Wolves will not provide small-scale ecological restoration
Jerrold L. Belant, Layne G. Adams
2010, BioScience (60) 485-485
Licht and colleagues (BioScience 60: 147–153) proposed a paradigm shift in wolf management to include the introductions of small, highly manipulated groups of wolves (Canis lupus) to confined natural areas to facilitate ecosystem recovery. Certainly, reductions or losses of apex predators from many regions worldwide have had profound effects on...
King eider use an income strategy for egg production: a case study for incorporating individual dietary variation into nutrient allocation research
Steffen Oppel, Abby N. Powell, Diane M. O’Brien
2010, Oecologia (164) 1-12
The use of stored nutrients for reproduction represents an important component of life-history variation. Recent studies from several species have used stable isotopes to estimate the reliance on stored body reserves in reproduction. Such approaches rely on population-level dietary endpoints to characterize stored reserves (“capital”) and current diet (“income”). Individual...
Stream-sediment samples reanalyzed for major, rare earth, and trace elements from ten 1:250,000-scale quadrangles, south-central Alaska, 2007-08
Elizabeth A. Bailey, Nora B. Shew, Keith A. Labay, Jeanine M. Schmidt, Richard M. O’Leary, David E. Detra
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1147
During the 1960s through the 1980s, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted reconnaissance geochemical surveys of the drainage basins throughout most of the Anchorage, Bering Glacier, Big Delta, Gulkana, Healy, McCarthy, Mount Hayes, Nabesna, Talkeetna Mountains, and Valdez 1:250,000-scale quadrangles in Alaska as part of the Alaska Mineral Resource Assessment...
Kittlitz’s and Marbled Murrelets in Kenai Fjords National Park, south-central Alaska: At-sea distribution, abundance, and foraging habitat, 2006–08
Mayumi L. Arimitsu, John F. Piatt, Marc D. Romano, E.N. Madison, Jeffrey S. Conaway
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1181
Kittlitz’s murrelets (Brachyramphus brevirostris) and marbled murrelets (B. marmoratus) are small diving seabirds and are of management concern because of population declines in coastal Alaska. In 2006–08, we conducted a study in Kenai Fjords National Park, south-central Alaska, to estimate the recent population size of Brachyramphus murrelets, to evaluate productivity based on...
Studies by the U.S. Geological Survey in Alaska, 2008-2009
Julie A. Dumoulin, John Galloway
2010, Professional Paper 1776
The collection of papers that follow continues the series of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) investigative reports in Alaska under the broad umbrella of the geologic sciences. This series represents new and sometimes-preliminary findings that are of interest to Earth scientists in academia, government, and industry; to land and resource managers;...
Reconnaissance study of the Taylor Mountains pluton, southwestern Alaska
Travis L. Hudson, Marti L. Miller, Edward P. Klimasauskas, Paul W. Layer
2010, Professional Paper 1776-A
The Taylor Mountains pluton is a Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary (median age 65 + or ? 2 Ma) epizonal, composite biotite granite stock located about 235 km (145 mi) northeast of Dillingham in southwestern Alaska. This 30 km2 (12 mi2) pluton has sharp and discordant contacts with hornfels that...
Arctic sea ice decline: Projected changes in timing and extent of sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi Seas
David C. Douglas
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1176
The Arctic region is warming faster than most regions of the world due in part to increasing greenhouse gases and positive feedbacks associated with the loss of snow and ice cover. One consequence has been a rapid decline in Arctic sea ice over the past 3 decades?a decline that is...
Characteristics of fall chum salmon spawning habitat on a mainstem river in Interior Alaska
Sean E. Burril, Christian E. Zimmerman, James E. Finn
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1164
Chum salmon (Oncorhynchus keta) are the most abundant species of salmon spawning in the Yukon River drainage system, and they support important personal use, subsistence, and commercial fisheries. Chum salmon returning to the Tanana River in Interior Alaska are a significant contribution to the overall abundance of Yukon River chum...
Lead isotope database of unpublished results from sulfide mineral occurrences — California, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington
S. E. Church
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1157
The Pb isotope database for sulfide deposits and occurrences in the Western United States was funded by the Mineral Resources Program, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Reports on Pb isotope data from Alaska were published in Church and others (1987a) and Gaccetta and Church (1989). The primary objectives of the project...
