SAN FRANCISCO — From a lecture hall within a land of warm breezes and flowering
December plants comes a story of a creature 2,600 miles north, where the sun
will not rise for another 50 days.
At the 2012 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, biologist George Divoky had 15 minutes to present his lifetime of work with a bird that adapted to year-round life in the Arctic during the last ice age. Divoky led off a lecture session on Barrow-area research by describing his four decades of studying birds that probably would not exist without his efforts — the black guillemots of Cooper Island, Alaska.
In the early 1970s, the biologist found a small colony of the birds on a gravel island in the Beaufort Sea about 25 miles northwest of Barrow. Black guillemots were breeding in nest cavities in wood debris left by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. Divoky created more nests by rearranging other pieces of wood. The black guillemots, sleek birds that spend their entire lives in the Arctic, used his improvised nest boxes to lay eggs and raise chicks. The birds prospered.
Divoky became so enamored with the island and the birds that he has returned there using intermittent and varied funding sources each summer since 1975. In those 37 years, his study has evolved from the biology of an intriguing species to a straightforward tale of climate change. The latter made him the subject of a 13,000-word story in the New York Times Magazine in 2002 and landed him a seat next to David Letterman on the late-night talk show in Manhattan.
At the 2012 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, biologist George Divoky had 15 minutes to present his lifetime of work with a bird that adapted to year-round life in the Arctic during the last ice age. Divoky led off a lecture session on Barrow-area research by describing his four decades of studying birds that probably would not exist without his efforts — the black guillemots of Cooper Island, Alaska.
In the early 1970s, the biologist found a small colony of the birds on a gravel island in the Beaufort Sea about 25 miles northwest of Barrow. Black guillemots were breeding in nest cavities in wood debris left by the U.S. Navy in the 1950s. Divoky created more nests by rearranging other pieces of wood. The black guillemots, sleek birds that spend their entire lives in the Arctic, used his improvised nest boxes to lay eggs and raise chicks. The birds prospered.
Divoky became so enamored with the island and the birds that he has returned there using intermittent and varied funding sources each summer since 1975. In those 37 years, his study has evolved from the biology of an intriguing species to a straightforward tale of climate change. The latter made him the subject of a 13,000-word story in the New York Times Magazine in 2002 and landed him a seat next to David Letterman on the late-night talk show in Manhattan.
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