Background Articles

A tick found on the Avalon Peninsula tested positive for Lyme disease, but provincial health authorities say the risk to residents remains low.

Sitka had an early bloom that led to high shellfish toxins in April, and there is currently a paralytic shellfish toxin advisory across Southeast for recreational and subsistence harvest.

Francisella tularensis Subspecies holarctica in Stranded Beluga Whales, Cook Inlet, Alaska, USA

UAF undergraduate Leanne Bulger discovered a persistent hole in a Fairbanks forest emitting unusually high CO₂ levels—likely due to thawing permafrost microbes—and led a team using probes, gas analyzers, and radar to study its depth and gas flux.

The Arctic tundra, which historically acted as a carbon sink, is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs due to permafrost warming and increased wildfires, as reported in the NOAA 2024 Arctic Report Card.