Background Articles

The study is base on total flying insect biomass in 63 nature protection areas in Germany over the course of 27 years.

Recent decline of sea ice habitat has coincided with increased use of land by polar bears (Ursus maritimus) from the southern Beaufort Sea (SB), which may alter the risks of exposure to pathogens and contaminants. We assayed blood samples from SB polar bears to assess prior exposure to the pathogens Brucella spp., Toxoplasma gondii, Coxiella burnetii, Francisella tularensis, and Neospora caninum, estimate concentrations of persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and evaluate risk factors associated with exposure to pathogens and POPs. We found that seroprevalence of Brucella spp. and T. gondii antibodies likely increased through time, and provide the first evidence of exposure of polar bears to C. burnetii, N. caninum, and F. tularensis. Additionally, the odds of exposure to T. gondii were greater for bears that used land than for bears that remained on the sea ice during summer and fall, while mean concentrations of the POP chlordane (ΣCHL) were lower for land-based bears. Changes in polar bear behavior brought about by climate-induced modifications to the Arctic marine ecosystem may increase exposure risk to certain pathogens and alter contaminant exposure pathways.

A study of rock avalanches in the western part of Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve found that the likelihood of large slides covering about 2 square miles has at least doubled in the last five years.

Climate warming is likely to bring more episodes of heavy rain, above-freezing winter thaws and scorching hot summer days in the coming decades, says a study by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Only 1,123 adult winter Chinook salmon, once one of the biggest salmon runs on the Sacramento River and its tributaries, returned to the Sacramento Valley in 2017, according to a report sent to the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) by the...

Need a reason to be concerned about rising sea level? I've got eight.

Alberta consistently sees an average of 1400 wildfires each year however, the increased economic costs due to firefighting, equipment, damaged properties, evacuations, insurance, remote housing and food can be a challenge.

Brown bears on Alaska’s Kodiak Island are switching to a vegetarian diet of elderberries in preference to salmon because the warmer temperatures are ripening the fruit earlier in the year. Normally the bears would eat up to 75 per cent of the salmon that swim up the rivers to spawn up until about late August. And, when this plentiful supply of protein started to dry up, the bears would switch to the elderberries that usually come into fruit in late August or early September.

Chugach State Park hikers survey the damage from hot days in July when the rainforest burned.

Habitat of the endangered Vancouver Island marmot is disappearing as the warming climate allows trees to grow higher up mountainsides, turning alpine meadows into forest. Adam Taylor, executive . . .

How has temperature changed in each country over the last century? This data visualisation shows temperature anomaly – the departure from the long-term average – by country from 1900-2016. Visualisation by Antti Lipponen (@anttilip) of the Finnish Meteorological Institute based on GISTEMP data (CC BY 2.0).

Jim Wilder, the polar bear project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Anchorage, recently published a paper on how climate change is impacting polar bear behavior. The study is the first of its kind, combining research from the United States, Norway, Canada, Greenland and Russia to look at what motivates polar bears to attack humans.

In August 2017, Sun’aq Tribe of Kodiak was awarded funding by USFWS Tribal Wildlife Grant (TWG) Program. The two-year project, titled “Distribution, Movement and Diet of Invasive Crayfish Populations in Buskin River Watershed on Kodiak Island, Alaska” focuses on characterizing the distribution (snorkel/scuba diving surveys), movement (radio tagging) and diet (stable isotope analyses) of the Signal Crayfish population within Buskin Watershed.

On the north bank of the Kuskokwim River, 401 miles from Anchorage, lies the community of Oscarville, Alaska. In December 2014, the Oscarville Traditional Council volunteered the village to serve as the pilot community for the implementation of a holistic approach project, with the goal of creating healthy, thriving and sustainable communities by bringing together important communal pieces, including culture, housing, energy, infrastructure, water/sewer, community health and economic development. Oscarville’s candidacy for the pilot project stemmed from the sanitation, environmental ...

Climate change has warmed the waters east of Tasmania at four times the speed of the global average. But the heatwave of the southern summer of 2015/2016 was something exceptional, damaging fisheries and bringing new species to the island. It's a sign of things to come, say the researchers examining these events.

Serious and unusual outbreaks of illness from eating raw or undercooked walrus to call attention to the risks.

Warm periods are bringing the temperature up by as much as 30 C in the middle of winter

Longer hot, dry spells in the boreal forests that stretch across Alaska and the Northwest Territories create the conditions for wildfires triggered by lightning strikes.

Keeping tabs on capelin — from the shores of the Atlantic ocean to the world wide web.

Greenlanders struggle to get their lives back together and rebuild the small communities hit by the tsunami earlier this month.