Background Articles

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.

Russian researchers have identified thousands of craters on the Kara Sea bed due to explosive methane gas releases, posing potential risks to underwater gas pipelines.

Thawing permafrost in the Arctic region is releasing significant amounts of carbon and nitrogen, posing environmental challenges due to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Climate change is causing a 'microbial awakening' in Alaska's ecosystems, altering food webs as fungi become a major energy source for small mammals.

This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers — and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the water table and flow into the ocean.

“We’re dropping in elevation because we live on ice cubes,” says a scientist trying to map permafrost.

A sobering warning on Earth Day: Scripps researchers say record-breaking ocean temperatures and toxin levels are harming local sea life.

For the fourth year in a row, weekly summer water quality tests show that most Ketchikan beaches have elevated levels of bacteria that could make people sick. That happened this year even without dozens of cruise ships sailing through the Inside Passage and discharging wastewater.

Researchers have identified an invasive blood-sucking parasite on mud shrimp in the waters of British Columbia's Calvert Island. The discovery represents the northern-most record of the parasite on the West Coast and is likely an indication of its ability to spread without human transport.

Nine waterways on P.E.I. have experienced anoxic events so far this year, something experts say is unusual. 

Wild salmon have higher rates of the parasites when ocean fish farms are near, research shows

Scientists thought it was dead. But it’s heating water faster than the global average.

Feather, fur or fin, all creatures contend with viruses.

Even those athletes of our rivers, Atlantic salmon, usually aren’t as healthy as they look.

A study of tissue samples taken from 150 Atlantic salmon found 14 separate infectious

With the number of COVID-19 cases outside of China increasing 13-fold, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global pandemic on Thursday, urging governments “to take urgent and aggressive action” to stop its spread.

Scientists sampling ice cores from a glacier in China discovered 28 viruses that had been frozen in time for as long as 15,000 years, and were not previously known to mankind.

BRUNY ISLAND, TASMANIA (WASHINGTON POST) - Even before the ocean caught fever and reached temperatures no one had ever seen, Australia's ancient giant kelp was cooked.. Read more at straitstimes.com.

In first-of-its-kind research, NOAA scientists and academic partners used 100 years of microscopic shells to show that the coastal waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global ocean average—with the seafood supply in the crosshairs.

As sea ice in the Arctic decreases due to climate change, it’s opening the way for more than cruise ship travel. Scientists have found evidence that links the decline of sea ice to the emergence of a virus in Arctic marine mammals that has killed thousands of seals in European waters.

Toxic algal blooms which can be fatal to humans, are increasing across the world as temperatures rise, according to the first global survey of dozens of freshwater lakes based on 30 years of NASA data. 

Scientists have made a new discovery they hope will provide more insight into declining salmon populations in our province.