Publications

We review recent accounts of the foraging ecologies of five species of small auklets found in the Bering Sea. These birds eat a wide variety of zooplankton and micronekton. Least Auklets Aethia pusilla and Whiskered Auklets A. pygmaea, as far as is known, primarily eat copepods, whereas Created Auklets A. cristatella appear to specialize on euphausiids, at least during the breeding...

Spectacled eider (Somateria fischeri) populations in western Alaska are now less than 4% of the numbers estimated in the early 1970s. In 1992, an estimated 1721 nesting pairs remained on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. Causes of this rapid and continuing decline of -14% per year are undocumented. Many aspects of spectacled eider biology remain unknown, including their marine foraging habitats...

Laysan albatrosses (Diomedea immutabilis) are among the most prominent bird species which interact with commercial fisheries in the North Pacific. They are attracted to fishing nets and vessels and feed extensively on animals caught in nets, waste fish, offal, and refuse discarded from vessels. Approximately 17,500 individuals were killed in the five major high seas driftnet fisheries in...

In the North Pacific, the breeding distribution of Northern Fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) includes about equal numbers of very large colonies (50,000-500,000 individuals) and relatively small ones (5-5,000 individuals). The almost complete segregation of light and dark colour phases between adjacent colonies in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotsk suggests there is little gene flow among the...

Biomarkers may be used to determine chemical exposure and effects in several important ways. These include (1) evaluation of new agricultural or industrial chemicals for effects, (2) screening of municipal or industrial effluents, (3) determining the geographic distribution of chemical effects in the environment and their changes over time, (4) determining the identity and source of...

The black brant is a sea goose that depends on coastal habitats from high arctic nesting sites in Canada, Alaska, and Russia to wintering areas in the Pacific coastal states, the Baja California peninsula, and mainland Mexico estuaries. Population estimates are based on aerial surveys in Mexico, California, Oregon, and Washington during mid-winter. Despite much annual variability in...

Abundance, distribution, and habitat selection of breeding and moulting Pacific Black Brant were studied on Wrangel Island in 1989-91. Two nests and

Following the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska, sea otters (Enhydra lutris) that appeared to be contaminated with oil, that were in danger of becoming contaminated, or that were behaving abnormally were captured and taken to rehabilitation centers. Exposure to oil was assessed by visual examination when otters arrived at the centers. Degree of oil exposure was...

Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) and geese often occur together, especially at sites used by geese for migrational staging and wintering. Although numerous studies have been directed at these taxa, there are only anecdotal accounts (Parris et al. 1980, Bennett and Klaas 1986, Bartley 1988) of Bald Eagles killing healthy geese at any time of the year (but see Raveling and Zezulak...

It is often incorrectly assumed that plutons have a relatively uneventful structural history after emplacement. The 151 Ma Guadalupe Igneous Complex (GIC) in the Foothills Terrane, California, was involved in three post-emplacement events: (1) ∼30° of southwestside-up tilting during ductile regional faulting and contraction, (2) burial of the pluton from ∼4 to 12 km during crustal...

Because artificial nests can facilitate controlled experiments of nest success, we used them to assess whether human visitation, nest density, vegetation structure, and proximity to habitat edge could affect depredation of duck nests on Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska. More (P 0.01) nests in a plot visited daily (100%) were depredated than those in plots visited at...

Results from two experiments are presented that contrast differences in life-history traits and population dynamics between two species of live bearing fishes (Gambusia affinis and G. holbrooki) that hybridize across portions of the southeastern United States. Progeny from parental holbrooki and holbrooki-affinis F1 crosses exhibited larger lengths at birth, at 15 days, and matured...