Background Articles

The global surge of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has led to significant outbreaks and the need for vigilant surveillance and proactive measures to manage and mitigate future outbreaks.

The U.S. Department of the Interior released a 1,200-page supplemental environmental impact study (EIS) on the proposed Ambler Access Road in Alaska, which reveals potentially greater social and environmental impacts than previously thought, including concerns about disrupting traditional hunting and fishing lifestyles and causing permafrost thaw.

The sand dunes in Hooper Bay, Alaska, which serve as a protective barrier against storms and preserve the community's cultural history, are rapidly eroding and may lead to the relocation of the village. The dunes were once home to sod houses and artifacts dating back to 1600 A.D. The loss of the dunes threatens not only subsistence food resources but also the community's connection to its past. As the dunes continue to erode, there are concerns about the potential relocation of the community and the preservation of their stories and artifacts.

Coastal Alaskans in Hooper Bay and Chevak are struggling to find subsistence foods, such as berries and underground caches of roots called “mouse food”, due to the impact of Typhoon Merbok's storm surge and a cold, rainy summer.

Researchers say climate change is playing a big role in the collapse, which has left thousands of people along the river without the salmon they depend on. 

Swedish crayfish sold in stores have been found to contain high levels of PFAS chemicals, with four out of seven packages exceeding the safety limit set by EU law, according to the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

Moose in Southeast Alaska are being harvested in new areas, indicating a potential expansion of their population and distribution.

More than 80 per cent of B.C.'s water basins are experiencing level 4 or 5 drought conditions, with salmon in many parts of the province struggling to make it to their spawning grounds.

The number of moose in Swedish forests has decreased by a third in the past decade, leading hunters to worry about the future of the annual moose hunt and calling for lower hunting quotas to stabilize the population.

"I am concerned about high levels of PFAS contamination in the drinking water?"

“Particularly when it comes to the topmost 20 metres of the water column, just below the sea ice, there was no available data on the zooplankton,” Hauke Flores, a researcher from the  Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI),said in a statement. “But it’s precisely this hard-to-reach area that’s most interesting,

Severe Vibrio vulnificus infections in the United States are associated with warming coastal waters, with an increase in infections in the Eastern United States and an expanded geographic range.

A "weed smackdown" at an Anchorage park is part of a long-running campaign to stop the spread of plants that are harming the natural ecosystem.

A decline in the population of sea otters, a well-known predator of urchins and other kelp-eating critters, led to the spread of “urchin barrens” along the Pacific coast, where urchins have mowed down entire kelp forests. Now, researchers are trying to figure out if, and how, other predators such as sunflower stars could play a complementary role in protecting the kelp forests.

In Southeast Alaska, and across the state, climate change is bringing more rainfall, less winter snowfall and hotter temperatures. According to the project’s lead researcher Alex McCarrel, those changes disrupt berry development because a berry plant’s life cycle is precisely tuned to its environment.

Commercial fishing openers are only available to individuals registered as catcher/sellers. On the Kuskokwim, the only one registered is Fran Reich.

The most-expensive project in the nationwide initiative is $25 million for Alaska to replace a dozen culvert sites along the Parks Highway.

The R/V Sikuliaq is a familiar sight in the Port of Nome. The ice-breaking research vessel is owned by the National Science Foundation and operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This year, while the vessel is out at sea it will be collecting water that could signal whether a bloom is occurring.

The current outbreaks of avian influenza (also called “bird flu”) have caused devastation in animal populations, including poultry, wild birds, and some mammals, and harmed farmers’ livelihoods and the food trade. Although largely affecting animals, these outbreaks pose ongoing risks to humans.

As king salmon decline in the Bristol Bay region, changes to king salmon harvest include reduced bag limits, area closures, as well as the introduction of youth-only fisheries in the Naknek River.