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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: 2891

Ecology of selected marine communities in Glacier Bay: Zooplankton, forage fish, seabirds and marine mammals

We studied oceanography (including primary production), secondary production, small schooling fish (SSF), and marine bird and mammal predators in Glacier Bay during 1999 and 2000. Results from these field efforts were combined with a review of current literature relating to the Glacier Bay environment. Since the conceptual model developed by Hale and Wright (1979) ‘changes and cycles’ continue to
Authors
Martin D. Robards, Gary S. Drew, John F. Piatt, Jennifer Marie Anson, Alisa A. Abookire, James L. Bodkin, Philip N. Hooge, Suzann G. Speckman

Two-dimensional inverse and three-dimensional forward modeling of MT (magnetotelluric) data to evaluate the mineral potential of the Amphitheater Mountains, Alaska, USA

As part of an integrated geological and geophysical study to assess the mineral potential in the Amphitheater Mountains of south-central Alaska, USA, two magnetotelluric (MT) profiles were acquired during the summer of 2002. The two parallel MT lines, along with helicopter electromagnetic (HEM) and magnetic data acquired by the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys and new
Authors
Louise Pellerin, Jeanine M. Schmidt, G. Michael Hoversten

Seabird, fisheries, marine mammal, and oceanographic investigations around Kasatochi, Koniuji, and Ulak Islands, August 1996 (SMMOCI 96-3)

Although islands in the Aleutians are known to support some of the highest densities of seabirds in the world, their remoteness has limited systematic research on the at-sea distribution of seabirds near these colonies.  Kasatochi, Koniuji, and Ulak islands, in the central Aleutian Islands, together comprise one of nine ecological sites monitored once every 5 years on an annual rotation since 1996
Authors
Gary S. Drew, John F. Piatt, G. Vernon Byrd, Donald E. Dragoo

Guidelines for long-term monitoring protocols

Monitoring protocols are detailed study plans that explain how data are to be collected, managed, analyzed, and reported, and are a key component of quality assurance for natural resource monitoring programs. Protocols are necessary to ensure that changes detected by monitoring actually are occurring in nature and not simply a result of measurements taken by different people or in slightly differe
Authors
Karen L. Oakley, Lisa P. Thomas, Steven G. Fancy

[Book Review] Biology of marine birds

A text devoted to the biology and ecology of marine birds has not been published in the last 15 years. Although a number of more taxa-specific texts have been produced during that period, there has not been a single publication that attempted to review our knowledge of all the major seabird orders since the works of Nelson (1979), Croxall (1987), and Furness and Monaghan (1987). Following the publ
Authors
Patrick G.R. Jodice, Daniel D. Roby, Michelle Antolos, Donald E. Lyons, Daniel Rizzolo, Sadie K. Wright, Cynthia D. Anderson, Scott K. Anderson, S. Kim Nelson, Adrian E. Gall, Liv Wennerberg

Metamorphism within the Chugach accretionary complex on southern Baranof Island, southeastern Alaska

On Baranof Island, southeastern Alaska, we identify four metamorphic events that affect rocks associated with the Chugach accretionary complex. This study focuses on the M1 and M4 metamorphic events. Mesozoic schists, gneisses, and migmatitic gneisses exposed near the Kasnyku pluton on central Baranof Island represent the M1 metamorphic rocks. These rocks underwent amphibolite facies metamorphism.
Authors
Cathy L. Zumsteg, Glen R. Himmelberg, Susan M. Karl, Peter J. Haeussler

Geologic signature of early Tertiary ridge subduction in Alaska

A mid-Paleocene to early Eocene encounter between an oceanic spreading center and a subduction zone produced a wide range of geologic features in Alaska. The most striking effects are seen in the accretionary prism (Chugach–Prince William terrane), where 61 to 50 Ma near-trench granitic to gabbroic plutons were intruded into accreted trench sediments that had been deposited only a few million year
Authors
Dwight Bradley, Timothy M. Kusky, Peter J. Haeussler, Richard J. Goldfarb, Marti L. Miller, Julie A. Dumoulin, Steven W. Nelson, Susan M. Karl

Brittle deformation along the Gulf of Alaska margin in response to Paleocene-Eocene triple junction migration

A spreading center was subducted diachronously along a 2200 km segment of what is now the Gulf of Alaska margin between 61 and 50 Ma, and left in its wake near-trench intrusions and high-T, low-P metamorphic rocks. Gold-quartz veins and dikes, linked to ridge subduction by geochronological and relative timing evidence, provide a record of brittle deformation during and after passage of the ridge.
Authors
Peter J. Haeussler, Dwight Bradley, Richard J. Goldfarb

Controls on intrusion of near-trench magmas of the Sanak-Baranof Belt, Alaska, during Paleogene ridge subduction, and consequences for forearc evolution

A belt of Paleogene near-trench plutons known as the Sanak-Baranof belt intruded the southern Alaska convergent margin. A compilation of isotopic ages of these plutons shows that they range in age from 61 Ma in the west to ca. 50 Ma in the east. This migrating pulse of magmatism along the continental margin is consistent with North Pacific plate reconstructions that suggests the plutons were gener
Authors
Timothy M. Kusky, Dwight Bradley, D. Thomas Donely, David Rowley, Peter J. Haeussler

Surgical implantation of transmitters into fish

Although the Animal Welfare Act does not cover poikilotherms, individual institutions and policies and legal requirements other than the Animal Welfare Act (e.g., the US Public Health Service and the Interagency Research Animal Committee's Principles for the Utilization and Care of Vertebrate Animals Used in Testing, Research, and Training) require the review of projects involving fish by institut
Authors
Daniel M. Mulcahy

Large woody debris and flow resistance in step-pool channels, Cascade Range, Washington

Total flow resistance, measured as Darcy-Weisbach f, in 20 step-pool channels with large woody debris (LWD) in Washington, ranged from 5 to 380 during summer low flows. Step risers in the study streams consist of either (1) large and relatively immobile woody debris, bedrock, or roots that form fixed, or “forced,” steps, or (2) smaller and relatively mobile wood or clasts, or a mixture of both, ar
Authors
Janet H. Curran, Ellen E. Wohl

Improving size estimates of open animal populations by incorporating information on age

Around the world, a great deal of effort is expended each year to estimate the sizes of wild animal populations. Unfortunately, population size has proven to be one of the most intractable parameters to estimate. The capture-recapture estimation models most commonly used (of the Jolly-Seber type) are complicated and require numerous, sometimes questionable, assumptions. The derived estimates usual
Authors
Bryan F.J. Manly, Trent L. McDonald, Steven C. Amstrup, Eric V. Regehr