Monitoring of oceanographic properties of Glacier Bay, Alaska 2004
Erica N. Madison, Lisa L. Etherington
2005, Report
Glacier Bay is a recently (300 years ago) deglaciated fjord estuarine system that has multiple sills, very deep basins, tidewater glaciers, and many streams. Glacier Bay experiences a large amount of runoff, high sedimentation, and large tidal variations. High freshwater discharge due to snow and ice melt and the presence...
2001 volcanic activity in Alaska and Kamchatka: Summary of events and response of the Alaska Volcano Observatory
Robert G. McGimsey, Christina A. Neal, Olga Girina
2005, Open-File Report 2004-1453
The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitors the more than 40 historically active volcanoes of the Aleutian Arc. Of these, 22 are monitored with short-period seismic instrument networks as of the end of 2001. The AVO core monitoring program also includes daily analysis of satellite imagery, observation overflights, compilation of pilot...
Environmental issues of petroleum exploration and production: Introduction
Yousif K. Kharaka, Nancy S. Dorsey
2005, Environmental Geosciences (12) 61-63
Energy is the lifeblood of our planet Earth, an essential commod- ity that powers the expanding global economy. Starting in the 1950s, oil and natural gas became the main sources of primary energy for the increasing world population, and this dominance is expected to continue for several more decades (Edwards,...
Oil and gas assessment of central North Slope, Alaska, 2005
Kenneth J. Bird, David W. Houseknecht, Emil Attanasi, Thomas E. Moore, Phillip H. Nelson, Christopher J. Potter, Christopher J. Schenk, John H. Schuenemeyer, Mahendra K. Verma, Richard W. Saltus, Jeffery D. Phillips, Ronald R. Charpentier, Troy A. Cook, Timothy R. Klett, Richard M. Pollastro, Peter H. Stauffer, James W. Hendley II
2005, Fact Sheet 2005-3043
No abstract available....
Assessing sandhill crane roosting habitatalong the Platte River, Nebraska
P.J. Kinzel, J. M. Nelson, R. S. Parker
2005, Fact Sheet 2005-3029
Each spring approximately 500,000 sandhill cranes and some endangered whooping cranes use the Central Platte River Valley in Nebraska as a staging habitat during their migration north to breeding and nesting grounds in Canada, Alaska, and the Siberian Arctic. Over the last century changes in the flow of the river...
U.S. Geological Survey 2005 oil and gas resource assessment of the central North Slope, Alaska: Play maps and results
Christopher P. Garrity, David W. Houseknecht, Kenneth J. Bird, Christopher J. Potter, Thomas E. Moore, Philip H. Nelson, Christopher J. Schenk
2005, Open-File Report 2005-1182
No abstract available....
Beringia: Intercontinental exchange and diversification of high latitude mammals and their parasites during the Pliocene and Quaternary
Joseph A. Cook, Eric P. Hoberg, Anson V. Koehler, Heikki Henttonen, Lotta Wickstrom, Voitto Haukisalmi, Kurt E. Galbreath, Felix Chernyavski, Nikolai Dokuchaev, Anatoli Lahzuhtkin, Stephen O. MacDonald, Andrew G. Hope, Eric Waltari, Amy Runck, Alasdair Veitch, Emily Jenkins, Susan Kutz, Ralph P. Eckerlin
2005, Mammal Study (30) S33-S44
Beringia is the region spanning eastern Asia and northwestern North America that remained ice-free during the full glacial events of the Pleistocene. Numerous questions persist regarding the importance of this region in the evolution of northern faunas. Beringia has been implicated as both a high latitude refugium and as the...
Extraordinary movements of the Denali caribou herd following the perfect storm
2005, Rangifer (25) 19-25
Although historic literature is replete with anecdotes about atypical and far-reaching movements of caribou(Rangifer tarandus granti) herds in Alaska, very few such events have been described since the late 1970s proliferation of radio telemetry studies in the region. In September 1992, several herds in Alaska made unusual...
