New research published in Science Advances reveals that right whales can survive for more than 130 years — almost twice as long as previously understood. Extreme longevity is a trait common to the right whales’ cousins, the bowheads. Scientists working with Indigenous subsistence hunters in Utqiaġvik used chemical analysis of harvested bowhead whales to show they can […]
The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $1.5 million to two University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Energy and Power projects to advance marine energy research and education. Marine energy — power harnessed from waves, tides and ocean and river currents — is abundant. While not yet widely used, the total potential marine energy […]
Scientists have uncovered the first direct evidence that ancient Americans relied primarily on mammoth and other large animals for food. Their research sheds new light on both the rapid expansion of humans throughout the Americas and the extinction of large ice age mammals. The study, featured on the Dec. 4 cover of the journal Science Advances, […]
King salmon have sustained people in Alaska for at least 12,000 years, but over the past three decades their populations have begun to dwindle. Researchers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks linked these declines to reduced body size and extreme climate conditions in the ocean and in rivers. Their study, published in October by Global Change […]