Publications

Black-legged Kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) have recently experienced widespread population declines and frequent colony failures throughout the North Pacific. At Glacier Bay National Park, the Margerie Glacier colony was censused visually in 1991 through 1993. In 1993 a new photographic census technique was also tested to assess its feasibility, accuracy, and ease of use, Three years of...

Information on the size, distribution, and productivity of the California sea otter population is broadly relevant to two federally mandated goals: removing the population’s listing as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and obtaining an “optimal sustainable population” under the Marine Mammal Protection Act. Except for the population in central California, sea otters...

Alloparental care in birds generally involves nonbreeding adults that help at nests or breeding adults that help raise young in communal nests. A less often reported form involves the amalgamation of broods, where one or more adults care for young that are not their own. We observed this phenomenon among Bristle-thighed Curlew Numenius tahitiensis broods in western Alaska during 1990...

The Texas coast has experienced considerable urban, industrial, and agricultural growth during the 20th Century. The region provides important wintering habitat to many avian species, including lesser snow geese Chen caerulescens caerulescens. This paper draws the biological and ecological fields into an historical perspective by examining available literature on the development of the...

Alaskan sockeye salmon typically spawn in lake tributaries during summer (early run) and along clear-water lake shorelines and outlet rivers during fall (late run). Production at the glacially turbid Tustumena Lake and its outlet, the Kasilof River (south-central Alaska), was thought to be limited to a single run of sockeye salmon that spawned in the lake's clear-water

Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill, 347 oiled sea otters (Enhydra lutris) were treated in rehabilitation centers. Of these, 116 died, 94 within 10 days of presentation. Clinical records of 21 otters dying during the first 10 days of rehabilitation were reviewed to define the laboratory abnormalities and clinical syndromes associated with these unexpected deaths. The most common...

Morphological, behavioral, and life-history differences between Pacific salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) populations are commonly thought to reflect local adaptation, and it is likewise common to assume that salmon populations separated by small distances are locally adapted. Two alternatives to local adaptation exist: random genetic differentiation owing to genetic drift and founder events...

We studied relationships between body size of female Black Brant goslings (Branta bernicla nigricans) late in their growth period and first year survival, eventual adult body size, breeding propensity, and size and volume of clutches they eventually produced to examine the relationship between growth and fitness in this population. We indexed body size by calculating PC1 scores based on...

Survival of young is an important and poorly understood component of waterfowl productivity. We estimated survival of black brant (Branta bernicla nigricans) goslings during summers 1987-89 on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, to determine timing and magnitude of gosling mortality and to compare methods of estimating gosling survival. Eighty-two percent of radio-tagged adult females (n...

Coho salmon from 10 Washington populations were incubated under controlled conditions to determine the levels of variation in time to hatch among populations and families within populations. The average incubation rate was somewhat slower than that estimated from a quantitative model derived from British Columbia populations, and was slightly faster than that predicted by a Washington...

Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) satellite data were acquired and composited into twice-a-month periods from 1 May 1991 to 15 October 1991 in order to map vegetation characteristics of the Alaskan landscape. Unique spatial and temporal qualities of the AVHRR data provide information that leads to a better understanding of regional biophysical characteristics of vegetation

We measured apparent metabolizability of organic matter, gross energy, nitrogen and cell wall constituents of pelleted alfalfa by Lesser Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens. We also used simultaneous measurements of energy expenditure and apparent metabolizable energy intake to estimate heat increment of feeding and net energy for production and maintenance. Apparent...