Geomorphology and bank erosion of the Matanuska River, southcentral Alaska
Janet H. Curran, Monica L. McTeague
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5214
Bank erosion along the Matanuska River, a braided, glacial river in southcentral Alaska, has damaged or threatened houses, roadways, and public facilities for decades. Mapping of river geomorphology and bank characteristics for a 65-mile study area from the Matanuska Glacier to the river mouth provided erodibility information that was assessed...
U.S. Geological Survey 2011 assessment of undiscovered oil and gas resources of the Cook Inlet region, south-central Alaska
Richard G. Stanley, Brenda S. Pierce, David W. Houseknecht
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1237
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has completed an assessment of the volumes of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources in conventional and continuous accumulations in Cook Inlet. The assessment used a geology-based methodology and results from new scientific research by the USGS and the State of Alaska, Department of...
Soils Data Related to the 1999 FROSTFIRE Burn
K.L. Manies, J.W. Harden, R. Ottmar
2011, Open-File Report 2011-1216
This report describes the sample collection and processing for U.S. Geological Survey efforts at FROSTFIRE, an experimental burn that occurred in Alaska in 1999. Data regarding carbon, water, and energy dynamics pre-fire, during, and post-fire were obtained in this landscape-scale prescribed burn. U.S. Geological Survey investigators measured changes in the...
Geographic distribution of the mid-continent population of sandhill cranes and related management applications
Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Kenneth L. Jones, Douglas H. Johnson
2011, Wildlife Monographs (175) 1-38
The Mid-continent Population (MCP) of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis) is widely hunted in North America and is separated into the Gulf Coast Subpopulation and Western Subpopulation for management purposes. Effective harvest management of the MCP requires detailed knowledge of breeding distribution of subspecies and subpopulations, chronology of their use of...
Water quality of the Chokosna, Gilahina, Lakina Rivers, and Long Lake watershed along McCarthy Road, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 2007-08
Timothy P. Brabets, Robert T. Ourso, Matthew P. Miller, Anne M. D. Brasher
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5185
The Chokosna, Gilahina, and Lakina River basins, and the Long Lake watershed are located along McCarthy Road in Wrangell–St. Elias National Park and Preserve. The rivers and lake support a large run of sockeye (red) salmon that is important to the commercial and recreational fisheries in the larger Copper River....
Minnesota wolf ear lengths as possible indicators of taxonomic differences
L. David Mech
2011, Northeastern Naturalist (18) 265-274
Genetic findings suggest that 2 types of wolves, Canis lupus (Gray Wolf) and C. lycaon (Eastern Wolf), and/or their hybrids occupy Minnesota (MN), and this study examines adult wolf ear lengths as a possible distinguisher between these two. Photographic evidence suggested that the Eastern Wolf possesses proportionately longer ears than...
Selenium concentrations and enzyme activities of glutathione metabolism in wild long-tailed ducks and common eiders
J. Christian Franson, David J. Hoffman, Paul L. Flint
2011, Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (30) 1479-1481
The relationships of selenium (Se) concentrations in whole blood with plasma activities of total glutathione peroxidase, Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase, and glutathione reductase were studied in long-tailed ducks (Clangula hyemalis) and common eiders (Somateria mollissima) sampled along the Beaufort Sea coast of Alaska, USA. Blood Se concentrations were >8 μg/g wet...
Global seabird responses to forage fish depletion - One-third for the birds
Philippe M. Cury, Ian L. Boyd, Sylvain Bonhommeau, Tycho Anker-Nilssen, Robert J.M. Crawford, Robert W. Furness, James A. Mills, Eugene J. Murphy, Henrik Osterblom, Michelle Paleczny, John F. Piatt, Jean-Paul Roux, Lynne Shannon, William J. Sydeman
2011, Science (334) 1703-1706
Determining the form of key predator-prey relationships is critical for understanding marine ecosystem dynamics. Using a comprehensive global database, we quantified the effect of fluctuations in food abundance on seabird breeding success. We identified a threshold in prey (fish and krill, termed “forage fish”) abundance below which seabirds experience consistently...
