a key.

Another student suspected school custodians, “because they have keys to everything.”

Also called into question were several teachers, including Miller and Romberg. And one student even brought up the notion of a conspiracy against Miller by someone he might have angered at the NSF.
Just before class ended, Officer Langseth wrapped up the display case with a ribbon of yellow crime tape, and Dosko encouraged the students to keep their eyes and ears open for information that might lead to the recovery of what Miller had termed a “priceless” artifact.

Even if the whole egg disappearance was just a prank, Dosko said, no one would be prosecuted if the egg was returned by the end of the school day.

“No questions asked,” he said.

The truth, however, was that most of what the students had been told during first period was a lie.
The rocks were really polar rocks and had really been sent to the class several weeks earlier by the NSF, which had provided the grant money for this English/science/Quest amalgam that 12 schools in Alaska were running in conjunction with 12 schools in Tasmania, Australia.

The emperor penguin egg, on the other hand, was a model, and its theft was a hoax, which the students would discover only after being worked up a little more the following day. After more questions and accusations from students Friday, Debbie Harris, Kenai Peninsula Borough School District arts specialist, wandered into the classroom with a bag containing all of the missing items.

“She came in and said, ‘Oh, hey, I’m returning these,” as if her possession of the items was no big deal, said 13-year-old Madison Cunningham.

Harris claimed that, since she was going to be helping the class with the artwork on their writing project, she “borrowed” the rocks and the egg to do some sketches. She had been out of the building on Thursday when all the fuss had occurred.

Krystal Hamman, 14, who later called Miller the “best fake crier” for his Thursday performance, said that his demeanor changed completely upon Harris’ arrival Friday.

“Mr. Miller started giggling like a school girl when she came in,” she said. “And then they told us everything.”

Hamman and Cunningham said the class was mad at first.

“They’re all role models, and they’re not supposed to lie,” Cunningham said.

But she acknowledged that, even though the teachers had been “tricky” and “kind of mean,” they had created a “cool experience.”

Once they stopped laughing, Miller and Romberg explained they had been trying to introduce the students to the idea of a polar mystery, which was what their writing project with Tasmania would entail.

The project is based on a 2005 pilot program in Australia that produced a book entitled “Hidden Secrets of Skull Island,” which was written entirely by sixth-grade students and is replete with student artwork. At the end of the book is a photograph of all the students who worked on the project and a listing of their names.

Key to the “Skull Island” book and these current efforts is the use of polar science both as an integral part of the mystery and an opportunity to educate readers. Generally speaking, Miller will guide the science aspects of the project, Romberg the language/writing aspects, and Harris the artistic aspects.
According to a press release, the ultimate goal is to use art and creative writing to foster an increase in student engagement in science and technology, and establish exciting new ways for teachers to explore all three disciplines.

For the current effort, 12 books will be created, at first online. The best of these e-books will be turned into hard copies and published. The progress of the books’ creation can be viewed on a project Web site, found at http://iem.tmag.tas.gov.au/.

Of the 12 Alaska elementary and middle schools involved, two hail from the Kenai Peninsula: KMS and McNeil Canyon Elementary near Homer. Of the 10 others, four are in North Pole, four in or near Fairbanks, and two in villages near Bethel.

The KMS students will be working with students at Woodbridge District School, sending sections of their book back and forth with the goal of completing the project by December, when schools in Tasmania dismiss for summer vacation.

Hamman said she was looking forward to the writing portion of the project. “I’m used to writing on my own, but I’m looking forward to meeting new people in an educational way,” she said.

Cunningham, who said that on Friday she was “kind of disappointed” that her class would not be involved in “a whole CSI thing,” is ready now to start on the mystery.

“The first day, I went home and said, ‘Mom, guess what! We’re going to be writing a book!”

Die and let live — Cycle of salmon spawning serves valuable purpose on Kenai River

One of the mysteries that has vexed stream ecologists for years involves large Pacific salmon that return from the oceans to spawn in headwater streams and promptly die. Very few fish grow this large and only reproduce once during their lifetime. As an example, halibut can reproduce for decades in the ocean, and many freshwater trout species will reproduce each year for dozens of years.

Evolutionary theories predict that for such an unusual behavior to exist, there must be a benefit to the species when the adults die. Wouldn’t it be better for the adults to survive and reproduce multiple times? The mystery is becoming clearer these days, thanks to stream and fisheries researchers from all over the country and throughout the world.

First, it must be understood that most streams along the Pacific Coast are nutrient-poor. This means that there are not high concentrations of minerals and essential elements in the waters that would support plant and algal growth. In turn, there is only marginal plant growth along and within the stream. The in-stream and riparian (located along the stream banks) plant growth can normally support only small populations of invertebrates that then become food for stream fish. Because of this nutrient-poor stream water situation, salmon have evolved an anadromous life cycle.

Anadromous fish lay their eggs in a stream that cannot actually provide adequate sustenance for their offspring, so the young soon migrate into the oceans to complete their growth. The surrounding oceans are nutrient-rich and provide great opportunities for young fish to find food. As an example, many Alaska silver salmon stay in headwater streams for three years and grow to only 6 inches in length.

