Background Articles

First Nations in British Columbia are using AI technology to accurately count and differentiate species of wild salmon in order to inform harvesting practices and aid in conservation efforts.

Salmon runs in Alaska's Kuskokwim River show some improvement compared to last year, but overall numbers remain low, with chum and coho salmon still below long-term averages, while Chinook salmon meet escapement goals through precautionary management and sacrifices by subsistence users.

A federal report highlights the need for communities in Alaska to adapt to the impacts of climate change, which threaten jobs, revenue, and food security, particularly for rural Alaska Native communities, but also emphasizes the actions being taken by Alaskans and the importance of collaboration and funding for successful adaptation.

Sanctions and a lack of ice-class carriers have stalled Severnaya Zvezda's plans to export coal from the Taymyr Peninsula via the Northern Sea Route.

Authorities are searching for a brown bear near the village of Provideniya in Chukotka, Russia. The bear has been sighted near the village, prompting concerns for the safety of the local residents.

Unusually high numbers of the chunky little finches in Southcentral are prompting surprising questions from bird lovers.

Due to anticipated continued increased temperatures, Finland's inland fishing problems are likely to continue.

Troopers said that they have suspended the active search for two men missing from Kwigillingok, one of the hardest-hit communities. The men are related to the storm’s lone confirmed fatality, a 67-year-old woman found Monday.

Great Salt Lake is also known as America's Dead Sea -- owing to a likeness to its much smaller Middle Eastern counterpart -- but scientists worry the moniker could soon take new meaning.

A heat warning has been issued for Ottawa and the surrounding region.

Bristol Bay’s 2021 sockeye run is the largest on record: 63.2 million fish have returned to the bay, breaking the 2018 record of 62.9 million.

For more than a decade, the city of Kotzebue has been planning to establish a deep-water port facility out at Cape Blossom, about 11 miles south of Kotzebue. A new road to the port would allow goods to be delivered to town, without the lightering fee.

Arctic fox rabies is enzootic in populations of arctic and red fox populations along Alaska’s northern and western coasts. This means rabies is always present in these populations at some low level but periodically there can be outbreaks called epizootics (an outbreak in animal disease rather than an epidemic as is it is called when occurring in a human population). However, the winter of 2020-2021 ushered in a widespread outbreak with persistent and large focus in and around Nome.

Drivers on the Coquihalla could feel the heat in their cars as they rushed to clear the highway before the July Mountain fire overtook it. Somewhere in the ashes is the route for the Trans Mountain pipeline, a project that would fuel the climate change that’s making these fires worse.

The Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Torghatten Nord have signed an agreement on Norway’s first full-scale hydrogen ferry which allows for CO2 emission cuts equaling 13,000 diesel-fueled cars per year.

Decades of clear-cut logging across B.C. have disrupted the landscape's natural mechanisms for mitigating floods and landslides, according to a professor at UBC. Before logging, the forest canopy helps to collect rainfall and shade snowpack, slow down the springtime melt, and aid runoff absorption.

As the Arctic continues to warm faster than the rest of the planet, evidence mounts that the region is experiencing unprecedented environmental change. The hydrological cycle is projected to intensify throughout the twenty-first century, with increased evaporation from expanding open water areas and more precipitation. The latest projections from the sixth phase of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) point to more rapid Arctic warming and sea-ice loss by the year 2100 than in previous projections, and consequently, larger and faster changes in the hydrological cycle. Arctic precipitation (rainfall) increases more rapidly in CMIP6 than in CMIP5 due to greater global warming and poleward moisture transport, greater Arctic amplification and sea-ice loss and increased sensitivity of precipitation to Arctic warming. The transition from a snow- to rain-dominated Arctic in the summer and autumn is projected to occur decades earlier and at a lower level of global warming, potentially under 1.5 °C, with profound climatic, ecosystem and socio-economic impacts. The Arctic warms faster than other areas of the planet, which also influences precipitation. Here, the authors show that the latest CMIP6 model ensemble shows a faster Arctic warming and sea-ice loss, causing an earlier transition from a snow- to a rain-dominated Arctic than previously thought.

Biologists are collecting samples from moose and mustelids — that’s wolverines, minks and martens. There are plans to test caribou and Sitka black tail deer, as well as seals and belugas.

A tick tracking app that recently became available to residents in the N.W.T. and Yukom allows residents to report tick sightings. It also helps people identify what type of tick they've found.