High summer is here in middle Alaska. North of Fairbanks, in bright sunshine, alder flycatchers are perched in spruce tops, just arriving from Bolivia and Peru. A few steps away, accompanied by the smell of sulfur, dozens of carrion flies buzz on and above a moose carcass. Permafrost expert Tom Douglas has led me […]
A scientist has an idea for reducing global carbon-dioxide emissions — fight Alaska forest fires more aggressively. Carly Phillips, an ecologist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, thinks there is a unique Alaska opportunity to keep carbon in the soil, and in tissues of living trees and other plants. “Alaska stores nearly one half […]
The evidence is in: Snowshoe hares near Wiseman eat lots of dirt. “I have thousands and thousands of photos of hares eating soil in this one little spot,” said Donna DiFolco, a biologist and cartographer with the National Park Service. DiFolco has studied hares in the eastern portion of Gates of the Arctic National Park […]
Plants and soil in the Arctic tundra absorb and store mercury released into the atmosphere by industry and mining in the Earth’s temperate regions, leading to soil mercury levels five times higher than in lower latitudes, according to a new study by researchers supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The research was published this […]
A team of researchers from the University of Bristol have recently shown that ecosystems created by melting glaciers in the Arctic are sensitive to climate change and human activity. Melting ice is exposing vast landscapes that are colonised by simple forms of microbial life. These microbes in Arctic soils must cope with short […]