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
Geometric and material variability influences stress states relevant to coastal permafrost bluff failure
Scientific knowledge and engineering tools for predicting coastal erosion are largely confined to temperate climate zones that are dominated by non-cohesive sediments. The pattern of erosion exhibited by the ice-bonded permafrost bluffs in Arctic Alaska, however, is not well explained by these tools. Investigation of the oceanographic, thermal, and mechanical processes that are relevant to permafr
Authors
Matthew A. Thomas, Alejandro Mota, Benjamin M. Jones, R. Charles Choens, Jennifer M. Frederick, Diana L. Bull
Does habitat partitioning by sympatric plovers affect nest survival?
The vertical structure and composition of vegetation can influence the quantity and quality of potential nesting sites for birds. Interspecific competition for high-quality nesting habitat may force some individuals into suboptimal habitat and lead to reduced reproductive success, eventually leading to changes in distribution or abundance. Large climate-mediated shifts in vegetation, including the
Authors
Kelly S Overduijn, Colleen M. Handel, Abby Powell
Prioritizing habitats based on abundance and distribution of molting waterfowl in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska
The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) encompasses more than 9.5 million hectares of federally managed land on the Arctic Coastal Plain of northern Alaska, where it supports a diversity of wildlife, including millions of migratory birds. Within the NPR-A, Teshekpuk Lake and the surrounding area provide important habitat for migratory birds, including large numbers of waterfowl and shoreb
Authors
Paul L. Flint, Vijay Patil, Bradley Shults, Sarah J. Thompson
Ringed seal (Pusa hispida) seasonal movements, diving, and haul-out behavior in the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas (2011–2017)
Continued Arctic warming and sea-ice loss will have important implications for the conservation of ringed seals, a highly ice-dependent species. A better understanding of their spatial ecology will help characterize emerging ecological trends and inform management decisions. We deployed satellite transmitters on ringed seals in the summers of 2011, 2014, and 2016 near Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow),
Authors
Andrew L. Von Duyke, David C. Douglas, Jason K Herreman, Justin A. Crawford
Individual and population fitness consequences associated with large carnivore use of residential development
Large carnivores are negotiating increasingly developed landscapes, but little is known about how such behavioral plasticity influences their demographic rates and population trends. Some investigators have suggested that the ability of carnivores to behaviorally adapt to human development will enable their persistence, and yet, others have suggested that such landscapes are likely to serve as pop
Authors
Heather E. Johnson, David Bruce Lewis, Stewart Breck
Exploring regional scale metamorphic fabrics in the Yukon Tanana terrane and environs using quantitative domain analyses
Metamorphic rock fabrics such as foliations and lineations provide a rock record of numerous deformational characteristics in the Earth’s crust. When spatial information is combined with fabric data collected at points on geologic maps, the nature and consistency of metamorphic fabrics can be explored through structural domain analysis. This is particularly useful in large regions where there is n
Authors
Jonathan Caine, James V. Jones
Novel insights into serodiagnosis and epidemiology of Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, a newly recognized pathogen in muskoxen (Ovibos moschatus)
Muskoxen are a key species of Arctic ecosystems and are important for food security and
socio-economic well-being of many Indigenous communities in the Arctic and Subarctic.
Between 2009 and 2014, the bacterium Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae was isolated for the
first time in this species in association with multiple mortality events in Canada and Alaska,
raising questions regarding the spatiotempor
Authors
F. Mavrot, K. Orsel, W. Hutchins, Layne G. Adams, K. Beckmen, J. Blake, S. Checkley, T. Davison, J. Di Francesco, B. Elkin, L. Leclerc, A. Schneider, M. Tomaselli, S. Kutz
Explaining mass balance and retreat dichotomies at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers, Alaska
We reanalyzed mass balance records at Taku and Lemon Creek Glaciers to better understand the relative roles of hypsometry, local climate and dynamics as mass balance drivers. Over the 1946–2018 period, the cumulative mass balances diverged. Tidewater Taku Glacier advanced and gained mass at an average rate of +0.25±0.28 m w.e. a–1, contrasting with retreat and mass loss of –0.60±0.15 m w.e. a-1 at
Authors
Christopher J. McNeil, Shad O'Neel, Michael Loso, Mauri Pelto, Louis C. Sass, Emily Baker, Seth Campbell
Use of genetic mark-recapture to estimate breeding site fidelity and philopatry in a threatened sea duck population, Alaska-breeding Steller’s eiders
The Steller’s eider (Polysticta stelleri) is a sea duck that breeds in Arctic tundra regions of Russia and Alaska. The Alaska-breeding population is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of a perceived contraction of their breeding range in North America. Understanding demographic rates of the listed population is critical for determining and evaluating measures that
Authors
David Safine, Mark S. Lindberg, Kate Martin, Sandra L. Talbot, Ted Swem, John M. Pearce, Neesha Stellrecht, Kevin Sage, Ann E. Riddle, Kyrstal Fales, Tuula E. Hollmen
Through thick and thin: Sexing Bristle-thighed Curlews Numenius tahitiensis using measures of bill depth
Birds often exhibit diagnostic traits that differ among individuals of the same species with regard to factors like sex, age, or breeding status. Shorebirds exhibit a wide diversity of colors, shapes, and sizes of their bills, and these traits are commonly used to determine the sex of individuals. In curlews (genus Numenius), length alone accurately separates the sexes in some species, but the sha
Authors
Daniel R. Ruthrauff, Colleen M. Handel, T. Lee Tibbitts, Robert E. Gill
Tracking the migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers from nonbreeding grounds at Moorea, French Polynesia, using Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags
We used Pinpoint GPS-Argos tags to track migration of Pacific Golden-Plovers Pluvialis fulva in 2017 and 2018 from Moorea Island, at the extreme southeastern edge of the species’ winter range. Of 20 tagged birds, 13 uploaded locations during all or part of their northward migration. The birds departed in mid-April traveling a long (8,250–10,200 km) northwestward track. Ten individuals signaled fro
Authors
Oscar W. Johnson, T. Lee Tibbitts, Michael F. Weber, David R. Bybee, Roger H. Goodwill, Andrea Bruner, Errika J. Smith, Emmalee L. Buss, Trinity Q.A. Waddell, Daxton Brooks, Carolyn Smith, Jean-Yves Meyer
Environmental DNA: An emerging tool for understanding aquatic biodiversity
Field surveys for aquatic organisms provide critical information that is important for robust resource management. However, such surveys are expensive and labor intensive, particularly in large, remote landscapes like those that characterize much of Alaska. Traditionally, characterizing aquatic biodiversity necessitated the physical capture and identification of individual organisms, which require
Authors
Trey Simmons, Damian M. Menning, Sandra L. Talbot