They then head to the ocean and return to spawn one year later weighing 10 to 16 pounds. They obviously found a lot of food out in the ocean that they could not have found in the stream where they were hatched.

Since the streams are so nutrient-poor, it now appears that the dying adult salmon carcasses release substantial amounts of elements into the stream. Those nutrients, like the fertilizer we use on our gardens, enable in-stream vegetation and riparian plants to thrive. Those plants then deposit their leaves, twigs, bud scales, pollen, etc., back into the stream. In turn the leaves are used as food sources by various aquatic invertebrates — mostly aquatic insects. The insect populations are then able to grow large enough to support the resident fish and the newly hatched salmon fry.

There has been considerable research on these nutrients using what are called stable isotopes. We know the oceans provide higher concentrations of Nitrogen-15 while atmospheric-captured nitrogen is mostly Nitrogen-14. By looking at the nitrogen isotopes found in riparian vegetation and plants near Alaska salmon streams, we now know that a considerable amount of nutrients in these plants came from the ocean and arrived there as part of salmon tissues.

So, the dead salmon along a stream are providing nutrients for plants that will in turn provide nutrition for the food of the young salmon — a complicated but effective circle of nutrients from adult salmon back to juvenile salmon.

The next time you see a grotesque fish carcass along a stream, remember that it is providing food for its young just as any good parent would do.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. E-mail your science questions to redoubtreporter @alaska.net.

Winter’s on the way — Forecasters predict return to normal conditions

By Ben Histand
For the Redoubt Reporter

As temperatures drop, the approach of winter is becoming harder to ignore. In Cooper Landing, snow is descending to ever-lower altitudes, and as quickly as the mountains are turning white, the lowlands are losing the bright colors whose arrival marked the end of summer. Several night frosts have prompted more than a few residents to harvest potatoes from the garden, and fall pumpkins have made their debut at local grocery stores. Winter may not have arrived yet, but it is certainly on its way.

What kind of winter is in store for the Kenai Peninsula? After an anomalous summer that by National Weather Service statistics ranked as one of the coldest on record, residents may be wondering if the out-of-the-ordinary weather will continue. While speculations vary, on the whole, climatological data suggests that abnormal weather will not continue.

Dan Peterson, observation program leader with the National Weather Service’s Anchorage Weather Forecast Office, said that based on 30 years of climate records, his office estimates temperatures for the next three months will be near normal. According to the Western Regional Climate Center’s Web site, that would indicate fall temperatures averaging 34.6 degrees Fahrenheit in Kenai, and winter temperatures averaging 14.9 degrees.
With summer temperatures often struggling to top 60 degrees, however, a typical fall and winter may feel uncomfortably cold to some. Morgan Renney, of Soldotna, isn’t worried.

“I’m hoping for lots of snow,” he said. He said he’s looking forward to snowboarding Redoubt Hill in Soldotna and Mount Alyeska in Girdwood. Normal cumulative snowfall for Southcentral Alaska is 69.5 inches, and the first measurable snowfall typically comes in October. The record for latest measurable snowfall is Nov. 11, according to the National Weather Service Web site.

One possible factor influencing the cold summer temperatures was the La Niña effect, which refers to cooler-than-normal ocean temperatures in the eastern South Pacific that influence weather patterns as far away as Alaska. La Niña dissipated as summer passed, according to the NOAA, but ocean temperatures may still be influencing Alaska’s climate in other ways.

Martha Shulski, a climatologist with the Alaska Climate Research Center in Fairbanks, said temperatures in Alaska are significantly affected by a phenomenon known as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, which, like La Niña, involves trends in ocean temperatures, but takes place over a much longer period of time. The Pacific Decadal Oscillation refers to cycling phases of warmer and cooler surface temperatures in the North Pacific, and these lead to warmer and cooler air temperatures in Alaska.

Historically, the PDO appears to shift every 20 to 30 years. The most recent observed shift, from a colder phase to a warmer one, was in 1976. Shulski said there is speculation, but no consensus, that the PDO is now shifting or has already shifted back to a colder phase. If it does shift, climatologists would expect mean temperatures in Alaska to drop on the order of a degree or two.

Dwain Gibson, a resident of the Kenai Peninsula since 1957, said he thinks accurate forecasts are difficult to come by.

“We’ve had a wet summer,” he said.

From what he can remember, wet summers are often followed by a severe winter. But he was reluctant to make a prediction about this year.

“You’ve got to just take it a day at a time,” he said.

Cook Inlet beluga numbers flatline — Decision on endangered listing due this month

By Naomi Klouda
Homer Tribune

The beluga whale population in Cook Inlet remains troubled, with numbers hovering at about 375 members of a genetically distinct group that formerly numbered at about 1,300.

In response, marine mammal experts and conservation groups have renewed their calls for the Bush administration to immediately list the Cook Inlet beluga whale as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

John Schoen, senior scientist at Audubon-Alaska, said he’s expecting a decision after Oct. 20.

“At that point, the National Marine Fisheries Service could rule whether the beluga in Cook Inlet should be listed as threatened or endangered.”