A comparison of multi-spectral, multi-angular, and multi-temporal remote sensing datasets for fractional shrub canopy mapping in Arctic Alaska
David J. Selkowitz
2010, Remote Sensing of Environment (114) 1338-1352
Shrub cover appears to be increasing across many areas of the Arctic tundra biome, and increasing shrub cover in the Arctic has the potential to significantly impact global carbon budgets and the global climate system. For most of the Arctic, however, there is...
Initial Results from a Study of Climatic Changes and the Effect on Wild Sheep Habitat in Selected Study Areas of Alaska
Edwin Pfeifer, Jana Ruhlman, Barry Middleton, Dennis Dye, Alex Acosta
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1135
Climate change theorists have projected striking changes in local weather on earth due to increases in temperature. These predicted changes may cause melting glaciers and ice caps, rising sea levels, increasing desertification and other environmental changes which seem likely to affect presumed indicator species as harbingers of more significant changes....
Alaska’s changing fire regime - Implications for the vulnerability of its boreal forests
Eric S. Kasischke, David L. Verbyla, T. Scott Rupp, A. David McGuire, Karen A. Murphy, Randi Jandt, Jennifer L. Barnes, E. Hoy, Paul A. Duffy, Monika Calef, Merritt R. Turetsky
2010, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1313-1324
A synthesis was carried out to examine Alaska’s boreal forest fire regime. During the 2000s, an average of 767 000 ha·year–1 burned, 50% higher than in any previous decade since the 1940s. Over the past 60 years, there was a decrease in the number of lightning-ignited fires, an increase in extreme...
Resilience of Alaska’s boreal forest to climatic change
F.S. Chapin, A. David McGuire, Roger W. Ruess, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, M.C. Mack, J.F. Johnstone, E.S. Kasischke, E.S. Euskirchen, Jack B. Jones, M.T. Jorgenson, K. Kielland, G. Kofinas, M.R. Turetsky, J. Yarie, A.H. Lloyd, D.L. Taylor
2010, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1360-1370
This paper assesses the resilience of Alaska’s boreal forest system to rapid climatic change. Recent warming is associated with reduced growth of dominant tree species, plant disease and insect outbreaks, warming and thawing of permafrost, drying of lakes, increased wildfire extent, increased postfire recruitment of deciduous trees, and reduced safety...
Seismicity of the Earth 1900-2010, Aleutian arc and vicinity
Harley M. Benz, Matthew Herman, Arthur C. Tarr, Gavin P. Hayes, Kevin P. Furlong, Antonio Villaseñor, Richard L. Dart, Susan Rhea
2010, Open-File Report 2010-1083-B
This map shows details of the Aleutian arc not visible in an earlier publication. The Aleutian arc extends about 3,000 km from the Gulf of Alaska to the Kamchatka Peninsula. It marks the region where the Pacific plate subducts into the mantle beneath the North America plate. This subduction is...
Modeling the Effects of Mortality on Sea Otter Populations
James L. Bodkin, Brenda E. Ballachey
2010, Scientific Investigations Report 2010-5096
Conservation and management of sea otters can benefit from managing the magnitude and sex composition of human related mortality, including harvesting within sustainable levels. Using age and sex-specific reproduction and survival rates from field studies, we created matrix population models representing sea otter populations with growth rates of 1.005, 1.072,...
The role of mosses in ecosystem succession and function in Alaska’s boreal forest
Merritt R. Turetsky, Michelle Mack, Teresa N. Hollingsworth, Jennifer W. Harden
2010, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1237-1264
Shifts in moss communities may affect the resilience of boreal ecosystems to a changing climate because of the role of moss species in regulating soil climate and biogeochemical cycling. Here, we use long-term data analysis and literature synthesis to examine the role of moss in ecosystem succession, productivity, and decomposition....
An improved proximal tephrochronology for Redoubt Volcano, Alaska
C.J. Schiff, Darrell S. Kaufman, Kristi L. Wallace, Michael E. Ketterer
2010, Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research (193) 203-214
Sediment cores from lakes in volcanically active regions can be used to reconstruct the frequency of tephra-fall events. We studied sediment cores from two lakes within 25 km of the summit of Redoubt Volcano, western Cook Inlet, to develop a robust age model for the Holocene tephrochronology, and to assess the...
