Officials are still examining the substance in a lab to determine what it is, but DEC suspects it’s black tar or asphalt.
The Arctic’s like an air conditioner or refrigerator for the global climate...And as the Arctic warms, partly because the sea ice is going away, it’s like you’re opening that refrigerator door.
At a lab in Kodiak, researchers are working to understand whether crabs can adapt to ocean acidification.
Researchers from the University of Washington used 80 years of data to figure out how much warming fish could withstand. They discovered fish in the tropics are already living in water at the upper end of their threshold.
Biologists are investigating a surprising connection between two animals that aren’t exactly well loved in parts of Southeast. Gustavus locals suspect wolves are picking off deer at a popular hunting spot on an island near the mainland.
Ocean acidification threatens some of Alaska’s most lucrative crab fisheries. But there’s one ray of hope: it’s possible that crabs might be able to adapt to the changing oceans. The big question scientists are researching at Bob Foy’s lab in Kodiak is – will they have enough time?
In 2014, a warm water system — known as the Blob — wreaked havoc in the waters of the Gulf of Alaska. The relationship between extreme weather events and climate change is complicated. But scientists are getting closer to figuring out how the two are linked.
The Baldwin Peninsula near Kotzebue has seen a massive increase in beavers over the last two decades, according to new research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
"These ridges that we’re standing on, there would have been more of them, and they would have been bigger," ice researcher Andy Mahoney said. "The features that we now see, they’re something of a shadow from the past." Listen now
One ecologist wonders, for the yellow cedar forests and the people who care about them, what comes after climate change and environmental loss in Southeast Alaska?
Scientists found an enriched uranium particle over the Aleutian Islands and don’t know where it came from.
“It’s an area that I and some other colleagues have started thinking about: can you get methane forming in terrestrial environments? But it’s a very new area of science,” carbon scientist Katey Walter Anthony said.
Typically, cholera is associated with tropical destinations. But recently, the bacteria that can cause the disease was found in subsistence herring eggs in British Columbia. As Southeast Alaska tribes get ready to gather herring eggs, it’s left some people wondering about the future.
On Tuesday night, the state of Alaska saw thousands of lightning strikes. “Most of the 3,800 lightning strikes were concentrated in the Northwest Arctic,” said BLM Alaska Fire Service spokeswoman Beth Ipsen. There are several communities in close proximity to new fires.
One important factor is the depth of the lake. But there are other variables too.
For the third year in a row, seabirds are washing up dead along the coastline in Alaska. Hundreds of birds have been discovered along a stretch of the Bering Sea, on the Pribilof Islands and as far north as Deering. Julia Parrish said the thin bodies of the dead fulmars and shearwaters washing up on shore suggest the birds are struggling to find enough to eat. So far, about 800 have been discovered along the coast of the Bering Sea. Parish said early lab results don’t point to disease. It looks like the birds are starving to death.
The novelty of seeing a jumbo squid in Unalaska is not wearing off: a second one washed ashore Monday night.
What has eight arms, two tentacles and washed ashore on a beach in Unalaska Monday night? A more than six-foot long squid.
How will climate change affect health in Alaska? Dangerous travel conditions could cause more accidents, warmer temperatures could spread new diseases and the topsy-turvy weather could worsen mental health. Those are some conclusions from a new state report released Monday. Listen now
"Currently we don't have any studies specifically looking at what factors are affecting those demographics," said Jason Caikoski, a wildlife biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. Listen now
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