DO WILDLIFE DISEASES REALLY MATTER? The waterfowl manager who wakes up one morning to find ten thousand dead and dying birds in the marsh would think so. Yet virtually every wild bird and mammal harbors at least a few parasites seemingly without obvious adverse consequences. Parasites, viruses, bacteria, and fungi are component parts of the ecosystems in which wildlife are found, but do not necessarily cause disease. Millennia of coevolution have engendered a modus vivendi that assures the survival of both host and parasite populations. Then why the ten thousand sick and dying birds?...

The Alaskan landscape is changing, both in terms of effects of human activities as a consequence of increased population, social and economic development and their effects on the local and broad landscape; and those effects that accompany naturally occurring hazards such as volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Some of the most prevalent changes, however, are those resulting from a changing climate, with both near term and potential upcoming effects expected to continue into the future. In 1990, Congress passed Public Law 101-606 (1990), which established the U.S. Global Change...