Resilience and vulnerability of permafrost to climate change
M.Torre Jorgenson, Vladimir Romanovsky, Jennifer W. Harden, Yuri Shur, Jonathan O'Donnell, Edward A.G. Schuur, Mikhail Kanevskiy, Sergei Marchenko
2010, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1219-1236
The resilience and vulnerability of permafrost to climate change depends on complex interactions among topography, water, soil, vegetation, and snow, which allow permafrost to persist at mean annual air temperatures (MAATs) as high as +2 °C and degrade at MAATs as low as –20 °C. To assess these interactions, we...
The changing effects of Alaska’s boreal forests on the climate system
E.S. Euskirchen, A. David McGuire, F.S. Chapin, T.S. Rupp
2010, Canadian Journal of Forest Research (40) 1336-1346
In the boreal forests of Alaska, recent changes in climate have influenced the exchange of trace gases, water, and energy between these forests and the atmosphere. These changes in the structure and function of boreal forests can then feed back to impact regional and global climates. In this manuscript, we...
PCB exposure in sea otters and harlequin ducks in relation to history of contamination by the Exxon Valdez oil spill
Mark A. Ricca, A. Keith Miles, Brenda E. Ballachey, James L. Bodkin, Daniel Esler, Kimberly A. Trust
2010, Marine Pollution Bulletin (60) 861-872
Exposure to contaminants other than petroleum hydrocarbons could confound interpretation of Exxon Valdez oil spill effects on biota at Prince William Sound, Alaska. Hence, we investigated polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in blood of sea otters and harlequin ducks sampled during 1998. PCB concentrations characterized by lower chlorinated congeners were highest in...
Oblique Aerial Photography of the Arctic Coast of Alaska, Cape Sabine to Milne Point, July 16-19, 2009
Ann E. Gibbs, Bruce M. Richmond
2010, Data Series 503
The Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska, an area of strategic economic importance to the United States, is home to remote Native American communities and encompasses unique habitats of global significance. Coastal erosion along the Arctic coast is chronic and widespread; recent evidence suggests that erosion rates are among the...
Ecosystem development in the Girdwood area, south-central Alaska, following late Wisconsin glaciation
T. A. Ager, Paul E. Carrara, John McGeehin
2010, Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences (47) 971-985
Pollen analysis of two cores with discontinuous records from a peat bog near Girdwood, in south-central Alaska, provides the basis for reconstructing the first radiocarbon-dated outline of postglacial history of vegetation in the upper Turnagain Arm area of Cook Inlet. Pollen data from clayey silt underlying peat at one site...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Western Region Kasatochi Volcano Coastal and Ocean Science
Anthony DeGange
2010, Fact Sheet 2010-3028
Alaska is noteworthy as a region of frequent seismic and volcanic activity. The region contains 52 historically active volcanoes, 14 of which have had at least one major eruptive event since 1990. Despite the high frequency of volcanic activity in Alaska, comprehensive studies of how ecosystems respond to volcanic eruptions...
Sediment-hosted lead-zinc deposits in Earth history
David L Leach, Dwight Bradley, David Huston, Sergei A. Pisarevsky, Ryan D. Taylor, S. Gardoll
2010, Economic Geology (105) 593-625
Sediment-hosted Pb-Zn deposits can be divided into two major subtypes. The first subtype is clastic-dominated lead-zinc (CD Pb-Zn) ores, which are hosted in shale, sandstone, siltstone, or mixed clastic rocks, or occur as carbonate replacement, within a CD sedimentary rock sequence. This subtype includes deposits that have been traditionally referred...
Secular variation in economic geology
Richard J. Goldfarb, Dwight Bradley, David L Leach
2010, Economic Geology (105) 459-465
The temporal pattern of ore deposits on a constantly evolving Earth reflects the complex interplay between the evolving global tectonic regime, episodic mantle plume events, overall changes in global heat flow, atmospheric and oceanic redox states, and even singular impact and glaciation events. Within...