Interspecies transmission and limited persistence of low pathogenic avian influenza genomes among Alaska dabbling ducks
Andrew B. Reeves, John M. Pearce, Andrew M. Ramey, Brandt W. Meixell, Jonathan A. Runstadler
2011, Infection, Genetics and Evolution (11) 2004-2010
The reassortment and geographic distribution of low pathogenic avian influenza (LPAI) virus genes are well documented, but little is known about the persistence of intact LPAI genomes among species and locations. To examine persistence of entire LPAI genome constellations in Alaska, we calculated the genetic identities among 161 full-genome LPAI...
Catalog of earthquake hypocenters at Alaskan volcanoes: January 1 through December 31, 2010
James P. Dixon, Scott D. Stihler, John A. Power, Cheryl K. Searcy
2011, Data Series 645
Between January 1 and December 31, 2010, the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) located 3,405 earthquakes, of which 2,846 occurred within 20 kilometers of the 33 volcanoes with seismograph subnetworks. There was no significant seismic activity in 2010 at these monitored volcanic centers. Seismograph subnetworks with severe outages in 2009 were...
Indigenous observations of climate change in the Lower Yukon River Basin, Alaska
Nicole M. Herman-Mercer, Paul F. Schuster, Karonhiakt’tie Maracle
2011, Human Organization (70) 244-252
Natural science climate change studies have led to an overwhelming amount of evidence that the Arctic and Subarctic are among the world's first locations to begin experiencing climate change. Indigenous knowledge of northern regions is a valuable resource to assess the effects of climate change on the people and the...
Delayed age at weaning in Southeast Alaska Steller sea lions determined using stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen
Lorrie D. Rea, A.R. Banks, Sean D. Farley, Craig A. Stricker, B. Fadely, J. Mellish, A. Christ, K. Pitcher
2011, Conference Paper, 19th Biennial Conference on the Biology of Marine Mammals
No abstract available....
Lithogeochemistry of mineralized and altered rock samples from the northern Talkeetna Mountains, south-central Alaska
Thomas D. Light, Jeanine M. Schmidt
2011, Scientific Investigations Report 2011-5162
Mineralized and altered rock samples collected from the northern Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska, were analyzed by two different inductively coupled plasma atomic-emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) methods for as many as 44 elements; by fire assay and either direct-coupled plasma (DCP) or atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) for gold (Au); by cold vapor atomic...
Bedrock geologic map of the Seward Peninsula, Alaska, and accompanying conodont data
Alison B. Till, Julie A. Dumoulin, Melanie B. Werdon, Heather A. Bleick
2011, Scientific Investigations Map 3131
This 1:500,000-scale geologic map depicts the bedrock geology of Seward Peninsula, western Alaska, on the North American side of the Bering Strait. The map encompasses all of the Teller, Nome, Solomon, and Bendeleben 1:250,000-scale quadrangles, and parts of the Shishmaref, Kotzebue, Candle, and Norton Bay 1:250,000-scale quadrangles (sh. 1; sh....
A promising tool for subsurface permafrost mapping-An application of airborne geophysics from the Yukon River Basin, Alaska
Jared E. Abraham
2011, Fact Sheet 2011-3133
Permafrost is a predominant physical feature of the Earth's Arctic and Subarctic clines and a major consideration encompassing ecosystem structure to infrastructure engineering and placement. Perennially frozen ground is estimated to cover about 85 percent of the state of Alaska where northern reaches are underlain with continuous permafrost and parts...
Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration project final report: Prince William Sound Herring disease program (HDP), restoration project 070819
Paul Hershberger, Diane G. Elliott, Eveline J. Emmenegger, John D. Hansen, Gael Kurath, James R. Winton, Richard Kocan, Scott LaPatra
2011, Report
Surveys of pathogens in Pacific herring from 2007 – 2010 indicated that Ichthyophonus, viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus, and erythrocytic necrosis virus are endemic in Prince William Sound and throughout the NE Pacific. Laboratory studies with VHSV indicated that multiple herring stocks are equally susceptible to the resulting disease, Pacific herring...
Thematic accuracy of the National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 land cover for Alaska
David J. Selkowitz, Stephen V. Stehman
2011, Remote Sensing of Environment (115) 1401--1407
The National Land Cover Database (NLCD) 2001 Alaska land cover classification is the first 30-m resolution land cover product available covering the entire state of Alaska. The accuracy assessment of the NLCD 2001 Alaska land cover classification employed a geographically stratified three-stage sampling design to...