Utility of aeromagnetic studies for mapping of potentially active faults in two forearc basins: Puget Sound, Washington, and Cook Inlet, Alaska
Richard W. Saltus, Richard J. Blakely, Peter J. Haeussler, Ray E. Wells
2005, Earth, Planets and Space (57) 781-793
High-resolution aeromagnetic surveys over forearc basins can detect faults and folds in weakly magnetized sediments, thus providing geologic constraints on tectonic evolution and improved understanding of seismic hazards in convergent-margin settings. Puget Sound, Washington, and Cook Inlet, Alaska, provide two case histories. In each lowland region, shallow-source magnetic anomalies are...
Beaufort Coastal Plain, North Slope, Alaska
Emily F. Binnian
2005, Fact Sheet 2005-3007
Determination of total mercury in biological and geological samples
James G. Crock
2005, Open-File Report 2005-1030
The analytical chemist is faced with several challenges when determining mercury in biological and geological materials. These challenges include widespread mercury contamination, both in the laboratory and the environment, possible losses of mercury during sample preparation and digestion, the wide range of mercury values commonly observed, ranging from the low...
Monitoring the natural attenuation of petroleum in ground water at the former naval complex, Operable Unit A, Adak Island, Alaska, May and June 2003
R.S. Dinicola, F. W. Simonds, Rose Defawe
2005, Scientific Investigations Report 2005-5002
During May and June 2003, the U.S. Geological Survey installed monitoring wells and collected data to characterize the effectiveness of natural attenuation processes for remediating petroleum-contaminated ground water at Operable Unit A of the former Naval complex on Adak Island, Alaska. In addition, the evidence for petroleum biodegradation in ground...
Comparative phytosociological investigation of subalpine alder thickets in southwestern Alaska and the North Pacific
Stephen S. Talbot, Sandra L. Talbot, F. J. A. Daniels
2005, Report
We present the first vegetation analysis of subalpine alder (Alnus viridis) thickets in southwestern Alaska. The data are primarily from mesic, hilly and mountainous sites ranging from the westernmost tip of the Alaska Peninsula to the northern Kenai Peninsula, spanning 1,000 km on an E–W gradient and 700 km on...
The bear that never was
T. S. Smith, Steven C. Amstrup, Stephen Herrero
2005, Alaska (71) 22-27, 65
From campfire stories to sensational books detailing gory attacks, Alaska's bears have long been maligned as deadly marauders capable of acquiring a taste for human flesh. Tall tales make for good storytelling but force bad reputations on the bears. When myth is compared to fact, the three North American's leading...
Annual survival and site fidelity of northern pintails banded on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Christopher A. Nicolai, Paul L. Flint, Michael L. Wege
2005, Journal of Wildlife Management (69) 1202-1210
We banded northern pintails (Anas acuta; n = 13,645) at a single site on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (YKD), Alaska, USA, from 1990 to 2001. We used recaptures from our site in combination with hunter recoveries to model annual survival, recovery rates, and fidelity to our capture location. Most recoveries (>90%)...
Crossing the ultimate ecological barrier: Evidence for an 11,000-km-long non-stop flight from Alaska to New Zealand and Eastern Australia by Bar-tailed Godwits
Robert E. Gill Jr., Theunis Piersma, Gary Hufford, R. Servranckx, Adrian C. Riegen
2005, The Condor (107) 1-20
Populations of the Bar-tailed Godwit (Limosa lapponica; Scolopacidae) embark on some of the longest migrations known among birds. The baueri race breeds in western Alaska and spends the nonbreeding season a hemisphere away in New Zealand and eastern Australia; the menzbieri race breeds in Siberia and migrates to western and northern Australia. Although the...
Offshore marine observation of Willow Ptarmigan, including water landings, Kuskokwim Bay, Alaska
Christian E. Zimmerman, Nicola Hillgruber, Sean E. Burril, Michelle A. St. Peters, Jennifer D. Wetzel
2005, The Wilson Bulletin (117) 12-14
We report an observation of Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus) encountered 8 to 17 km from the nearest shoreline on Kuskokwim Bay, Alaska, on 30 August 2003. The ptarmigan were observed flying, landing on our research vessel, and landing and taking off from the water surface. We also report on one...
