Background Articles

The North Slope offers a marginal place for a moose because far fewer willow shrubs grow there than in the boreal forest. Moose are recent invaders of the North Slope due to climate warming and expanding willow growth.

Alaska’s longest and most popular hunting season ended early this year. The Delta Junction bison hunt usually extends from October to March, but the state limited this year’s season to just two weeks, and only 50 animals were taken, because last winter’s heavy snow and ice buildup wiped out nearly a third of the Delta bison herd.

Some Southeast fishermen skipping fall season entirely, other’s say season has been “hit or miss”

The recent closure of the Bering Sea snow crab and Bristol Bay red king crab fisheries has some Western Alaska towns taking a hard look at their futures, including St. Paul.

For the first time ever, the Bering Sea snow crab fishery will not open for the upcoming season. The Bristol Bay red king crab fishery will also be closed for a second year in a row.

King crab legs for $199 a pound? There’s a reason for that.

The vast majority of callers at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting last week called for a reduction in bycatch limits, which they said would help reverse a dramatic trend of salmon declines on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers.

It's become the norm in recent years — the closure of the once-popular recreational salmon fishery on the Yukon River. And it's happening again this summer, for both chinook and chum salmon.

With marine heat waves helping to wipe out some of Alaska’s storied salmon runs in recent years, officials have resorted to sending emergency food shipments to affected communities while scientists warn that the industry’s days of traditional harvests may be numbered. Salmon all but disappeared from the 2,000-mile (3,200-kilometer) Yukon River run last year.

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.

The Interdepartmental Working Group approved a list of priority measures to eliminate environmental damage in the town of Usolie-Sibirskoye, Irkutsk Region. This was reported by the press service of Deputy Prime Minister Victoria Abramchenko.

A combination in Colorado of paltry spring snow, warmer temperatures that triggered earlier melting of winter mountain snowpack, feeble rain through summer, and parched soil from previous dry years led to this formal label.

There were no bugs buzzing around the lights in the parking lot.

A lack of wild bees and managed honeybees is limiting pollination and yields for certain crops on farms in British Columbia and across the United States, a collective of researchers has found.

Clouds of the insects can stretch for miles, devouring vegetation and destroying crops. Locust experts say time is running out to get the swarms under control because they multiply so quickly.

The Arctic Salmon Project collected 2,400 samples from the western Arctic this year — more than the past 20 years combined.

The Mulchatna herd was not at the peak numbers it once had decades ago. Over-hunting, migration changes and wolf predation could be leading causes of decline in herd.

In just a few years, 8 million native angasi oyster hatchlings have been placed in the waters off Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, on the recycled mollusc shells collected from restaurants. They've turned empty, sandy seabeds into thriving ecosystems.

Around the world, 17 countries are currently facing extremely high water stress. Climate change is making the problem worse.

Average daytime temperatures in Guatemala have risen over the past decade, while crop-damaging frosts are more common.