Background Articles

In recent years, researchers have documented salmon surviving in North Slope rivers, bowhead whales expanding their foraging grounds and humpbacks moving into the Arctic.

Scant snow is giving way to shaggy brown grass normally not seen until spring breakup, raising concerns now that conditions are increasingly ripe for a fast-moving fire at a time of year usually deep in the grip of winter.

In Ruby, Alaska, Indigenous families face cultural and nutritional challenges as climate change and fisheries management impact the availability of chinook and chum salmon, central to their traditions.

Alaska is experiencing rapid environmental changes, including record-high temperatures, shrinking sea ice, increased wildfires, and unusual wildlife patterns, such as the decline of salmon and the rise of snow goose populations.

A newly updated report titled 'Alaska's Changing Environment' explores the climatic shifts affecting Alaska, from landslides to late freezes, emphasizing the significant impact of climate change.

Research from the University of New Brunswick indicates that balsam fir trees are at risk due to climate change, with rising temperatures and drought conditions being key concerns.

Alaska's seafood industry is facing significant challenges due to climate change, geopolitical factors, and economic pressures. Efforts to address these issues are underway, but solutions are complex and require substantial investment and policy change.

A sudden cold snap devastated peach and wine grape crops in B.C., compounding economic challenges faced by apple-growers, leading farmers to diversify or sell their land.

Flooding in Valencia, Spain, has significantly decreased the supply of clementines to Iceland for Christmas, as only a quarter of the usual volume is expected this year.

The Northeast, which has warmed faster than the rest of the country, saw the biggest jump in mosquito days. Look up how mosquito season has changed in your town.

An Anchorage beekeeper has learned how to help his honeybee colonies survive to see spring, and he’s teaching others to do the same.

In Southeast Alaska, and across the state, climate change is bringing more rainfall, less winter snowfall and hotter temperatures. According to the project’s lead researcher Alex McCarrel, those changes disrupt berry development because a berry plant’s life cycle is precisely tuned to its environment.

As Alaskan permafrost warms, hibernating arctic ground squirrels generate less heat, causing females to emerge from hibernation up to 10 days before their male counterparts – a mismatch that could have large, cascading ecological impacts. While reduced thermogenesis due to warming temperatures could allow the squirrels to conserve energy and, thus, increase winter survival, a shortened hibernation season could also increase the exposure of the animals to hungry predators, altering mortality rates, particularly for earlier emerging female squirrels. The phenological mismatch between the sexes may also disrupt reproductive rates. And over longer time scales, continued warming in the Arctic may lead to changes in male squirrel seasonal behaviors, say the authors.

“Warmer and wetter winters shorten the winter season and prolong the growing season, which give rise to new opportunities. Among other things, this includes higher annual yield with several harvests, along with the possibility to grow new, more productive crop varieties and species,” says Dr Sigridur Dalmannsdottir at NIBIO.

Climate change is affecting all aspects of our land, and also what flies in our sky. Bird migration is changing as average temperatures rise. So what does that mean for our bird species?

The number of dogs testing positive for tick-borne illnesses has nearly doubled this year, says a Nova Scotia veterinarian. Jeff Goodall, the owner and a veterinarian at Sunnyview Animal Care, said the problems go beyond Lyme disease. Anaplasmosis is also a concern. He said dogs have been testing positive for tick-borne illnesses throughout the winter.

Drivers in much of Alaska including Anchorage will have until May 15 to remove studded tires; those in southern areas will have until May 1.

Climate change has been observed for hundreds of years by the plant specialists of three Odawa Tribes in the Upper Great Lakes along Lake Michigan. Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore is the focus of two National Park Service (NPS) studies of Odawa Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) of plants, ecosystems, and climate change. Data collected during these studies contributed to developing Plant Gathering Agreements between tribes and parks. This analysis derived from 95 ethnographic interviews conducted by University of Arizona (UofA) anthropologists in partnership with tribal appointed representatives. Odawa people recognized in the park 288 plants and five habitats of traditional and contemporary concern. Tribal representatives explained that 115 of these traditional plants and all five habitats are known from multigenerational eyewitness accounts to have been impacted by climate change. The TEK study thus represents what Native people know about the environment. These research findings are neither intended to test their TEK nor the findings of Western science.

Warming soils beneath Utqiagvik are triggering erosion that threatens homes, infrastructure and cultural resources. The North Slope has seen some of the fastest changes in coastal erosion in the nation.

Researchers have detected striking changes in narwhal migration times driven by climate changes in the North. "Our long-term dataset identified that passage boundary crossing dates were associated with changing sea ice dynamics as a result of climate change," the researchers said in their paper p