The occurrence of fires in the Arctic is linked not only to warming temperatures and increasingly dry conditions, but also human activity in the region. An international research team led by the University of Zurich found that fires occurred 2.5 times more often in lit areas associated with human activity than in climatically similar unlit […]
Endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales, which have traditionally fed in the salmon-rich Kenai River throughout the summer, were absent during times of high human activity in a recent two-year period. A team led by Sonia Kumar, a Ph.D. student at UAF’s College of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, spent two years tracking belugas in the Kenai […]
Hailey Swirbul, B.S. ’21 has done everything from designing bridges to competing in the Olympics, all while completing her civil engineering degree from UAA. Despite her busy schedule, she graduated with honors and is now thinking about returning to UAA for more classes. A Colorado native, Swirbul didn’t expect to find herself skiing competitively in […]
The secret of how seals can hear in air and water has been revealed using the Natural History Museum’s collection. Seals evolved a unique ear structure for hearing in both air and water. Over 200 museum scans of living and fossil specimens revealed how this developed. Understanding how seals hear could help to protect […]