Coastal and Marine Ecosystems

The Blob is a mass of warm water in the north Pacific Ocean that is linked to changes in climate and ocean ecosystems. The ocean is changing; what can we expect in the future?

Resource brief summarizing data collection efforts and need for consisted research on Alaska's coastal birds.

Understanding how the presence of cruise ships may affect humpback whales is a research priority for managers of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. An observer boarded cruise ships in 2008 and 2009 to docu-ment how often and how close ships encountered whales as ships transited the park and adjacent waters.

ANILCA establishes the largest scientific laboratory...ever!

When a massive seabird die-off coincided with an extreme marine heatwave, we knew the ocean ecosystem had dramatically changed. We found every level of the food web was altered. Check out this story map about changes to marine environments in Alaska and beyond.

Seabirds and marine mammals along Alaska's coastline have been experiencing unusually large and consistent die-offs for the past several years, in conjunction with warming ocean temperatures. Researchers want to know if harmful algal blooms, typically associated with warmer climates, are playing a role in these deaths.

The Arctic Council and its working groups provide a forum through which NPS scientists and managers can share information and learn from a wide array of colleagues and Arctic residents that are coping with similar challenges.

The Arctic coastal parks are currently facing a new set of threats brought about primarily by climate change and associated economic trends. Remote parks, people, and cultures are finding themselves increasingly in the midst of complex and novel situations.

Estuaries are buffer zones between river (freshwater) and ocean (saltwater) environments that are affected by tidal oscillations.

Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction in the northern Pacific Ocean, may be returning to Lake Clark National Park and Preserve’s coast. What would that mean for the ecosystem?

Our national parks contain diverse coastal landforms: high-energy rocky shorelines of Acadia National Park, quiet reef-lagoons within War in the Pacific National Historic Park, and the white sandy beaches of Gulf Islands National Seashore. Coastal landforms are, or have been, affected to some degree by the direct or indirect effects of waves, tides, and currents, and may extend inland for many miles.

The seafloor sediments of deep coastal lagoons within Kenai Fjords National Park could provide a millennial-scale record of local environmental change and a timeline of catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions, glacial advances, and tsunamis. Understanding how the park’s coastline responded to past tectonic and climate-driven changes should provide valuable context to ongoing and future conditions.

Bering Land Bridge National Preserve and Cape Krusenstern National Monument exhibit a wide variety of coastal landforms including barrier lagoons, tundra bluffs, accreting spits, and beach ridge complexes; all home to vulnerable fauna, flora, and avian communities; internationally significant archaeological, historic, and ethnographic resources; and unique paleoecological and fossil records. Coastal erosion and a changing climate pose a threat to these areas.