Revisiting historical surveys of Sitka through Ricketts, Calvin and Ahlgen.

The North Pacific Research Board funded this two year project which was successfully completed in June 2013. This Community Involvement project  improved the understanding of North Pacific marine ecosystem dynamics by re-establishing intertidal surveys initiated in 1932 and 1996 in Sitka Sound. The authors of “Between Pacific Tides”, Jack Calvin and Edward Ricketts, studied littoral biology 80 years ago, from Northern Baja to Sitka, the home of Calvin. During these surveys, visionary ecological paradigms were explored. These seminal thinkers formulated an ecological holism – the idea of the interrelatedness of animals to each other and their environment. They organized the Pacific littoral according to habitat, versus, the then-prevalent taxonomical organization common to scientific texts. Dr. Molly Ahlgren, in 1996, began using the only intact intertidal area in downtown Sitka as an outdoor classroom, conducting intertidal surveys adjacent to the Science Center until her untimely death in 2004. This project reestablished the 1932 and 1996 surveys through community-based, citizen science monitoring using nationally recognized MARINe protocols. The project  examined the littoral biology in the Sitka area from four sites to 1) document the current intertidal communities in these historic survey sites 2) develop biological indices (scientifically based, repeatable) to evaluate long-term influences upon intertidal communities from reintroduction, climate change and coastal development and 3) engage the community in current scientific practices, within a historical context, to reset these historic legacies and inform residents and students of the importance Sitka has and continues to play in the history and study of marine biology in the North Pacific. Data collected from project click here   / Listen to an Encounters North Radio segment on the project click here