AWI researchers have, for the first time, been able to measure how much carbon from thawing soils remains in the ocean and how much is released into the atmosphere. Their findings revealed that microorganisms are picky gourmets. Permafrost in the Arctic stores large quantities of organic carbon. When the frozen ground thaws or coastal sections […]
As presidential bill signings go, H.R. 6496 wasn’t a particularly exciting one for the nation on July 31, 1946. But it would prove historic for the University of Alaska and the future state. It was the day that President Harry Truman signed legislation creating what today is the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. The […]
Before being patched with thick black asphalt during recent weeks, the roads across Goldstream Creek’s swampy valley bucked my car like a whitewater raft in the Nenana River canyon. This is not news. I’ve bobbed over these road waves for 60 years. I first felt them as a kid riding the original gravel roads in […]
Located 60 miles above the Arctic Circle, Coldfoot is a busy truck stop on Alaska’s Dalton Highway. Step off the gravel pad, which underlies a year-round population of 34, and you’ll head into several hundred miles of dense boreal forest and the mountain tundra of the Brooks Range. It’s midsummer and peak travel time […]