Alaska - Science topic

The Upper Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation (PCF) of northern Alaska offers a unique glimpse into northern high-latitude, non-marine vertebrate assemblages, providing critical data on polar ecosystems during the late Campanian (c. 73 Ma). This study presents a comprehensive taxonomic assessment of fish fossils from the PCF, including macrofossils a...

Aim Recent methodological advances for studying how animals move and use space with telemetry data have focused on fine‐scale, more mechanistic inference. However, in many cases, researchers and managers remain interested in larger scale questions regarding species distribution and habitat use across study areas, landscapes, or seasonal ranges. Poi...

Cyclic changes in snowshoe hare (Lepus americanus) fecundity have been attributed to changes in winter forage availability and predation pressure. Disentangling how nutrition and predation pressure affect snowshoe hare physiology is complex. As an herbivore of the northern boreal forests, snowshoe hares cope with extreme seasonal changes in diet, a...

Vertically resolved thermodynamic cloud phase classifications are essential for studies of atmospheric cloud and precipitation processes. The Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) THERMOCLDPHASE Value-Added Product (VAP) uses a multi-sensor approach to classify thermodynamic cloud phase by combining lidar backscatter an...

The global annual mean atmospheric CO2 growth rate in 2023 was one of the highest since records began in 1958, comparable to values recorded during previous major El Niño events. We do not fully understand this anomalous growth rate, although a recent study highlighted a role for boreal North American forest fires. We use a Bayesian inverse method...

This study examines sustainable tourism in Juneau, Alaska, and Shanghai, addressing overtourism and environmental degradation. In 2023, Juneau received 1.6 million cruise tourists, generating $375 million but straining infrastructure and accelerating glacier retreat. To tackle these issues, a mathematical model is developed using ESG criteria, SDGs...

Snow sublimation plays a fundamental role in the winter water balance. To date, few studies have quantified sublimation in tundra and boreal forest snow by direct measurements. Continuous latent heat data collected with eddy covariance (EC) measurements from 2010–2021 were used to calculate snow sublimation at six locations in northern Alaska: thre...

As one likely route by which people initially spread from NE Asia into the Americas, the West coast of North and South America warrants archaeological focus. Here, we review the earliest known lithic technological complexes of the Pacific Coast and adjacent margins from Alaska to Chile and consider their relevance for understanding the initial occu...

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) have revived two contrasting policy ideas for cushioning workers against automation: Universal Basic Income (UBI), an unconditional cash transfer, and Universal Basic Provision (UBP), a proposal to fund universal access to advanced AI tools. Drawing on randomized UBI trials in Finland, the U...

A restoration programme for peatlands in the Finnish boreal (northern mostly coniferous) landscapes points to a positive solution for creating biodiversity hotspots, carbon sinks (sites that trap and store carbon) and water protection measures. Restoration and rewilding can also alleviate equity issues associated with conservation and Indigenous an...

The family Axymyiidae includes four extant genera and nine species known from the Holarctic and Oriental regions, with only one species Mesaxymyia kerteszi (Duda, 1930) occurring in Europe. The genus Plesioaxymyia Sinclair, 2013 was first discovered in Alaska in 1962, but officially described only many years later. Up to now, the genus included one...

The planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) in coastal Arctic regions is influenced by sea breeze circulation. However, the specific mechanisms through which sea breeze affects PBLH evolution remain insufficiently explored. This study uses meteorological data, micro-pulse lidar (MPL) data, and sounding profiles from 2014 to 2021 to investigate the a...

Rhizaria are a diverse supergroup of large marine protists that are often overlooked due to their fragility, lower abundances, and wide size range relative to other plankton. Despite their global distribution, Rhizaria ecology and biogeography is poorly understood due to a paucity of datasets and use of differing methodologies. Here we present the...

Key message Provenances show a high phenotypic plasticity and the ability to grow beyond the cold treeline. Local is best can still be applied. Abstract Boreal forests situated in high latitudes face heightened susceptibility to climate extremes and global warming. Understanding the relative influence of adaptation mechanisms like phenotypic plast...

A rare and new fossil chimaeroid fish egg capsule specimen was discovered in marine lower Carmanah Group strata at Botanical Beach, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. The age of the egg capsule is late Eocene (35.35 ± 0.12 Ma), determined by strontium isotope dating and foraminifera biostratigraphy. The new specimen is a three-dimensional...

Biodiversity surveys remain a critical tool for characterizing the global species richness of parasites. In high-latitude regions of the world, characterizing parasite biodiversity is of particular importance due to the rapid rate at which the climate is changing and potentially shifting parasite distributions and abundances. We sampled a bird comm...

