The impacts of predator loss and climate change are combining to devastate living reefs that have defined Alaskan kelp forests for centuries, according to new research published in Science. “We discovered that massive limestone reefs built by algae underpin the Aleutian Islands’ kelp forest ecosystem,” said Douglas Rasher, a senior research scientist at Bigelow Laboratory for […]
A few nights ago, stretched in a tent on the blue-gray gravel of the Lowe River floodplain, I woke to a series of sharp jolts. It felt like the earth was a giant halibut, and I was the fishing pole. Earthquake! The ratcheting westward lasted only a few seconds, but I felt the helplessness […]
“We are headed towards a seasonally ice-free Arctic Ocean, and this year is another nail in the coffin.” Arctic sea ice shrank to the second-lowest extent since records began over four decades ago, federal scientists said Monday, prompting renewed warnings about the climate crisis. The minimum ice cover for 2020 was likely reached on […]
The rapidly melting Malaspina Glacier in southeastern Alaska’s Wrangell-St. Elias National Park could create a new ocean bay, one feature in what may be the largest landscape transformation underway in the United States. To better understand these changes, the National Science Foundation recently awarded researchers from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and two partner […]