Approaching Juneau from the north. Mendenhall Glacier is seen in middle of image.

Approaching Juneau from the north. Mendenhall Glacier is seen in middle of image.

Approaching Juneau from the north. Mendenhall Glacier is seen in middle of image.

Sitka rose at Sitka.

Devil's club. Note red fruit and thorns. In Sitka National Historic Park.

Salmon berry.

Arctic cotton.

Cloudberry bush in the fall outside Inuvuk.

Cloudberry bush in the fall outside Inuvuk.

Meadow near Pilgrim Hot Springs with fireweed in foreground.

Meadow near Pilgrim Hot Springs with fireweed in foreground.

Cloudberry bush with lone cranberry in lower right.

Cranberries with predator eaten egg.

Mushroom (Amanita muscaria) famed for its hallucogenic properties. Can be toxic.

Mushroom (Amanita muscaria) famed for its hallucogenic properties. Can be toxic.

Rhodent nibbled mushroom. Note incisor lineations.

Blueberries on the tundra (Vaccinium sp.)

Blueberries on the tundra (Vaccinium sp.)

Blueberries on the tundra (Vaccinium sp.)

Cloudberries and blueberries (a photograph of a photograph at Tombstone Territorial Park) in Ogilvie Mountains.

Gwich'in women gathering juck (human-edible berries)

Arctic poppy

Small scraggly black spruce in foreground with shallow active soil layer while larger trees are located on deeper active layer with more nutrients.

Small scraggly black spruce in foreground with shallow active soil layer while larger trees are located on deeper active layer with more nutrients. Golden trees are poplars in the fall.

Tundra scene along the Dempster Highway

Combination of forest fire and melting permafrost causing radical changes to local ecology

Strange fern configuration around base of white spruce tree.

Tundra scene along the Dempster Highway

Tundra vegetation in the fall. White material is reindeer lichen, the source of food for reindeer and caribou in the winter.

Beautiful rock arch

The epitome of a desert island. No vegetation is visible on this white sand island seen from offshore. The structure is the Jarvis Island lighthouse. This island is less than 1/2 degree south of the equator.

A deserted barge left on the reef which has become a vegetated islet.

A tropical islet.

A tropical islet with palm fronds oriented in the direction of the prevailing winds.

Looking over the reef to Palmyra Island. The NOAA ship Hi' ialakai is offshore in the left of the image.

In the shallow aquamarine waters of the lagoon at Palmyra Island.

In the shallow aquamarine waters of the lagoon at Palmyra Island.

A tropical islet

A tropical islet

Vegetation including the ubiquitous palm trees of the tropical Pacific cover Palmyra Island and its associated offshore islets.

Vegetation including the ubiquitous palm trees of the tropical Pacific cover Palmyra Island and its associated offshore islets.

Vegetation including the ubiquitous palm trees of the tropical Pacific cover Palmyra Island and its associated offshore islets.

Vegetation including the ubiquitous palm trees of the tropical Pacific cover Palmyra Island and its associated offshore islets.

Palmyra Island seen looking astern from the NOAA Ship Hi'ialakai as it proceeds to its next project area.

An offshore basaltic rock continually battered by the sea.

Village on bay

A view along the Samoan coast

Pago Pago Harbor

A view over the lush Samoan vegetation to the Pacific Ocean

A view over the lush Samoan vegetation to the Pacific Ocean