After typing "Canning River, Alaska" into Google Earth, a satellite image of the planet's surface swivels downward from the North Pole until all that's visible is a dark blue river delta on a vast yellow and brown tundra plain, buffeted to the north by the ice packs of the Arctic Ocean.

This is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), home to nearly 230,000 shorebirds who migrate to the barren expanses of Alaska every year from every corner of the globe.

Stephen Brown, editor of Arctic Wings, a photographic book highlighting birds living in ANWR, presented his photos and information about the habitat for a crowd of hundreds last night in Kane Hall.

Brown, director of the Shorebird Research Program for the Manomet Center for Conservation Sciences, spent six weeks last summer leading a team of biologists, photographers, conservationists and other experts on an expedition to document the bird species of ANWR. Many of ANWR's bird species have never been observed and scientifically accounted for in their Arctic habitats, but Brown hopes his team's research will help expand the available data on ANWR's bird species.

Brown showed slides portraying the darker side of Alaska's wildlife, present and future. Oil drilling across the Canning River, ANWR's western border, and global warming have already had major impacts on bird populations in the area.

The golden plover is one example of a bird species that will face incredible challenges in coming years. Golden plovers migrate over routes which are still largely unknown to points as far south as Argentina's pampas, at one point doubling their body weight in order to fly a 2,500-mile non-stop leg from Nova Scotia to South America. Plovers are declining at an annual rate of 7 percent; they are predicted to be at half of their current population in 10 years and extinct in 40.

Polar bears, which live on the ice packs that stretch from Alaska across the Arctic Ocean to Russia, are in danger of losing their habitat and becoming stranded on dry land in Alaska.

"[Polar bears] will probably be the first and most heavily impacted species of global climate change," Brown said.

Audience members applauded the presentation.

"I wanted to see some birds. ... I'm an avid follower, and it's nice to see the campus," an audience member and nature enthusiast said.

The event was followed by a book selling of Arctic Wings, which captures stunning photography of the birds and other species of ANWR and aims to raise awareness about the dire conditions ANWR's birds and other wildlife face if global climate change and oil drilling issues are not quickly resolved.

Reach reporter Jake Sommer at news@thedaily.washington.edu.