The expansion of deciduous shrubs into the graminoid‐dominated arctic tundra is expected to alter litter decomposition by changing litter quality and local abiotic and biotic conditions. However, it remains unclear how shrub expansion will affect litter decomposition at regional scales, where macroclimate is expected to be the dominant regulator of...

Methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulates in organisms and biomagnifies in food webs, resulting in elevated concentrations in tissues of apex predators that may negatively impact health. As MeHg is mainly produced by aquatic microbes, predators feeding in aquatic food webs tend to have higher mercury (Hg) concentrations in their tissues than those feedin...

Background Human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated cancers are vaccine preventable. In 2016, the previously recommended three-dose HPV vaccination series was changed to a two-dose series and nine-valent HPV vaccine (9vHPV) became the only HPV vaccine available in the United States. Data on longer-term duration of antibodies following a 9vHPV two-dose...

'Brown Bears' is a premier reference written by the wildlife biologists and anthropologists who have dedicated their careers to studying brown (grizzly) bears and their relationships to people.

Purpose The Alaska Mountain Wilderness Ski Classic (AMWSC) is a self-supported and self-oriented winter expedition that occurs in the remote North American Brooks Range, ∼200 km north of the Arctic Circle. Few investigations have evaluated sex-specific physiological responses under extreme cold and isolated circumstances. Our study examined sex-spe...

The engaging underrepresented voices (EUVs) in climate research project is an exploratory study into factors at the intersection of climate change and race, as well as their potential relationships to racial disparities affecting Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA), and Black residents of interior Alaska. Nationally, minority communities h...

Extreme floods and landslides in high‐latitude watersheds have been associated with rain‐on‐snow (ROS) events. Yet, the risks of changing precipitation phases on a declining snowpack under a warming climate remain unclear. Normalizing the total annual duration of ROS with that of the seasonal snowpack, the ERA5 data (1941–2023) show that the freque...

The monitoring of contaminants in Arctic wildlife is mainly designed for long-range transported chemicals and supports international initiatives to mitigate global threats from chemical pollution. As human activities increase in the Arctic, the question of potential impacts of local pollution on wildlife exposure has emerged. In this study, we exam...

Background Bimodal neuromodulation combining sound therapy with electrical tongue stimulation using the Lenire® device is emerging as an effective treatment for tinnitus. Methods A single-arm retrospective chart review of 220 patients with tinnitus from the Alaska Hearing & Tinnitus Center examines the real-world outcomes of the recently FDA-appro...

The intercultural competence and resilience of Filipino teachers navigate cultural differences and challenges of teaching in a diverse and remote environment in the global context. This study explored the intercultural competence and resilience of Filipino teachers working in Alaska, focusing on their ability to adapt and thrive in a culturally div...

Understanding the impacts of glacier change on riverine ecosystems is limited by a lack of multi-year studies in glacierized mountain catchments quantifying the magnitude and stoichiometry of riverine biogeochemical yields. Here we evaluate riverine concentration-discharge relationships using the power function between daily runoff and element yiel...

While declines in size, age at maturity, and productivity in Chinook populations have been documented in several large-scale comprehensive studies, changes in growth phenology that might underlie these phenomena have examined one to two populations at a time. We measured growth in freshwater (FW) and in the 1st through 4th year in salt water (SW1–S...

Timing and completeness of freeze‐up on northern rivers impact winter travel and indicate responses to climate change. Open‐water zones (OWZs) within ice‐covered rivers are hazardous and may be increasing in extent and persistence. To better understand the distribution, variability, and mechanisms of OWZs, we selected nine reaches totaling 380 rive...

Mapping the land area used for mining in the past is essential for guiding the remediation of affected landscapes and assessing the resource potential of related waste products. Despite significant recent progress delineating footprints of active and inactive mining globally, the known inventory of such mine lands remains incomplete. Here, I descri...

Plain Language Summary Using satellite data, researchers can now track the precise movements of ships, which may open up new possibilities for monitoring the ocean. By using precise point positioning (PPP) of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data from the R/V Sikuliaq research ship, we were able to detect tsunami waves generated by a lands...

Deaths related to pneumonia and influenza have been consistently declining overall in the United States (US). However, pneumonia remains one of the highest causes for morbidity and mortality, demographic and regional trends and disparities in pneumonia and influenza-related mortality must be comprehensively studied. This study analyzed mortality da...

