Geology topics

Research about Pribilof Islands

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Pribilof Islands.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2013

Estimating animal resource selection from telemetry data using point process models

Analyses of animal resource selection functions (RSF) using data collected from relocations of individuals via remote telemetry devices have become commonplace. Increasing technological advances, however, have produced statistical challenges in analysing such highly autocorrelated data. Weighted distribution methods have been proposed for analysing RSFs with telemetry data. However, they can be computationally challenging due to an intractable normalizing constant and cannot be aggregated (i.e. collapsed) over time to make space-only inference. In this study, we take a conceptually different approach to modelling animal telemetry data for making RSF inference. We consider the telemetry data to be a realization of a space–time point process. Under the point process paradigm, the times of the relocations are also considered to be random rather than fixed. We show the point process models we propose are a generalization of the weighted distribution telemetry models. By generalizing the weighted model, we can access several numerical techniques for evaluating point process likelihoods that make use of common statistical software. Thus, the analysis methods can be readily implemented by animal ecologists. In addition to ease of computation, the point process models can be aggregated over time by marginalizing over the temporal component of the model. This allows a full range of models to be constructed for RSF analysis at the individual movement level up to the study area level. To demonstrate the analysis of telemetry data with the point process approach, we analysed a data set of telemetry locations from northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) in the Pribilof Islands, Alaska. Both a space–time and an aggregated space-only model were fitted. At the individual level, the space–time analysis showed little selection relative to the habitat covariates. However, at the study area level, the space-only model showed strong selection relative to the covariates.

Alaska↗

USGS1979

Preliminary report on the petrography and geochemistry of basalt from the Pribilof Islands and vicinity, southern Bering Sea

Alkali basalt from the Pribilof Islands has been described by several workers (Washington and Keyes, 1930; Barth, 1956; Cox and others, 1966; and Kay, 1977). This report complements the previous reports by providing new petrographic and geochemical data for samples from St. Paul and St. George Islands and from two dredge hauls near St. George Island (Fig. 1). The geologic setting of the Pribilof Islands region is given by Barth (1956), Hopkins and Einarsson (1965), Cox and others (1966), Hopkins and others (1969), Marlow and others (1976), and Hopkins and Silberman (1978). Quaternary basalt (Table 1) (Cox and others, 1966; Hopkins, 1976; Simpson and others, 1979) is extruded onto the structurally high Pribilof Ridge (Marlow and others, 1976) which consists of rocks as old as late Jurassic (Vallier and others, 1979). Barth (1956) recognized the structural implication of alkalic volcanism in back-arc environments. We plan to interpret alkalic volcanism in the Pribilof Islands within the context of recent tectonic and petrologic findings in the southern Bering Sea. Funds for this project were provided jointly by the U.S. Geological Survey and Bureau of Land Management. Funds from the Bureau of Land Management were managed by the Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program (OCSEAP) office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Alaska↗

USGS1966

Exposure of basement rock on the continental slope of the Bering Sea

Profiles of repetitive seismic reflections reveal that the Bering continental slope, outer shelf, and rise overlay an acoustically reflective "basement" which extends at least 750 kilometers parallel to the trend of the slope. This acoustic basement is usually covered by several hundred meters of stratified sediments at the top and bottom of the slope; however, it is exposed in submarine canyons and flanking spurs along the main part of the slope for a distance of at least 550 kilometers northwest of the Pribilof Islands. The lithologic composition and the age of the rocks of the acoustic basement are not known. However, its probable seismic velocity of 3.1 to 3.7 kilometers per second suggests that it is composed of volcanic rocks or lithified sedimentary rocks or both. The regional geology suggests that the acoustic basement is the upper surface of folded late Mesozoic rocks which were locally intruded by granite and serpentine. The structure of the Bering slope, as deduced from the acoustic profiles, suggests that the surface of the basement has been monoclinically flexed and faulted between the shelf edge and the deep Aleutian Basin.

Alaska↗