Background Articles

Alaskans came from all corners of the state to learn how to adapt to a changing climate at a conference in Anchorage this week.

As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have dwindled along with their habitat, leaving them “functionally extinct.”

Arctic cod are a cornerstone of the Arctic food chain as a staple food of seals and beluga whales, upon which subsistence food gatherers rely in the region’s coastal communities.

A recent report compiled by the Army Corps of Engineers and researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks documents erosion and other environmental threats facing communities in rural Alaska.

Following a season of drought, the Southeast Alaska community of Metlakatla is navigating a different relationship with water, like a number of other places in the region.

The Mulchatna herd was not at the peak numbers it once had decades ago. Over-hunting, migration changes and wolf predation could be leading causes of decline in herd.

In the North, where food prices are notoriously high, beluga whales are a staple community resource

Scientists have detected toxic algae in clams from the Bering Strait and Chukchi Sea regions of northern and western Alaska, according to a new bulletin. This set of clams was taken on August 22, 2019 about 50 miles north of Cape Lisburne.

Open water has become the November norm in the Chukchi Sea northwest of Alaska. Instead of thick, years-old ice, researchers are studying waves and how they may pummel the northern Alaska coastline.

There has been little snowfall, temperatures are above normal and there is little to no sea ice on Alaska's northern coasts.

NOAA Fisheries' summer trawl survey shows Norton Sound red king crab are moving, Arctic cod numbers have dropped significantly, and Pacific cod are continuing to increase as the Northern Bering Sea ecosystem undergoes drastic change.

Japan's magnificent great purple emperor butterfly is at risk of dying out, a nationwide research pr

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.

When scientists found that Alaska sea otters were exposed to a sometimes-deadly virus that plagues seals in the North Atlantic, they were puzzled. Phocine distemper virus had not been previously found in Alaska waters.

The fast-warming Sea of Okhotsk, wedged between Russia and Japan, is a cautionary tale of the far-reaching consequences when climate dominoes begin to fall.

For half a century, Taku had been the one known Alaskan glacier to withstand the effects of climate change – until now.

Thanks to stricter pollution laws, toxin levels have been dropping steadily in the Baltic. Concentrations of environmental toxins have dropped by as much as 80 percent.

In just a few years, 8 million native angasi oyster hatchlings have been placed in the waters off Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Western Australia, on the recycled mollusc shells collected from restaurants. They've turned empty, sandy seabeds into thriving ecosystems.

When sea otters in Alaska were diagnosed with phocine distemper virus (PDV) in 2004, scientists were confused. The pathogen in the Morbillivirus genus that contains viruses like measles had then only been found in Europe and on the eastern coast of North America.

Regulations have lowered mercury emissions globally, but the risks to ocean ecosystems and human health may be getting worse.