The Kittlitz’s murrelet is among North America’s most mysterious seabirds – solitary and scarce across its range, with a life history still only partly understood. A member of the alcid family (which includes puffins, murres, and auklets), this small seabird does not announce itself with bright plumage, nor gather in gregarious breeding colonies like some of its more familiar relatives – however, its rarity and highly specialized lifestyle offers numerous areas for research and yield fascinating insights about both the bird and its highly specific habitats.
A pair of Kittlitz’s murrelets – elusive inhabitants of the glacial fjord
In the Kenai Fjords region, the Kittlitz’s murrelet is almost exclusively found near tidewater glaciers (glacier systems that terminate into the sea). This association is not fully understood, and creates potential vulnerability for the species as the fjord’s patchwork of glacial systems undergo varying stages of retreat. This combination of rarity and habitat relevance is what drove UAF student Brendan Higgins to focus his graduate thesis on the Kittlitz’s murrelet, working at the Alaska SeaLife Center and advised by Dr. Tuula Hollmen (and with assistance from multiple federal natural-resource agencies) to investigate how the glacially-influenced landscape impacts where these birds live and feed, and which factors might be driving observed shifts in their distribution.
One aim of Brendan’s thesis was to investigate a documented shift in Kittlitz’s murrelet spatial distribution between 2007 and 2023 in Aialik Bay — a glacially carved fjord still fed by the toe of the Aialik Glacier. By repeating the same transects and using methods comparable to earlier surveys, his field work would produce directly comparable data in hopes of isolating environmental changes that might be influencing the Kittlitz’s murrelet population His field work would not only probe for oceanographic drivers (changes in temperature, salinity, turbidity), but less obvious terrestrial ones. “Drawing attention to terrestrial habitats in this area is valuable, and frequently isn’t as big a part of the seabird conservation discussion” he notes. Although the Kittlitz’s murrelet’s terrestrial connection is brief, it is integral to their reproductive cycle: alpine slopes serving as choice nesting habitats for females, who lay a single camouflage egg above the treeline where predators are potentially less likely to reach – making terrestrial change a plausible influence on reproductive success.
Northwestern glacier at its terminus – one of the Kenai Fjord’s tidewater glaciers
Field work in the bay also probed for finer-scale mechanisms that could explain the murrelet’s affinity for tidewater-glacier zones throughout the Kenai Fjords. A primary variable was turbidity (suspended glacial sediment) which affects light penetration of the water column. The hypothesis was that increased turbidity from glacier melt, by reducing underwater light availability, could prompt forage fish and zooplankton to occur shallower in the water column, increasing their availability to diving predators like the Kittlitz’s murrelet.
A Day in the Field
A typical research outing included Brendan, Tuula, and other core team members following predetermined transect lines over roughly seven days. A larger charter vessel served as a floating base, and each morning a four-person field team boarded the Alaska SeaLife Center’s smaller research vessel, Jubatus: one captain, two observers, and a data recorder. As the boat ran transects, the team logged all bird and marine mammal sightings and attached precise locations to every observation using a laptop with integrated GPS. At predefined stations, they also deployed an instrument known as a CTD (conductivity, temperature, depth), which took rapid readings of salinity and temperature as it was lowered through the water column. Casts were taken at the same stations used in the 2007-2008 surveys so the new data could be compared directly with the earlier record.
Equipment records acoustic information below the water’s surface with Aialik Glacier in the background.
Those hydrographic profiles matter because temperature and salinity can be used to determine water density, which in turn governs how the water column mixes. As Brendan explains in plain terms: “Seawater density impacts stratification, which is a big deal. In a nutshell, if you have two layers with really different properties (strongly stratified), it becomes difficult to move nutrients between them.” Changes in this separation can have cascading effects. Phytoplankton – the foundation of the marine food web – sit near the surface and depend on nutrients brought up from deeper waters. When stratification limits that exchange, phytoplankton growth can decline, with changes rippling upward to zooplankton, forage fish, and ultimately the seabirds that rely on them.
The Impact
While the paper is still moving through publication, Brendan confirms that his analyses show a link between Kittlitz’s murrelet distribution and changes in the fjord’s temperature and salinity, with additional findings to be shared once the paper is finalized. He’s quick to add that the most rewarding part, for him, is the analysis itself – “seeing what the numbers mean” – the less glamorous but essential work that turns raw field data into insights that can guide concrete conservation efforts and spur further research.
Despite his taste for numbers and analysis, Brendan also underlines the Kittlitz’s murrelet’s ability to connect people to the fjords’ through a compelling narrative. Unlike some seabirds, Kittlitz’s murrelets do not dominate the community by numbers or biomass (sooty shearwaters, for example, occur in the millions and can drive large-scale ecosystem effects), but that small footprint is exactly what makes them compelling: a specialized species whose unusual life history reveals hidden connections between the land and the sea. That subtlety, he argues, is reason enough to study and protect them:
“There is a discussion about redundancy and importance of different species and functional traits in ecosystems, and about which species are the most important, but I think to some extent being concerned about that misses the point. . . . To me the weird idiosyncratic species add so much and are what make the planet so interesting.”
To underline this point, Brendan shares some of his favorite details: in stark contrast with almost all other North American birds, Kittlitz’s murrelets migrate north in winter to the pack-ice edge. Additionally, in western Alaska, one nest was recorded 74 km inland – roughly a 150 km round trip to deliver a single fish to a chick. That extreme behavior is what makes the Kittlitz’s murrelet “emblematic of the fjords”, exemplifying the extreme nature of the landscape – but also the remarkable persistence and colorful stories of the species that thrive there – “All of these species have intrinsic value.”
Partnership and Continued Research
Separate from the specifics of this study, Brendan also points to the partnership that makes work like this possible – especially in places like the Kenai Fjords, which are remote, hard to study, and at the forefront of environmental and oceanographic change. This project brought the Alaska SeaLife Center and the University of Alaska Fairbanks together with colleagues at USFWS, USGS, and NPS – exactly the kind of collaboration he believes is “more important than ever.”
A four-person survey team works from the Jubatus
With natural resources representing only a small share of federal spending, shared effort between universities, agencies, and nonprofits stretches farther and, just as importantly, keeps methods consistent so the record is comparable year after year. Round Up for Seabird Research adds a public dimension to that partnership: with a small gift (in the name of a small seabird) you can help sustain research like this – both in the fjords, and back at the Alaska SeaLife Center.
