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 […]
Forty years later, another plastic canary has come home to roost. In August, University of Alaska Fairbanks scientist Ben Jones was hiking near Drew Point on the northern coast of Alaska. He noticed pilot Jim Webster walking toward him, while flicking a little yellow Frisbee his way. That yellow plastic disc, about 7 inches round, […]
Most of the large animals that have walked the surface of Earth are no longer here. Why? Dan Mann thinks it’s because our recent climate has been too stable, at least when compared to the wacky ups and downs of the last ice age. Mann, a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor, presented his idea at […]
When my boss, Sue Mitchell, was in Tibet recently, she asked a local guide if the glaciers there were shrinking. The guide told her no, the glaciers were fine. When she returned to Alaska, Mitchell asked the same question of glaciologist Martin Truffer, who also works at UAF’s Geophysical Institute. He said no, Himalaya glaciers […]