Exploring the potential for a fused Landsat-MODIS snow covered area product
David J. Selkowitz
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of the 79th Annual Western Snow Conference
Results from nine 3 x 3 km study areas in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, USA demonstrate there is potential for using sporadically acquired Landsat images in combination with daily coarse resolution fractional snow covered area (SCA) images to produce daily high resolution binary SCA images. The results also highlight...
Results and evaluation of a survey to estimate Pacific walrus population size, 2006
Suzann G. Speckman, Vladimir I. Chernook, Douglas M. Burn, Mark S. Udevitz, Anatoly A. Kochnev, Alexander Vasilev, Chadwick V. Jay, Alexander Lisovsky, Anthony S. Fischbach, R. Bradley Benter
2011, Marine Mammal Science (27) 514-553
In spring 2006, we conducted a collaborative U.S.-Russia survey to estimate abundance of the Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). The Bering Sea was partitioned into survey blocks, and a systematic random sample of transects within a subset of the blocks was surveyed with airborne thermal scanners using standard strip-transect...
The role of dyking and fault control in the rapid onset of eruption at Chaitén Volcano, Chile
Charles W. Wicks Jr., J. Carlos de la Llera, Luis E. Lara, Jacob B. Lowenstern
2011, Nature (478) 374-377
Rhyolite is the most viscous of liquid magmas, so it was surprising that on 2 May 2008 at Chaitén Volcano, located in Chile’s southern Andean volcanic zone, rhyolitic magma migrated from more than 5 km depth in less than 4 hours and erupted explosively with only two days of detected precursory seismic activity....
Developing a regional canopy fuels assessment strategy using multi-scale lidar
Birgit E. Peterson, Kurtis Nelson
2011, Conference Paper, Proceedings of SilviLaser 2011, 11th International Conference on LiDAR Applications for Assessing Forest Ecosystems, University of Tasmania, Australia, 16-20 October 2011
Accurate assessments of canopy fuels are needed by fire scientists to understand fire behavior and to predict future fire occurrence. A key descriptor for canopy fuels is canopy bulk density (CBD). CBD is closely linked to the structure of the canopy; therefore, lidar measurements are particularly well suited to assessments...
Alaska Geochemical Database (AGDB)-Geochemical data for rock, sediment, soil, mineral, and concentrate sample media
Matthew Granitto, Elizabeth A. Bailey, Jeanine M. Schmidt, Nora B. Shew, Bruce M. Gamble, Keith A. Labay
2011, Data Series 637
The Alaska Geochemical Database (AGDB) was created and designed to compile and integrate geochemical data from Alaska in order to facilitate geologic mapping, petrologic studies, mineral resource assessments, definition of geochemical baseline values and statistics, environmental impact assessments, and studies in medical geology. This Microsoft Access database serves as a...
The Alaska Geochemical Database: v. 1.0 - Geologic Materials
Jeanine M. Schmidt, Matthew Granitto
2011, Fact Sheet 2011-3130
What is the AGDB?: The Alaska Geochemical Database (AGDB) is a new, comprehensive compilation of geologic, spatial, descriptive, mineralogical, and analytical geochemical data for samples collected in Alaska and surrounding waters by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) from 1962 to 2009. Data for geologic materials (rocks, minerals and mineral separates, soils, lake...
Streamflow and streambed scour in 2010 at bridge 339, Copper River, Alaska
Jeffrey S. Conaway, Timothy P. Brabets
2011, Professional Paper 1784-C
The Copper River Highway traverses a dynamic and complex network of braided and readily erodible channels that constitute the Copper River Delta, Alaska, by way of 11 bridges. Over the past decade, several of these bridges and the highway have sustained serious damage from both high and low flows and...
Petrogenesis of postcollisional magmatism at Scheelite Dome, Yukon, Canada: Evidence for a lithospheric mantle source for magmas associated with intrusion-related gold systems
John L. Mair, G. Lang Farmer, David I. Groves, Craig J. R. Hart, Richard J. Goldfarb
2011, Economic Geology (106) 451-480
The type examples for the class of deposits termed intrusion-related gold systems occur in the Tombstone-Tungsten belt of Alaska and Yukon, on the eastern side of the Tintina gold province. In this part of the northern Cordillera, extensive mid-Cretaceous postcollisional plutonism took place following the accretion of exotic terranes to...