Since 2015, NASA’s Arctic Boreal Vulnerability Experiment (ABoVE) has investigated how climate change impacts the vulnerability and/or resilience of the permafrost-affected ecosystems of Alaska and northwestern Canada. ABoVE conducted extensive surveys with the Next Generation Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS-NG) during 2017,...

The processes contributing to Arctic cold-season (November–April) sea salt aerosols (SSAs) remain uncertain. Observations from coastal Alaska suggest that emissions from open leads in sea ice, which are not included in climate models, may play a dominant role. Their Arctic-wide significance has not yet been quantified. Here, we create an emission p...

A warming climate is negatively affecting Arctic species that rely on sea ice to perform their life history activities. Changing sea ice dynamics have led polar bears in many subpopulations to spend more time on land, increasing the potential for human‐polar bear interactions. In Alaska, high polar bear densities have been observed at Barter Island...

Fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) from open water bodies are critical components of carbon‐climate feedbacks in high latitudes. Processes governing the spatial and temporal variability of these aquatic greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes are still highly uncertain due to limited observational data sets and lack of modeling studies incorporat...

Stream biogeochemical regimes can vary over short distances in heterogenous landscapes. In many mountainous and high‐latitude watersheds, streams fed by rain and groundwater sources coexist with streams dominated by meltwater from melting glaciers, permafrost, and seasonal snowpack. The distinct physicochemical regimes of meltwater and non‐meltwate...

We analyze changes in the maximum annual transient snowline elevation (MATSL) of glaciers for two regions in western North America from 1984 to 2024 using five satellite remote sensing datasets. MATSL reached its highest elevations in 2019 (155 m above the long-term average) for Alaska (Region 1) and in 2023 (148 m) for Western Canada and USA (Regi...

This study integrates data from all broadband seismic stations in Alaska and northwestern Canada in 1999–2022 to construct a shear‐wave velocity model for south‐central Alaska and northwesternmost Canada, using ambient noise wave propagation simulation and inversion. Our model reveals three key features, including (a) the presence of the subducting...

Plain Language Summary In Arctic regions, the snow plays an important role in regulating ground temperatures and influencing different earth processes. Acting like a blanket, the snow keeps the ground warm during the cold season and prevents heat from moving into ground during snowmelt. Snow depth and timing of snow accumulation and melt events can...

One of the characteristic ducks in Lake Mývatn, Iceland, has been the long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) which was present in large numbers during the early 1900s but declined in numbers during the twentieth century. The long-tailed duck is a circumpolar sea duck, often with longitudinal migratory routes between wintering and breeding sites. In r...

Interbreeding between hatchery-reared and wild salmon raises concerns that hatchery fish may increase the frequency of maladapted alleles in wild populations, yet divergence between hatchery populations and their original sources remains poorly understood. We explored phenotypic divergence in reproductive traits between hatchery and source populati...

Purpose: This study conducts a comprehensive analysis of environmental efficiency in the aviation industry, focusing on 19 global airline companies employing diverse business models. Methodology: Utilizing Data Envelopment Analysis for 2017 to 2022, the research quantifies efficiency levels based on input and output variables, including Fuel Consum...

Since the early 1990s, Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) has significantly advanced surface deformation measurement across various applications. Despite the successes, InSAR faces challenges in retrieving long‐wavelength deformation, particularly in vegetated regions. This is primarily due to the tropospheric phase delays and unwrappi...

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate the value of incorporating evaluation into the process of co‐produced research in pursuit of climate services. We aim to spur interest in and expand the use of evaluation throughout the climate change and climate services scientific community, whether or not evaluation is a formally required component of fun...

The relationship between reproductive ability and the residual index of body condition in three-spined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus from a population infected with the cestode macro-parasite Schistocephalus solidus in Walby Lake, Alaska, was examined. In general, reproductive activities resulted in significantly lower levels of body condition...

Permafrost regions in subarctic and arctic areas harbor substantial carbon reserves, which are becoming increasingly vulnerable to microbial decomposition as soils warm. As the seasonally thawed active layer deepens and anthropogenic disturbances escalate, accurately predicting carbon fluxes from thawed permafrost requires a comprehensive understan...

The use of telemedicine has increased substantially worldwide prompting questions about its effect on health outcomes, utilisation rates, and healthcare costs. Using de-identified data from the Alaska Tribal Health System (ATHS) and Medicaid, we evaluate how spending patterns changed for a group of telemedicine users relative to a matched sample of...

Seasonal variations in glacier motion are influenced by water supply and associated changes in subglacial drainage systems. Few studies have investigated how year‐to‐year variations in glacier runoff modify these seasonal speed patterns. We analyze more than 200 correlations between glacier surface speed and runoff for 77 glaciers (∼3,070 km²) on t...

