In this Technical Advance, we describe a novel method to improve ecological interpretation of remotely sensed vegetation greenness measurements that involved sampling 24,395 Landsat pixels (30 m) across 639 km of Alaska's central Brooks Range. The method goes well beyond the spatial scale of traditional plot‐based sampling and thereby more thoroughly relates ground‐based observations to satellite measurements. Our example data...

Aircraft can transport aquatic invasive species (AIS) from urban sources to remote waterbodies, yet little is known about this long-distance pathway. In North America and especially Alaska, aircraft with landing gear for water called floatplanes are used for recreation access to remote, often road-less wilderness destinations. Human-mediated dispersal of AIS is particularly concerning for the conservation of pristine wildlands...

Cross‐contamination of epidermal mucus was assessed at three sampling locations on the bodies of Pacific halibut Hippoglossus stenolepis by inducing contact between fish coated with labelled synthetic mucus and non‐treated fish. Results indicate a positive relationship between sampling site exposure and sample contamination and that mucous sample cross‐contamination can be mitigated by sampling in a location protected from ext...

Tall shrubs and trees are advancing into many tundra and wetland ecosystems but at a rate that often falls short of that predicted due to climate change. For forest, tall shrub, and tundra ecosystems in two pristine mountain ranges of Alaska, we apply a Bayesian, error‐propagated calculation of expected elevational rise (climate velocity), observed rise (biotic velocity), and their difference (biotic inertia). We show a sensit...

Using within-canopy, side-viewing light detection and ranging (LiDAR), we measured canopy structure in a Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) chronosequence. We present foliage profiles, canopy composition, and a new metric quantifying the vertical distribution of open space, supporting and extending results from other structural studies. Foliage distribution shifted from vertically uniform in the youngest stand (50 years), to...

Forest canopy free space, element density (clutter), and the distribution and relative abundance of coarse canopy elements were measured at six sites: two boreal (south-central Alaska), two temperate (Washington State and Victoria, Australia), and two tropical (Pacific Costa Rica and Malaysian Borneo). Great clutter, high relative abundance of dead elements, and shallow understory characterized boreal canopies. Presence of dea...