The glorious paper birch outside the window that has for the past three weeks beamed a sunny glow is losing its luster, one golden coin at a time. The 10,000 solar panels the tree has worn since early spring are releasing their grip without a sound and spiraling to the forest floor. In deciduous plants, […]
For millennia, Indigenous people living in Alaska and Canada’s Yukon territory have relied on Chinook salmon. The large, fatty fish provide essential nutrients for Arctic living and have influenced traditions and languages across generations. But over the past three decades, many communities have been unable to fish Chinook amid a sharp salmon population decline. The […]
Warming soil unleashes metals deadly to fish and food chains In Alaska’s Brooks Range, rivers once clear enough to drink now run orange and hazy with toxic metals. As warming thaws formerly frozen ground, it sets off a chemical chain reaction that is poisoning fish and wreaking havoc on ecosystems. As the planet warms, a […]
NORTH SLOPE, Alaska — “Chick chick whirrr, chick whirrr.” Although it was a recorded birdsong that chattered through each of the poplar stands we entered, I still occasionally caught myself believing we were hearing the real thing — the call of the gray-headed chickadee, last heard in Alaska in 2018. Tom Glass, a postdoctoral researcher […]