Background Articles

April should be prime walrus hunting season for the native villages that dot Alaska's remote western coast. In years past the winter sea ice where the animals rest would still be abundant, providing prime targets for subsistence hunters. But this year sea-ice coverage as of late April was more like what would be expected for mid-June, well into the melt season. These conditions are the continuation of a winter-long scarcity of sea ice in the Bering Sea-a decline so stark it has stunned researchers who have spent years watching Arctic sea ice dwindle due to climate change.

While it is commonly believed that lake evaporation is controlled primarily by incoming solar radiation, the researchers used modeling tools to show that other factors — from shorter ice periods to a “reallocation” of heat energy at lake surfaces — are accelerating the loss of lake water into the atmosphere. According to these findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, understanding these complex dynamics will be critical if scientists are to accurately predict the future hydrological response to climate change.

For centuries, nomads have herded livestock on the Mongolian steppe. Today, Mongolians are proud of their nomadic heritage, but globalisation and climate change are transforming the steppes and nomadic traditions. How Mongolia adapts to these new forces sweeping the steppes will determine the country’s future.

Coastal sand ecosystem returning to health after 1.5 years of work

The studies have established that even in places where plant diversity and abundance have improved, insect numbers still declined.

Four Dall sheep from the Talkeetna Mountains and two Kenai Peninsula mountain goats just made unfortunate Alaska history.

The animals became the state's first wild sheep and goats to test positive for a pathogen known as Movi that has led to deadly outbreaks among bighorn sheep in the Lower 48 and is triggering calls for restrictions on domestic livestock here.

Warmer temperatures and declining sea ice pulls foreign animals and plants to the Arctic, with drastic consequences for these sensitive ecosystems.

Creamy jasmine wildflowers once common in the Colorado high country may be vanishing as climate change brings warmer and drier conditions.

Reductions in sea ice in the Arctic have a clear impact on animals such as polar bears that rely on frozen surfaces for feeding, mating and migrating. But sea ice loss is changing Arctic habitat and affecting other species in more indirect ways, new research finds.

Late last year one of the world’s largest credit rating agencies announced that climate change would have an economic impact on the U.S.

The initial results represent 330 participants from six communities. Around 98 per cent of participants had mercury levels below the health guidance value - a baseline to assess health risks.

Polar bears live in a remote and inhospitable environment far from most human settlements. For most biologists, opportunities to observe these animals are fleeting. In fact, scientists' main resources for understanding basic behaviors of polar bears on sea ice are observations of polar bear behavior and foraging rates made by Canadian biologist Ian Stirling more than 40 years ago, combined with local traditional knowledge from Arctic indigenous peoples.

After kneeling in defrosted marine mammal goo ... doctors treated me for a seal finger infection," Peterson wrote. Seal finger is a bacterial infection that hunters contract from handling the body parts of seals. The only seals Peterson had handled were those in the log cabin. Those seals had been frozen in permafrost for decades.

A scientific paper published recently hints at how increasing winter rainfall will affect the Arctic muskox. An N.W.T. biologist says winter rain isn't good for the mammal, but it's actually warmer summers that could prove detrimental.

Average number of days with heavy rain or snow across Canada has been outside norm since spring 2013

A new study has uncovered previously unknown effects of rain-on-snow events, winter precipitation and ice tidal surges on the muskoxen.

Researchers reveal why Arctic sea ice began to melt in the middle of winter two years ago -- and that the increased melting of ice in summer is linked to recurring periods of fair weather.

Oversight of fish farming companies is lacking according to ecologist Cristian Gallo of the Westfjords Natural History Institute.

The winter season of 2016-2017 proved to be the fifth warmest on record for Georgia, sparking an unusually large number of insects during the following warm months.

This is not the first time the village of Chefornak has faced the threat of erosion and flooding, but relocating won’t be as easy as it was last time.