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Publications

USGS research activities relevant to Alaska have yielded more than 9400 historical publications. This page features some of the most recent newsworthy research findings.

Filter Total Items: 2885

Some tests of the "migration hypothesis" for anadromous Dolly Varden (southern form)

Some aspects of a previously described migratory paradigm for the southern form of anadromous Dolly Varden Salvelinus malma were investigated with seven 3‐year mark–recapture experiments on fish that used lakes in eight watersheds as their winter residence. Weirs on Kodiak Island, around Prince William Sound, and near Juneau, Alaska, were used to capture Dolly Varden as they emigrated to the sea e
Authors
David R. Bernard, Kelley R. Hepler, J. Douglas Jones, Mary E. Whalen, Douglas N. McBride

Pattern of shoreline spawning by sockeye salmon in a glacially turbid lake: evidence for subpopulation differentiation

Alaskan sockeye salmon typically spawn in lake tributaries during summer (early run) and along clear-water lake shorelines and outlet rivers during fall (late run). Production at the glacially turbid Tustumena Lake and its outlet, the Kasilof River (south-central Alaska), was thought to be limited to a single run of sockeye salmon that spawned in the lake's clear-water tri
Authors
C. V. Burger, J.E. Finn, L. Holland-Bartels

Abundance, distribution and population status of Marbled Murrelets in Alaska

Ship-based surveys conducted throughout Alaska during the 1970's and 1980's, and more recent small boat surveys conducted in the northern Gulf of Alaska, suggest that about 280,000 murrelets reside in Alaska during summer. Most Marbled Murrelets are concentrated offshore of large tracts of coastal coniferous forests in southeast Alaska, Prince William Sound, and the Kodiak Archipelago. About 1-3 p
Authors
John F. Piatt, Nancy L. Naslund

Buff-breasted Sandpiper (Calidris subruficollis)

No abstract available
Authors
Richard B. Lanctot, C.D. Laredo

Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons)

No abstract available
Authors
Craig R. Ely, A. Dzubin

Classification of vegetation communities in which geese rear broods on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska

Plant communities are described from an area on the Yukon – Kuskokwim (Y-K) delta of Alaska that is used extensively for brood rearing by three species of geese. Earlier studies identified plant species important as food for young geese, but few studies describe or quantify plant communities. We classified species presence or absence information from over 700 quadrats using a two-way indicator spe
Authors
Christopher Babcock, Craig R. Ely

Navigating aerial transects with a laptop computer

SUMMARY: A comparison is made of different methods of determining size of home range from grid trapping data. Studies of artificial populations show that a boundary strip method of measuring area and an adjusted range length give sizes closer to the true range than do minimum area or observed range length methods. In simulated trapping of artificial populations, the known range size increas
Authors
R. Michael Anthony, R.A. Stehn

Polar bear maternity denning in the Beaufort Sea

The distribution of polar bears (Ursus maritimus) is circumpolar in the Northern Hemisphere, but known locations of maternal dens are concentrated in relatively few, widely scattered locations. Denning is either uncommon or unknown within gaps. To understand effects of industrial development and propose increases in hunting, the temporal and spatial distribution of denning in the Beaufort Sea must
Authors
Steven C. Amstrup, Craig L. Gardner

Seabird population trends along the west coast of North America: Causes and the extent of regional concordance

We compared trends in breeding population size among cormorants, gulls, alcids, and others, among the Farallon Islands, and sites in northern California and Washington, Gulf of Alaska, and Bering Sea, but in most cases only during the last two decades. For a given species, trends were usually concordant within the same oceanographic domain, except for Rhinoceros Auklet, which increased across all
Authors
D. G. Ainley, W.J. Sydeman, Scott A. Hatch, U.W. Wilson

An intersection model for estimating sea otter mortality along the Kenai Peninsula

We developed an intersection model to integrate parameters estimated from three distinct data sets that resulted from the Exxon Valdez oil spill: (1) the distribution, amount, and movements of spilled oil; (2) the distribution and abundance of sea otters along the Kenai Peninsula; and (3) the estimates of site-specific sea otter mortality relative to oil exposure from otters captured for rehabil
Authors
James L. Bodkin, Mark S. Udevitz
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