Images

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.

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

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

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 sp. 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 species 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.

Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Common Murres have all been tested for and contained harmful algal bloom (HAB) toxins. Since 2015, the USGS has worked with a variety of stakeholders to develop testing methods and research projects to better understand the geographic extent, timing and impacts of algal toxins in Alaska marine ecosystems.

Heading upriver in the USGS boat.

Northern Fulmars, Black-legged Kittiwakes, and Common Murres have all been tested for and contained harmful algal bloom (HAB) toxins. Since 2015, the USGS has worked with a variety of stakeholders to develop testing methods and research projects to better understand the geographic extent, timing and impacts of algal toxins in Alaska marine ecosystems.

A Northern Fulmar on the water offshore of Anchor Point, Cook Inlet on July 18, 2018.

USGS scientists Mayumi Arimitsu and John Piatt deploy a mid-water trawl to collect forage fish and zooplankton in Cook Inlet, Alaska.

USGS scientists John Piatt and Mayumi Arimitsu process the catch from a mid-water trawl to collect forage fish and zooplankton in Cook Inlet, Alaska.

USGS ecologists map and monitor vegetation and landscape characteristics at long-term ecological monitoring sites on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, AK

In 2018, biologists conducted a second population survey to reassess the population status and habitat associations of Pribilof rock sandpipers breeding on St. Matthew and Hall Islands in the Bering Sea, Alaska. Previous work estimated the population size at approximately 19,800 birds (Ruthrauff et al. 2012).