Background Articles

Fourteen Alaska fisheries have been declared federal disasters by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Gina Raimondo issued the declarations on Jan. 21. The announcement includes Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta salmon fisheries, and could lead to federal funding for fishermen.

The Skagway Traditional Council is asking harvesters to avoid blue mussels until the population rebounds.

On Dec. 8 and 9, U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Don Young held a Zoom meeting between salmon researchers, tribes, and managers. Their goal was to unite these groups’ efforts to determine the cause of the ongoing Chinook declines and the sudden chum crash in Western Alaska. After two days of meetings, the groups are still at odds over what’s causing the declines, and what the best way to move forward is.

Multiple fish populations in the Bering Sea have experienced a slight decline, according to the 2021 Bottom Trawl survey.

Drought and extreme heat that scientists link to climate change are altering the UNESCO-protected marshlands. Iraq's average annual temperatures are increasing at nearly double the rate of Earth's.

Sebastian Jones, Wildlife Analyst

Scientists, concerned hikers and residents have observed more stressed and dying bigleaf maple across urban and suburban neighborhoods as well as in forested areas. While forest pathologists have ruled out several specific diseases, the overall cause of the tree’s decline has stumped experts for years.

Thick-billed murres are feeling the heat from climate change — more so than other Arctic species, new research has found. The black-plumed Arctic seabirds nest for hours on exposed cliffs, making them particularly vulnerable to sun and warming temperatures, according to Emily Choy, a McGill University biologist. Choy’s research focused on a colony of murres

A marine biologist at the University of British Columbia estimates that last week's record-breaking heat wave in B.C. may have killed more than one billion intertidal animals living along the Salish Sea coastline.

A researcher's quest to understand a mysterious mass extinction leads to cud-chewing culprits.

It's long been suspected that wild turkeys are to blame for Maine moose tick infestation. A new study proves that theory wrong.

Warming seas appear to have led to a large reduction in the number of puffins around Iceland in recent decades.

The tiny fishing fleet from St. Paul is losing the fight for halibut, up against factory ships that throw away more of the valuable fish than the Indigenous fishers are allowed to catch.

Warming waters have driven thousands of ocean species poleward from the equator, threatening marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of people who depend on them.

As sea levels rise along the Atlantic coast, saltwater is intruding inland, killing trees and turning coastal forests into marshes. Should scientists try to slow the process, or work with it?

There was a strong correlation between the observations of dead birds and wildfires and the toxic gases they produced, but not with the early winter storms.

The climate crisis has caused a steep decline in butterfly sightings in the Rocky Mountain range. This decline is also consistent among other insect populations around the world. If this die-off continues, a great percentage of natural pollinators will cease to exist.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, at least 358 manatees have died in Florida since Jan. 1. This is a staggering number compared to just 122 deaths by this time last year.

The study shows the destruction of the kelp forest was related to an explosion in the population of purple sea urchin, which eats it, and two warm water events that lasted from 2014 to 2016.

Decline in system underpinning Gulf Stream could lead to more extreme weather in Europe and higher sea levels on US east coast.