Images

Female walruses and their young must haul out of the water to rest between foraging bouts.

Colin and Colby use ground penetrating radar to measure the depth to ground ice in the watershed

Adult female walruses on ice floe with young.  Notice the radio tag borne on her her upper mid back. 

This tag will monitor resting and foraging behavior and convey the information back to USGS scientists.

Catch of forage fish from a trawl in Prince William Sound, Alaska. Trawling was part of detecting long-term changes in forage fish populations.

A bald eagle rests in a tree with a small sea otter pup it has just snatched from the water. Once pups are a few weeks older they have grown too large for eagles to lift. Female otters with very small pups often only do short foraging dives and continuously monitor and reposition their pups to keep them from being predated.

A helicopter waiting to pick up geologic mappers and move them to a new location in the western Alaska Range in south-central Alaska. Helicopters are an essential part of geologic fieldwork in the many remote, rugged regions of Alaska.

A Tufted Puffin on the water

One of two trawl winches on the  R/V Alaskan Gyre

The research vessel Alaskan Gyre is near a glacier in Prince William Sound, Alaska.

Low-lying, salt-tolerant goose grazing lawn in foreground, giving way to higher elevation, salt-intolerant tundra in background.  Geese require vegetation that is higher in quality and lower in biomass than caribou.

Scientist holding an Yellow Warbler on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska.  This photo is part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystems Boreal-Arctic Transition program.

Hydraulic controls on the aft deck of the  R/V Alaskan Gyre

Ninespine stickleback experimental release. The addition of small-bodied ninespine stickleback to fishless thermokarst ponds provided valuable information on their ability to influence invertebrate prey. Through consumption, ninespine stickleback substantially reduced invertebrate biomass during the 6-week experiment.

Stream outflow from a lake on the Arctic Coastal Plain. Surface water connectivity affects the occupancy of fish species in lakes, influencing richness, composition, and food web complexity.

Greater white-fronted geese on the Arctic Coastal Plain

Gray-cheeked Thrush with a band from the Seward Peninsula in Alaska.

USGS scientists holding a Varied Thrush recenly banded on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska.

Two Least Auklets sitting on rocks on Kasatochi Volcano four years after the catastrophic eruption in 2008.

A Least and Crested Auklet on Kasatochi Volcano in 2012

A Crested Auklet egg wedged between rocks on Kasatochi Volcano in 2012. They laid there eggs in crevices because of the lack of vegetation on the island due to the August 2008 catastrophic eruption.

Scientist holding an Arctic Warbler on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska.  This photo is part of the Changing Arctic Ecosystems Boreal-Arctic Transition program.