Mini-microplastics uncovered in the stomachs of filter-feeding marine organisms Nothing seems safe from plastic contamination. A new study by NSF-funded researchers at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography suggests there could be a million times more pieces of plastic in the ocean than previously estimated. Biological oceanographer Jennifer Brandon found some of the tiniest microplastics in seawater at much higher […]
University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists presented their work at the American Geophysical Union’s fall meeting in San Francisco this week. Here are some research highlights from the world’s largest Earth and space science meeting. A decades-old research project on Alaska’s North Slope indicates that deciduous shrubs shift more carbon from the soil to the atmosphere […]
On Dec. 15, 1989, a pilot who had flown a 747 passenger jet all the way from Amsterdam was looking forward to landing in Anchorage. There, he would take a short break before continuing to Tokyo. Descending over Southcentral Alaska, he and his co-pilot saw what looked like an inky storm cloud ahead. Flying into […]
“If this were an annual health check-up, I think we’d have to say that the Arctic is chronically sick and getting worse.” In addition to warning that “the feedback to accelerating climate change may already be underway,” the U.S. government’s latest report on conditions in the Arctic reveals that temperatures in the region are persistently warming, […]
