Background Articles

The 2023 Arctic Report Card highlights unprecedented summer warmth, ecological shifts, and the integration of Indigenous knowledge in understanding and adapting to climate change impacts.

Norway faces criticism for allowing companies to conduct their own environmental impact assessments for offshore wind projects, with calls for stricter regulations and better use of existing marine research to protect nature.

In the much-higher water temperatures that lingered in the 2014-19 period, juvenile chum salmon metabolism was super-charged, meaning they needed more food, said the study, by scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. But the food that was available was of low quality — things like jellyfish instead of the fatpacked krill and other prey they normally eat, the study said.

Steller sea lions are the most affected by human activities in Alaska, leading to hundreds of deaths, primarily due to entanglement in fishing gear.

Alaska communities are facing significant challenges due to climate change, including the disappearance of snow crabs, threats to subsistence hunting and fishing, and difficulties in processing and storing food, but some communities are taking action and developing local climate adaptation plans with the support of funding and collaboration between different governments and agencies.

The increase in pink salmon population in warmer waters is negatively impacting the food chain and causing a decline in other species in the North Pacific Ocean, according to a new study.

Extreme flooding on Alaska's Arctic highway in 2015 caused thaw-induced sinking in the permafrost terrain up to 3 inches deep, with the most significant effects occurring in ice-rich areas, according to a newly published study.

Nipissing First Nation in Ontario, Canada is using innovative methods, such as aerating water and replacing invasive species with wild rice, to heal environmental damage and improve the ecosystem.

Families in Hooper Bay, Alaska, who were displaced by Typhoon Merbok last year and currently live in low-income housing, may lose their housing by the end of the month due to the expiration of their temporary emergency placement.

A new study reveals that four dozen Antarctic ice shelves have shrunk by at least 30% since 1997, with 28 of them losing more than half of their ice, raising concerns about sea level rise due to climate change.

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.

Scientists are pretty good at recognizing marine heat waves. A global network of thousands of oceanic buoys and orbiting satellites allow them to see, in real time, ocean surface temperatures, changing currents and storm systems as they develop, move or stall from the Antarctic to the North Pole.

A U.S. Energy Department climate scientist visited Utqiaġvik to evaluate research progress on permafrost and climate change, highlighting the importance of accurate measurements and models in predicting future climate patterns in the Arctic.

The Baltic Sea's main herring stocks have fallen below target levels, which is an alarming sign of changes in the sea's ecosystem, according to WWF Finland.

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. 

As climate change and high costs impact Alaska's fisheries, fewer young people are entering the trade, posing challenges for the industry's future.

A research team has discovered that bottom sediment temperatures in the Russian Arctic shelf vary across different regions, with the Kara Sea having higher temperatures due to warm currents and large Siberian rivers, and the Laptev Sea and East Siberian Sea having the lowest temperatures and thicker subsea permafrost, which is important for understanding the degradation of permafrost and methane emissions in the region.

Teller is considering moving to a new subdivision site to avoid flood zones and eventually connect to water and sewer systems, with the project estimated to be completed by summer 2025.

“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,

While the ships are free to pass through the Bering Strait, its 55-mile width means that any spills would be likely to drift toward Alaska communities.