Background Articles

Berry pickers have long reported that the number of wild berries has been diminishing, and a 26-year study is now confirming the unexplained decline.

The $100 million Pretty Rocks Bridge will cross the site of a landslide that has closed the road at Mile 45 since 2021.

Bristol Bay’s prolific salmon runs are also made possible because of the effective and transparent management of the Alaskan salmon fishery, according to both Hill and Schindler. Decisions are made in real time, on the ground — or, to be precise, overlooking the water — compared to the much more cumbersome and bureaucratic Canadian system.

An assessment by geotechnical experts will need to be completed in order to know the stability of the slide and understand continuing risk.

The rapid pace of climate change is affecting the Arctic at a more accelerated pace than anywhere else in the world.

Hail severity will increase in most regions of the world while Australia and Europe are expected to experience more hailstorms as a result of climate change, an international review led by a UNSW Sydney researcher has found.

An evacuation alert has been issued by Yukon Emergency Measures Organization for areas of Tagish, Marsh Lake and Lewes River Road. This alert is due to high water and flooding in the areas. Water levels have exceeded what they were in the 2007 flood.

As grape harvest time nears across Greece, winemakers are worried about the impact on output from a succession of extreme weather events.

A Fairbanks high school student has discovered five species of earthworms in Interior Alaska, including one possibly native to North America.

The scientist noted that the amount of phosphorus, which is essential for cyanobacterial growth, in the Gulf has dropped by around 60 percent compared to their worst, peak levels.

Pori and Rovaniemi are among the areas to be worst affected in the coming decades, the Finnish Climate Change Panel warned in a new report.

Called yedomas in Russia, the mounds of land are much more populous there.

CWD was first recorded in Saskatchewan in 1996 on a game farm, but has since moved into the wild deer, elk and moose populations, with wildfire-like infection rates in some areas. Up to 70 per cent of male deer are infected with the fatal disease, says a wildlife health specialist.

The specific "medical" smell of whale meat may be caused by liver disease or the animals' diet. Chukchi Sea hunters began noticing the pungent, unpleasant smell in some whales about 20 years ago. Recently, the number of stinky whales has increased. Scientists with Beringia National Park analyzed the isotopic composition in 46 samples of gray whales. “Stinky” whales had significantly lower levels of heavy nitrogen. Scientists still must understand whether this is a result of liver disease or a diet based on algae. Scientists hope to study more high-quality samples of “stinky” whales.

This strain does not seem to pose a serious risk to people but there's concern for backyard flocks and the wild birds that are a food source for many Alaskans.

Q fever is a febrile illness caused by infection with the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It is most often transmitted by inhalation of the bacteria after it is shed by infected livestock. The antibody prevalence in NFS samples from 2009 and 2011 (69%) was significantly higher than in 1994 (49%). The antibody prevalence of SSL samples from 2007 to 2011 was 59%. All NFS vaginal swabs were negative for C. burnetii, despite an 80% antibody prevalence in the matched sera. The significant increase in antibody prevalence in NFS from 1994 to 2011 suggests that the pathogen may be increasingly common or that there is marked temporal variation within the vulnerable NFS population.

The number of gray whales migrating along the Pacific Coast of North America has steadily declined by nearly 40 percent from a 2016 peak, and the population produced its fewest calves on record this year, according to U.S. research released on Friday.

Two resolutions brought before the Alaska Federation of Natives during this year’s annual convention called for efforts to reduce salmon bycatch for fish that return to the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.

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