An endangered or threatened status would put three advantageous factors to work for the beluga, Schoen said.

NMFS would be required to do a recovery plan and spell out exactly what research and monitoring would be involved. The agency would be required to develop a recovery plan.

“The second factor is that if critical habitat is defined, then any activity will require consultation with NMFS, and the third issue is that being listed will bring more money for research and monitoring,” Schoen said.

Only the science and protections offered by the endangered status would provide a safety net to help this group of beluga escape extinction, stated marine mammal scientist Craig Matkin of the North Gulf Oceanic Society, in a press release.

Cook Inlet is the most heavily used waterway in Alaska. It is the route for major shipping freight coming into Anchorage and communities beyond. Oil rigs and spills have stressed the waterway, Schoen said.

“It’s no one cause, but an accumulation of activities with all the things going on in Cook Inlet,” he said.

Other factors threatening beluga whales are not manmade problems, but stress that can put the population in danger, such as strandings in Turnagain Arm.

“Any kind of a natural catastrophe, like a killer whale predation or a stranding, plus all the human-caused issues, can push the beluga population to the brink,” he said.

After conservation groups petitioned to list the population as endangered, NMFS had one year to determine whether to do so. NMFS extended that deadline six months (until Oct. 20) at the request of Gov. Sarah Palin’s administration, which claimed the 2007 survey data showed an upward increase in the population. That, therefore, made the listing unwarranted. NMFS’s recent survey results demonstrate there is no upward population trend.

Beluga concentrate in the Susitna and Chickaloon Flats during the summer. Up to 90 percent of them can be in those places, making it “habitat we would want to be very cautious of,” Schoen said.

Beluga populations in the Bristol Bay and the Beauford Sea are healthy, but the Cook Inlet mammals remain distinct from them and geographically isolated. If more protections aren’t put in place, scientists are concerned it won’t take long for the beluga to become extinct in Cook Inlet.

The aerial surveys were taken June 3-12 by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration fisheries service scientists, where the belugas had congregated by the Susitna and Little Susitna Rivers, Knik Arm and Chickaloon Bay. They also took photographs and video. After examining the images, and from the manual count, observers said the population estimate remained the same as last year — about 375.

Alaska Native groups have been allowed to hunt the whales under co-management agreements with NOAA’s Fisheries Service, with restrictions on how many can be taken. Between 1999 and 2007, hunters took five beluga whales for subsistence, down from 308 in 1995 and 1998. There was no subsistence hunt for belugas in 2008.

Schoen said he expects there will be opposition to listing Cook Inlet beluga whales as endangered by Gov. Palin, similar to her administration’s actions against the polar bear listing. The effort to deny the need for an ESA listing, “is part of a larger trend in Alaska government to overrule science that contradicts political ideology,” Schoen said.

Schoen said that listing belugas as endangered won’t stop industry along Cook Inlet.

“But it takes a good look at that activity and tries to mitigate harm. It most certainly won’t stop all economic development in Cook Inlet,” Schoen said.

The organizations listed as petitioning to place the beluga as endangered are: Cook Inletkeeper, Alaska Center for the Environment, the National Audubon Society, the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society and the Natural Resource Defense Council, among others.

Color me enlightened — Pretty leaves a sign of weather changes

Why do leaves change color?

A highlight of fall is the appearance of bright colors in trees and other plants throughout Alaska. Most common in Alaska are the bright yellow leaves of the birch and aspen trees.

During the summer, birch leaves were green because the leaves were continually producing chlorophylls that reflect the green light wavelengths. There is a constant production of new chlorophylls throughout the summer that replace “worn-out” chlorophylls. Yellow-colored carotenes are a more stable photosynthetic pigment that are also present within those same leaves. However, they are hidden because of the green-reflecting chlorophylls.

In fall, temperatures and quantities of light decrease. This triggers changes in the leaves as less water and nutrients arrive at the leaves. With less nutrients and water, less chlorophyll is produced. Carotenes are more stable molecules than chlorophylls, so they remain after the chlorophylls are no longer present. Thus, birch leaves change from chlorophyll green to carotene yellow.

Another plant pigment group called anthrocyanins, which are red, can be formed in some leaves and on some colored fruits, like apples. These are formed in conjunction with the presence of sugars. As less and less water arrives in the leaves, the concentration of sugars in the leaves rises. With more sugars, more anthrocyanins are formed and the colors become red or even dark purple. Bright light destroys chlorophyll and increases formation of anthrocyanins. Cooler temperatures cause chlorophylls to break down, too. The loss of chlorophylls allows carotenes and anthrocyanins to become more visible and we see the red colors in leaves of fireweed and some ornamental plants.

So, the brightest autumn colors appear when there is bright light (causing a breakdown of chlorophylls), dry conditions (causing higher sugar concentrations), and cool temperatures (causing increased formation of anthrocyanins). When an absiccion layer forms between the branch and the leaf, it falls to the ground.

David Wartinbee, Ph.D, J.D., is a biology professor at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus.E-mail your science questions to redoubtreporter @alaska.net.