The American Meteorological Society released its annual State of the Climate report this week, providing a comprehensive overview of global conditions in 2024. University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists contributed data and analysis for the Arctic and Alaska regions, as they have for years. Rick Thoman was the lead editor of the Arctic chapter this year, and several […]
Analysis of bowhead whale poop shows that more toxins from typically warm-water toxic algae species are entering Arctic food webs as northern oceans warm and lose sea ice. The findings are based on nearly 20 years of feces samples collected from bowhead whales harvested for subsistence purposes by Alaska Native people living on the Beaufort […]
An early exit of Alaska’s spring snow means more acreage could burn during the coming wildfire season, which begins when the snow melts off, says new research from the University of Alaska Fairbanks “The most significant finding is that during many of the largest, most extreme fire seasons, we had early snowoff,” explained Peter Bieniek, […]
The Alaska we experience today and our children will experience in the future is not the Alaska of the past. According to the 2024 Arctic Report Card, released this week by the National Ocean and Atmospheric Administration and co-authored by ten University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists, warming is affecting caribou populations, heat-trapping gas releases and […]