Publications

The Sitka Graywacke is the westernmost and youngest unit of the Chugach accretionary complex in southeastern Alaska. Using laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy, we obtained 492 detrital-zircon ages on seven typical samples of Sitka Graywacke turbidites, which were collected in a transect across much of the unit near Sitka, Alaska. Individual grains range in age...

No abstract available.

In April 2004, more than 40 hours of georeferenced submarine digital video was collected in water depths of 15-370 m in Glacier Bay to (1) ground-truth existing geophysical data (bathymetry and acoustic reflectance), (2) examine and record geologic characteristics of the sea floor, and (3) investigate the relation between substrate types and benthic communities, and (4) construct...

The Kuskokwim mineral belt of Bundtzen and Miller (1997) forms an important metallogenic region in southwestern Alaska that has yielded more than 3.22 million ounces of gold and 400,000 ounces of silver. Precious-metal and related deposits in this region associated with Late Cretaceous to early Tertiary igneous complexes extend into the Taylor Mountains 1:250,000-scale quadrangle. The U...

In the spring of 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Menlo Park Center Council commissioned an interdisciplinary working group to develop a forward-looking science strategy for the USGS Menlo Park Science Center in California (hereafter also referred to as "the Center"). The Center has been the flagship research center for the USGS in the western United States for more than 50 years...

Much is known about the transport and fate of oil spilled into the sea and its toxicity to exposed wildlife. Previously, however, there has been no way to quantify the probability that wildlife dispersed over the seascape would be exposed to spilled oil. Polar bears, the apical predator of the arctic, are widely dispersed near the continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean, an area also...

Since the 13th Working Meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has seen the completion of many research projects and the start of many new ones. Much has been accomplished and yet we have new challenges awaiting us. This report summarises our focal questions and progress in those areas.

We evaluated the feasibility and efficiency of using swabs to collect buccal epithelial cells fromsmall (2‐ to 13‐g) birds as a source of DNA for genetic studies. We used commercially available buccal swab kits to collect samples from 42 adult and 39 nestling (4‐ to 8‐day‐old) black‐capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and from6 4‐day‐old nestling boreal chickadees (P. hudsonica). We...

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus) give birth during mid-winter in dens of ice and snow. Denning polar bears subjected to human disturbances may abandon dens before their altricial young can survive the rigors of the Arctic winter. Because the Arctic coastal plain of Alaska is an area of high petroleum potential and contains existing and planned oil field developments, the distribution of...

In a recent paper on Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus) interannual site fidelity (Iverson et al. 2004), we concluded that wintering populations were demographically structured at a finer geographic scale than that at which genetic differentiation was observed and that conservation efforts should recognize this degree of demographic independence. In a critique of our study...

Monitoring populations of auklets and other crevice-nesting seabirds remains problematic, although numerous methods have been attempted since the mid-1960s. Anecdotal evidence suggests several large auklet colonies have recently decreased in both abundance and extent, concurrently with vegetation encroachment and succession. Quantifying changes in the geographical extent of auklet...

We studied the growth and survival of Spectacled Eider (Somateria fischeri) ducklings to 30 days of age along the lower Kashunuk River on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta from 1995 to 2000. We replicated this study at a second site, Kigigak Island, in 1999 and 2000. Age-adjusted estimates of duckling mass and survival at 30 days posthatching were highly variable. Duckling survival was...