Background Articles

The Arctic Sounder - Serving the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope

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.

There are new signs that killer whales, which are swimming farther north and staying for longer periods of the year in Arctic waters, are increasingly preying on Alaska’s bowhead whales. A newly published study found that 2019, an especially warm year in the region, also seems to have been an especially dangerous year for bowheads.

As big fish crop up in unexpected places, experts say that they're relocating to new environments as waters warm.

Beavers were not previously recognized as an Arctic species, and their engineering in the tundra is considered negligible. Recent findings suggest that beavers have moved into Arctic tundra regions and are controlling surface water dynamics, which strongly influence permafrost and landscape stability. Here we use 70 years of satellite images and aerial photography to show the scale and magnitude of northwestward beaver expansion in Alaska, indicated by the construction of over 10,000 beaver ponds in the Arctic tundra. The number of beaver ponds doubled in most areas between ~ 2003 and ~ 2017. Earlier stages of beaver engineering are evident in ~ 1980 imagery, and there is no evidence of beaver engineering in ~ 1952 imagery, consistent with observations from Indigenous communities describing the influx of beavers over the period. Rapidly expanding beaver engineering has created a tundra disturbance regime that appears to be thawing permafrost and exacerbating the effects of climate change.

Restrictions exist for East and West Mackey, Sevena, Union, Derks and Stormy lakes in 2022

The North American beaver has expanded its range in recent years and is now colonising Arctic territory, researchers have found. More than 12,000 beaver ponds have been mapped in western Alaska – double the amount found in the region 20 years ago.

Salmon abundance is down and population distributions have changed, according to NOAA’s 2021 surface trawl survey.

In September 2021, photographer Dmitry Kokh visited Kolyuchin Island and found the strange sight of polar bears that had taken over an abandoned settlement.

Reports of groups of up to 10 mule deer in Southeast Alaska near Skagway have been received by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and there is evidence that fawns are being born here. Studies show that nearby populations harbor a variety of diseases that have biologists concerned.

While the Kenai Peninsula is relatively lucky that the ecosystems here are fairly intact, there are still a handful of invasive species making their way into the streams, fields and gardens here.

The warming climate in Alaska and across the circumpolar North is creating new health and safety risks for people, animals and ecosystems. This piece is the part of a series that explores zoonotic diseases and other hazards emerging in a warming and thawing Alaska. One warm June day, Joey Ausel found an odd speck

Polar bears have started scavenging in areas populated by humans, as well as coming ashore at the same time seabirds are nesting and snacking on their eggs. This new behavior is due to shrinking of their hunting grounds, where they usually hunt for smaller porpoises and seals.

Warming waters have driven thousands of ocean species poleward from the equator, threatening marine ecosystems and the livelihoods of people who depend on them.

A never before seen species of Ermine (the Haida Ermine), has been discovered in Southeast Alaska. It is one of three main ermine species in the world. Researchers say the isolation of Prince of Wales Island and Haida Gwaii allowed the species to develop and that there could be more discoveries to be made.

Also dubbed the murder hornet, the invasive wasps threaten pollinators and have been found in communities along both sides of the Canada-U.S. border and on Vancouver Island. B.C. officials will focus on the Fraser Valley in their efforts to track and eradicate Asian giant hornets this year.

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration believe they have identified a new species of whale in the Gulf of Mexico. The Rice's whale is a filter feeder that can grow to 42 feet. It's also critically endangered. There are believed to be fewer than 100 of them left.

People swimming at Sydney's world famous Bondi Beach had a close shave with several sharks. Drone footage showed dozens of people taking a morning dip and swimming past a large school of salmon, unaware that up to two sharks, believed to be Grey Nurses, were feeding on the fish nearby.

Bottlenose dolphins on Scotland’s east coast are expanding their range and swimming further south, according to one of the world’s longest-running studies of the species.