Images

Twentymile River sonar on a bridge

A Glaucous-winged Gull on the rock floor of the Bogoslof Volcano a year after it explosively erupted.

Knik River sonar on a bridge

A Glaucous-winged Gull on the rock floor of the Bogoslof Volcano a year after it explosively erupted.

A scientist at The Kink on North Fork Fortymile River. He is standing next to gravel that was in the river in 1900 but is now on the rim of a 20-foot-deep bedrock canyon. The canyon formed as a result of human mining activity that diverted the river in 1900.

A scientist investigates a bedrock canyon cut by the North Fork Fortymile River in response to human mining activity in 1900. The smooth grooves on the rock in the lower right corner were formed by river erosion in the last century.

A scientist standing on the pre-1900 riverbed that is now 20 feet above the rapids at The Kink on the North Fork Fortymile River. The Kink resulted from human mining activity that diverted the river in 1900.

A USGS scientist standing on the pre-1900 riverbed that is now the rim of the bedrock canyon at The Kink on North Fork Fortymile River. The Kink resulted from human mining activity that diverted the river in 1900.

Skinny Common Murre (in foreground) with keel protruding in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska.

A USGS scientist is recording structural measurements collected from an outcrop of deformed and metamorphosed bedrock in the Yukon-Tanana upland of eastern interior Alaska. A team of two geologists were deployed by helicopter to conduct a geologic mapping and sampling traverse covering approximately 5 miles along the top of this ridge.

Two scientists in kayaks next to a floating limnocorral on McKinley Lake, near Cordova, Alaska for Elodea spp. experiment. This experiment is studying the effect of the invasive species Elodea spp. on aquatic ecosystems. Disclaimer statement: Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S.

Skinny Common Murre with keel protruding (second from the left) contrasted by normal murres. Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska.

Alaska Native Science and Engineer Program (ANSEP) student and USGS intern Parker Pickett on the Colville River Delta, Alaska, helping to band molting snow geese and black brant.

Before and after views of Kasatochi Volcano's eruption of 2008

A Black-legged Kittiwake harasses a melanistic (all black) Common Murre, forcing it off its breeding site in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, 2018. See related paper published in the Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation at: http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/50_2/50_2_225-22

Glaucous-winged Gulls capitalize upon a disturbance at the Gull Island colony in 2018 to grab eggs abandoned by breeding Common Murres. One lone Common Murre continues incubation despite the rest of the colony flushing.

A melanistic (all dark) Common Murre flies above its colony on Gull Island in Kachemak Bay, Alaska, 2018. See related paper published in the Marine Ornithology: Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation at: http://www.marineornithology.org/PDF/50_2/50_2_225-227.pdf.

Dr. Damian Menning, Geneticist with the USGS Alaska Science Center, preparing environmental samples containing Elodea species to test universal eDNA Elodea species primers that can be used to detect all five Elodea sp. in aquatic samples.

Dr. Damian Menning, Geneticist with the USGS Alaska Science Center, preparing environmental samples containing Elodea species to test universal eDNA Elodea sp. primers that can be used to detect all five Elodea sp. in aquatic samples.

Common Murre flying in lower Cook Inlet, Alaska. 

A juvenile Bald Eagle flies away with a young Black-legged Kittiwake chick taken from its nest at Gull Island, Alaska.