Publications

Marbled murrelets (Brachyramphus marmoratus) are coastal seabirds that nest from California to the Aleutian Islands. They are declining and considered threatened in several regions. We compared variation in the mitochondrial control region, four nuclear introns and three microsatellite loci among 194 murrelets from throughout their range except Washington and Oregon. Significant...

No abstract available.

A faunule of silicified hypercalcified "sphinctozoan" sponges has been recovered from a clast of Upper Ordovician limestone out of the Early Devonian Karheen Formation on Prince of Wales Island in southeastern Alaska. Included in the faunule are abundant examples of the new genus Girtyocoeliana, represented by Girtyocoeliana epiporata (Rigby and Potter), and Corymbospongia adnata Rigby...

Density estimation of wolves (Canis lupus) requires a count of individuals and an estimate of the area those individuals inhabit. With radiomarked wolves, the count is straightforward but estimation of the area is more difficult and often given inadequate attention. The population area, based on the mosaic of pack territories, is influenced by sampling intensity similar to the estimation...

Every day, biologists in parkas, raincoats, and rubber boots go into the field to capture and mark a variety of animal species. Back in the office, statisticians create analytical models for the field biologists' data. But many times, representatives of the two professions do not fully understand one another's roles. This book bridges this gap by helping biologists understand state-of...

No abstract available.

Alnus viridis seedlings were planted on placer mine spoil in an Alaskan subalpine watershed to bypass a seedling establishment bottleneck for A. viridis, and to evaluate the interaction between A. viridis and the dominant riparian woody plants, Salix alaxensis and Populus balsamifera. The study area was divided into 11 replicate blocks, each on a homogeneous recontoured spoil pile...

Understanding factors that influence birth mass of mammals provides insights to nutritional trade-offs made by females to optimize their reproduction, growth, and survival. I evaluated variation in birth mass of caribou (Rangifer tarandus) in central Alaska relative to maternal characteristics (age, body mass, cohort, and nutritional condition as influenced by winter severity) during 11...

Bristol Bay, Alaska, supports one of the largest and most valuable salmon fisheries in the world. Salmon abundance in Bristol Bay and other northern areas more than doubled after the 1976–77 marine climate shift. However, in 1997–98, a major El Niño event led to unusual oceanographic conditions and Bristol Bay sockeye salmon production was unexpectedly low. Nevertheless, the effect of...

Changes in driving and resistive stresses play an essential role in governing the buoyancy forces that are important controls on the speed and irreversibility of tidewater glacier retreats. We describe changes in geometry, velocity, and strain rate and present a top-down force balance analysis performed over the lower reach of Columbia Glacier. Our analysis uses new measurements and...

We modeled habitat selection by Pacific sand lance (Ammodytes hexapterus) by examining their distribution in relation to water depth, distance to shore, bottom slope, bottom type, distance from sand bottom, and shoreline type. Through both logistic regression and classification tree models, we compared the characteristics of 29 known sand lance locations to 58 randomly selected sites...

Between 1982 and 1999 blood samples were collected from 500 polar bears (Ursus maritimus) captured in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas, to determine the seroprevalence of Brucella species, Toxoplasma gondii, and Trichinella species infections. The bears were classified into four age groups, cubs, yearlings, subadults and adults. Brucella and Toxoplasma antibodies were detected by...