Publications by authors named "Ron Heintz"

Social and cultural context shapes how communities perceive health, well-being, and risk. Risk reappraisal can occur over time as a product of new information and improved understanding. We investigate risk perception and protective behaviors in Lingít Aaní (Southeast Alaska) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Pandemics are regular occurrences, and communities must adopt sound principles for better preparedness against future infectious disease threats.
  • The National Science Foundation hosted a conference in 2023 with circumpolar researchers and Indigenous partners to explore lessons from COVID-19.
  • The article suggests future pandemic research areas in Alaska focused on Indigenous knowledge, risk perception, food and housing security, and emphasizes the importance of social sciences in enhancing pandemic preparedness.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool for dietary modeling and trophic ecology research. A crucial piece of information for isotopic dietary modeling is the accurate estimation of trophic discrimination factors (TDFs), or the isotopic offset between a consumer's tissue and its diet. In order to parameterize stable isotope dietary models for future climate scenarios, we investigated the effect of water temperature and dietary protein and lipid content on TDFs in juvenile Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Indigenous communities worldwide are at higher risk of negative pandemic outcomes, and communities Indigenous to the Arctic are disproportionately affected compared to national majorities. Despite this, their experiences have scarcely been investigated qualitatively and from their own perspectives. We collected and analyzed 22 structured interviews in three Southeast Alaska island communities (Sitka, Hoonah, and Kake) to learn about their perceptions of and experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The long-term ecological impacts of the oil spill (EVOS) are compared to two extensively studied and more recent large spills: Deepwater Horizon (DWH) and the oil spill (HSOS). Each of the three spills differed in magnitude and duration of oil released, environmental conditions, ecological communities, response and clean up measures, and ecological recovery. The EVOS began on March 24, 1989, and released 40.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In 2014, the Bering Sea shifted back to warmer ocean temperatures (+2 oC above average), bringing concern for the potential for a new warm stanza and broad biological and ecological cascading effects. In 2015 and 2016 dedicated surveys were executed to study the progression of ocean heating and ecosystem response. We describe ecosystem response to multiple, consecutive years of ocean warming and offer perspective on the broader impacts.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Fish, even of the same species, can exhibit substantial variation in energy density (energy per unit wet weight). Most of this variation is due to differences in the amount of storage lipids. In addition to their importance as energy reserves for reproduction and for survival during unfavourable conditions, the accumulation of lipids represents a large energetic flux for many species, so figuring out how this energy flux is integrated with other major energy fluxes (growth, reproduction) is critical for any general theory of organismal energetics.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Understanding mechanisms behind variability in early life survival of marine fishes through modeling efforts can improve predictive capabilities for recruitment success under changing climate conditions. Walleye pollock (Theragra chalcogramma) support the largest single-species commercial fishery in the United States and represent an ecologically important component of the Bering Sea ecosystem. Variability in walleye pollock growth and survival is structured in part by climate-driven bottom-up control of zooplankton composition.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The effects of temperature and infection by Ichthyophonus were examined in juvenile Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) maintained under simulated overwinter fasting conditions. In addition to defining parameters for a herring bioenergetics model (discussed in Vollenweider et al. this issue), these experiments provided new insights into factors influencing the infectivity and virulence of the parasite Ichthyophonus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The energetic costs of fasting and Ichthyophonus infection were measured in juvenile Pacific herring (Clupea pallasii) in a lab setting at three temperatures. Infected herring incurred significant energetic costs, the magnitude of which depended on fish condition at the time of infection (fat versus lean). Herring that were fed continually and were in relatively good condition at the time of infection (fat) never stored lipid despite ad libitum feeding.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Quantifying the nutritional quality of forage fish is integral for understanding upper trophic levels as forage fish are the dominant prey for top predator fish, marine mammals, and sea birds. Many existing reports documenting body composition of forage species are not comparable due to confounding effects. This study systematically assessed the variability in proximate composition and energy content of 16 forage species in southeastern Alaska (57.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The immediate and delayed effects of embryonic exposure to low levels of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have been shown to reduce survival to maturity by 50% in exposed pink salmon populations. This suggests that chronically exposed populations could be extirpated over relatively few generations, but the effect of density dependence on extirpation rate is unknown. This study examines the interaction of PAH effects and randomly varying density dependence on a simulated population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Petroleum products are known to have greater toxicity to the translucent embryos and larvae of aquatic organisms in the presence of ultraviolet radiation (UV) compared to toxicity determined in tests performed under standard laboratory lighting with minimal UV. This study assessed the acute phototoxicity of the water accommodated fractions of weathered Alaska North Slope crude oil (ANS) to juvenile pink salmon, which are a heavily pigmented life stage. Fish in the highest ANS treatments exhibited melanosis, less mobility, reduced startle response, erratic swimming, and loss of equilibrium.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Low-density polyethylene membranes, typically filled with triolein, have been previously deployed as passive environmental samplers designed to accumulate nonpolar hydrophobic chemicals from water, sediments, and air. Hydrocarbons in such samplers, known as semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs), diffuse through pores in the membranes and are trapped in the central hydrocarbon matrix, mimicking uptake by living organisms. Here, we describe laboratory and field verification that low-density polyethylene membrane devices (PEMDs) without triolein provide reliable, relatively inexpensive, time-integrated hydrocarbon sampling from water.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The relative potency of polycyclic aromatic compounds as aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonists in fish was determined using data on CYP1A induction or AhR binding for 74 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocycles in teleost, avian, or mammalian systems from 18 published papers. Each PAH was assigned a fish potency factor relative to the potency of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin as an AhR agonist. Two and three ring unsubstituted PAHs were generally inactive in fish, avian, and mammalian systems.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) can cause a variety of effects in early life-stages of fish that have been chronically exposed as embryos, including mortality, deformities, and edemas. Mechanistic models of the chronic toxicity of complex mixtures of PAHs in fish have not been reported, with the exception of a previously untested model based on the lipids of fish as the site of action and toxicity caused through a narcosis mechanism. Four mechanism-based models of the chronic toxicity of embryonic exposures to complex mixtures of petrogenic PAHs in two species of fish, Pacific herring and pink salmon, were evaluated using a toxic-units approach: narcosis, aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) agonism, alkyl phenanthrene toxicity, and combined toxicity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

After nearly 3 decades of decline, the western stock of Steller sea lions (SSL; Eumetopias jubatus) was listed as an endangered species in 1997. While the cause of the decline in the 1970s and 1980s has been attributed to nutritional stress, recent declines are unexplained and may result from other factors including the presence of environmental contaminants. SSL tissues show accumulation of butyltins, mercury, PCBs, DDTs, chlordanes and hexachlorobenzene.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF