Background Articles

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.

The Arctic Sounder - Serving the Northwest Arctic and the North Slope

There is danger lurking on the floor of the Bering and Chukchi seas for mussels, snails, clams, worms and other cold-water invertebrates, according to a new study led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists.

Beavers, on the other hand, leave a mark on the landscape that you can sometimes see from space.Swarming ponds, building dams and expanding waterways, beavers are moving farther and farther into the Arctic, and are changing what the region looks like.

The number of endangered beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet increased slightly the past four years, according to a new estimate by federal biologists.

A new study concludes that Antarctica is already being and will continue to be affected by more frequent and severe extreme weather events, a known byproduct of human-caused climate change.

Around 600 competitors faced what the race director called the wettest edition of the race in its 32 years. The impact on competitors, a grueling race. The impact on the trails - mud, erosion and more mud.

While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reported larva of Japanese broad tapeworm has been detected in wild pink salmon from Alaska, the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game says the discovery is nothing new.

A year after the closure of the Bering Sea crab harvests in Alaska, surveys show that crab populations are still low, raising doubts about future harvest prospects and suggesting that continued closures may be necessary.

The National Climate Assessment was released Tuesday with details that bring climate change’s impacts down to a local level.