Publications

In 1980, when the U.S. Congress enacted the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), it also mandated a study of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Section 1002 of ANILCA stated that a comprehensive inventory of fish and wildlife resources would be conducted on 1.5 million acres of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain (1002 Area). Potential petroleum...

The Porcupine caribou herd has traditionally used the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, for calving. Availability of nutritious forage has been hypothesized as one of the reasons the Porcupine caribou herd migrates hundreds of kilometers to reach the coastal plain for calving (Kuropat and Bryant 1980, Russell et al. 1993). Forage quantity and quality and the...

Lesser snow geese (Anser caerulescens caerulescens) and Canada geese (Branta canadensis) use several salt marshes in Cook Inlet, Alaska, as stopover areas for brief periods during spring migration. We investigated the effects of geese on nitrogen cycling processes in Susitna Flats, one of the marshes. We compared net nitrogen mineralization, organic nitrogen pools and production in...

Calving caribou (Rangifer tarandus) of the Central Arctic herd, Alaska, have avoided the infrastructure associated with the complex of petroleum development areas from Prudhoe Bay to Kuparuk (Cameron et al. 1992, Nellemann and Cameron 1998, and Section 4 of this document). Calving females of the Porcupine caribou herd may similarly avoid any oil field roads and pipelines developed in...

Following translocations to the outer coast of Southeast Alaska in 1965, sea otters have been expanding their range and increasing in abundance. We began conducting surveys for sea otters in Cross Sound, Icy Strait, and Glacier Bay, Alaska in 1994, following initial reports (in 1993) of their presence in Glacier Bay. Since 1995, the number of sea otters in Glacier Bay proper has...

Since the Twelfth Working Meeting of the IUCN/SSC Polar Bear Specialist Group in 1997, a number of changes in the management of polar bears have occurred in Alaska. On October 16, 2000, the governments of the United States and the Russian Federation signed the “Agreement on the Conservation and Management of the Alaska-Chukotka Polar Bear Population.” This agreement provides substantial...

Fecal-indicator bacteria were sampled at 14 stream sites in Anchorage, Alaska, USA, as part of a study to determine the effects of urbanization on water quality. Population density in the subbasins sampled ranged from zero to 1,750 persons per square kilometer. Higher concentrations of fecal-coliform, E. coli, and enterococci bacteria were measured at the most urbanized sites. Although...

We studied orientation of nest sites relative to nearby vegetation for dabbling ducks (Cinnamon Teal, Anas cyanoptera; Blue-winged Teal, A. discors; Gadwall, A. strepera; Mallard, A. platyrhynchos; and Northern Shoveler, A. clypeata) and Short-eared Owls (Asio flammeus) in ungrazed grassland habitat during 1995–1997 in westcentral Montana. We estimated an index of vegetation height and...

Traditional field methods of assessing effects of fluctuations in food supply on the survival and reproductive performance of seabirds may give equivocal results. In this project we applied an additional tool: The measure of stress hormones in free-ranging seabirds. Food stress can be quantified by measuring base levels of stress hormones such as corticosterone in the blood of seabirds...

No abstract available

No abstract available

The U.S. Geological Survey, the Nation’s leader in producing and maintaining earth science data, serves as an advisor to Congress, the Department of the Interior, and many other Federal and State agencies. Nationwide datasets that are easily available and of high quality are critical for addressing a wide range of land-planning, resource, and environmental issues. Four types of digital...