The challenges associated with developing science-based landscape scale management plans
Robert C. Szaro, D.A. Boyce Jr., T. Puchlerz
2005, Landscape and Urban Planning (72) 3-12
Planning activities over large landscapes poses a complex of challenges when trying to balance the implementation of a conservation strategy while still allowing for a variety of consumptive and nonconsumptive uses. We examine a case in southeast Alaska to illustrate the breadth of these challenges and an approach to developing...
Continuing sea otter population declines in the aleutian archipelago
J. A. Estes, M. T. Tinker, A. M. Doroff, D. M. Burn
2005, Marine Mammal Science (21) 169-172
No abstract available....
Relationship of otolith strontium-to-calcium ratios and salinity: Experimental validation for juvenile salmonids
Christian E. Zimmerman
2005, Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (62) 88-97
Analysis of otolith strontium (Sr) or strontium-to-calcium (Sr:Ca) ratios provides a powerful tool to reconstruct the chronology of migration among salinity environments for diadromous salmonids. Although use of this method has been validated by examination of known individuals and translocation experiments, it has never been validated under controlled experimental conditions....
Succession on subalpine placer mine spoil: Effects of revegetation with Alnus viridis, Alaska, U.S.A.
Roseann V. Densmore
2005, Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research (37) 297-303
Alnus viridis seedlings were planted on placer mine spoil in an Alaskan subalpine watershed to bypass a seedling establishment bottleneck for A. viridis, and to evaluate the interaction between A. viridis and the dominant riparian woody plants, Salix alaxensis and Populus balsamifera. The study area was divided into 11 replicate...
Variability in colony attendance of crevice-nesting horned puffins: Implications for population monitoring
A.M.A. Harding, John F. Piatt, G.V. Byrd, Scott A. Hatch, N. B. Konyukhov, E.U. Golubova, J.C. Williams
2005, Journal of Wildlife Management (69) 1279-1296
It is difficult to survey crevice-nesting seabirds because nest-sites are hard to identify and count, and the number of adult birds attending a colony can be extremely variable within and between days. There is no standardized method for surveying crevice-nesting horned puffins (Fratercula corniculata), and consequently little is known...
The seismic project of the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program
D. H. Oppenheimer, A.N. Bittenbinder, B.M. Bogaert, R.P. Buland, L.D. Dietz, R.A. Hansen, S. D. Malone, C.S. McCreery, T.J. Sokolowski, P.M. Whitmore, C.S. Weaver
2005, Natural Hazards (35) 59-72
In 1997, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the five western States of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington joined in a partnership called the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program (NTHMP) to enhance the quality and quantity of seismic...
Central Arctic caribou and petroleum development: Distributional, nutritional, and reproductive implications
Raymond D. Cameron, Walter T. Smith, Robert G. White, Brad Griffith
2005, Arctic (58) 1-9
We synthesize findings from cooperative research on effects of petroleum development on caribou (Rangifer tarandus granti) of the Central Arctic Herd (CAH). The CAH increased from about 6000 animals in 1978 to 23000 in 1992, declined to 18 000 by 1995, and again increased to 27 000 by 2000. Net...
Serosurvey of selected zoonotic agents in polar bears (Ursus maritimus)
H. Rah, B.B. Chomel, Erich H. Follmann, R.W. Kasten, C.H. Hew, T.B. Farver, G.W. Garner, Steven C. Amstrup
2005, Veterinary Record (156) 7-13
Between 1982 and 1999 blood samples were collected from 500 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) captured in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, to determine the seroprevalence of Brucella species, Toxoplasma gondii, and Trichinella species infections. The bears were classified into four age groups, cubs, yearlings, subadults and adults. Brucella and Toxoplasma...
