The U.S. Geological Survey recently awarded the Alaska Earthquake Center a $2.85M one-year award to operate and strengthen Alaska’s earthquake monitoring system. The AEC at the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute has worked daily with the USGS on earthquake issues since the first MOU was signed in 1987. “The importance of this current award is […]
Ice that floats on far-north oceans has been dwindling the last few years. Scientists have described the shrinking of this solar reflector — once bigger than Russia and now taking up less space than Australia — as a breakdown of the world’s refrigerator. But a group of researchers have found a sliver of good news […]
A new project will make it possible for scientists to better track a suite of phenomena in Alaska ranging from earthquakes to wildfires to sea ice. The five-year, $6.9 million project funded by the National Science Foundation will enhance measurements of Arctic change across western and northern Alaska. It’s led by the Alaska Earthquake Center, […]
SOLOMONS, MD (November 11, 2020)–Arctic researchers Jacqueline Grebmeier and Lee Cooper have been visiting the Bering and Chukchi seas off Alaska for nearly 30 years, collecting information about the biological diversity of the watery world under the sea ice to understand how marine ecosystems are responding to environmental changes. This year, a late-season research cruise […]
The Arctic’s dramatic changes — warmer winters, earlier springs, shrinking ice and more human development — are impacting native animals. Researchers have long been observing the movements and behavior of animals in this region, but it’s been difficult to discover and access these data for meaningful collaborations. Now scientists from around the world have established […]
Will Harrison, who knew the world’s bumpy plains of ice as well as his old neighborhood in Saint John, New Brunswick, has died. He was 84. From his arrival at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks in January 1972, the Canada-born Harrison mapped out and executed studies of glaciers from Antarctica […]
Within their bulbous bodies, Steller sea lions of the western Aleutian Islands seem to carry more mercury than sea lions closer to mainland Alaska. By looking at tiny bits of fish and squid, a graduate student is trying to find out where that mercury is coming from. Steller sea lions drape their chocolate bodies […]
Katie Kangas operates a bed-and-breakfast in Ruby, Alaska. On the morning of October 15, she turned to look out her picture window, toward the cabin next door. She was waiting for her client to switch the light on, at which point she would step out and deliver his breakfast. Staring out into the darkness, […]
As boreal forest wildfires increase in severity and frequency, new patterns of post-fire recovery are emerging. Research led by Jill Johnstone and colleagues at the U.S. National Science Foundation-supported Bonanza Creek Long-term Ecological Research site found that recent wildfires led to changes in tree species dominance that are persisting through post-fire succession in Alaska’s boreal forests. Boreal black […]