DELTA JUNCTION — On this rock outcrop 30 feet above the gray Tanana River and green hayfields cleared from the forest below, archaeologists have possibly found evidence of the canine companions of early Alaskans. Eight students and professionals are now troweling the floury tan soil of Hollembaek’s Hill to learn more about the distant past […]
Recent long-term studies revealed a three-quarters reduction of insects in parts of Germany and an 80 percent decline of pollinating flies at a field site in Greenland. What’s going on with numbers of Alaska insects? Two scientists recently completed a study on the abundance and variety of insects in the spruce forests of Alaska. If […]
“You guys are the result of thousands of years of selection,” Fran Kohl said. “You haven’t scratched the surface of what you can do with those bodies and brains.” Our biologist friend gave that much-needed pep talk as she shuttled me, Bruno Grunau and Forest Wagner to Eagle Summit, an alpine high point rising above […]
A new machine-learning system developed at the University of Alaska Fairbanks can automatically produce detailed maps from satellite data to show locations of likely beetle-killed spruce trees in Alaska, even in forests of low and moderate infestation where identification is otherwise difficult. The automated process can help forestry and wildfire managers in their decisions. That’s […]