Mining can cause environmental damage if managed improperly. Environmental impact assessments are designed to evaluate the risks of mining; however, these evaluations are hindered when mines expand their operational scope beyond activities considered in the original assessment. Our study focuses on the regulatory process of mine expansion and the N...

Snow plays a critical role in carbon cycling, vegetation dynamics, and permafrost hydrology at high latitudes by influencing surface energy exchange. Predicting snow distribution patterns is essential for understanding the evolution of Arctic ecosystems, yet scaling process‐level knowledge to landscape predictions remains challenging. Here, we anal...

Chan diagnostic plot has proven highly effective in industry as a powerful tool for diagnosing and monitoring excessive water production in oil wells. Chan identified various distinct water problem patterns exhibited by wells during their production lifecycle based on slope features: Constant water-oil ratio (WOR), Normal Displacement, Coning, Chan...

Orthopoxvirus (OPXV) genus includes emerging and re-emerging zoonotic viruses that pose threats to global health. Smallpox caused pandemics in the 20th century. Borealpox was responsible for a death in Alaska in 2024. Mpox, declared a Public Health Emergency by the WHO in 2022, with an alert reclassification in 2024. The lack of effective therapies...

The management and conservation of large mammals, such as black bears (Ursus americanus), have long been informed by genetic estimates of population size and individual dispersal. Amplicon sequencing methods, also known as ‘genotyping‐in‐thousands‐by sequencing’ (GT‐seq), now enable the efficient and cost‐effective genotyping of hundreds of loci an...

Glacier dirt cones are meter-scale cones of ice covered with sediment and rock. The cones develop through a process known as differential melt, whereby ice underlying thick debris melts more slowly than bare ice. We report observations of dirt cones on the Kuskulana Glacier, Alaska and develop a model that simulates the growth of dirt cones from de...

Much more than stories about the sky, Indigenous astronomies provide powerful, centuries-old models of knowing, being, and relating to the world. Through collaboration with more than sixty-five Dene Elders and culture bearers across thirty-four communities in Alaska and Canada, In the Footsteps of the Traveller reveals the significance of the stars...

The transition to low-carbon energy systems demands comprehensive evaluation tools that account for technical, economic, environmental, and social dimensions. While numerous studies address specific aspects of energy transition, few provide an integrated framework that captures the full spectrum of impacts. This study proposes a comprehensive techn...

The US DOE/ARPA‐E MARINER program funded a 4‐year project to determine an optimal way to grow kelps in large, nearshore and offshore arrays for the eventual purpose of biofuel production with the goal of keeping the cost below $80 USD per dry metric ton of kelp. This project specifically looked at how Saccharina latissima can be grown in the Gulf o...

Objective Apex-predator-initiated trophic cascades occur in many nearshore marine habitats that simultaneously serve as critical habitat and food sources for commercially and ecologically important species, including juvenile Pacific salmon Oncorhynchus spp. Yet the potential relationships among apex predators (e.g., sea otters Enhydra lutris), sub...

Air pollutants are primarily transported from midlatitude emission regions in winter and early spring, leading to elevated concentrations of aerosols, including black carbon (BC), in the Arctic, a phenomenon known as Arctic haze. The Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry is used to investigate potential causes of uncertainti...

American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities are at a critical juncture in health research, where combining participatory methods with advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) can promote equity. Community-based participatory research methods which emerged to help Alaska Native communities navigate the complicat...

The accumulation area ratio (AAR) of a glacier reflects its current state of equilibrium, or disequilibrium, with climate and its vulnerability to future climate change. Here, we present an inventory of glacier-specific annual accumulation areas and equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) for over 3000 glaciers in Alaska and northwest Canada (88% of the...

Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano located on Kruzof Island in the southeastern part of Alaska, USA, west of the Sitka Strait, has exhibited increased volcanic activity since 2018. To assess the historical and current intensity of this activity and explore its relationship with seismic events in the surrounding region, this study utilized data from the E...

Diminishing glaciers affect streamflow, and given the extent of glaciers in Alaska and adjacent Canada, continued glacier mass loss is likely to have profound effects on ecosystems sensitive to runoff. The effects of glacier mass loss on streamflow are likely to vary across the wide ranges of basin size, glacier cover, and precipitation in this reg...

The Robert T. Stafford Act unintentionally marginalizes Alaska’s Tribes and hinders their ability to exercise sovereignty following disasters. Although there has been significant academic analysis of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act since its passage in 1971, the monumental agreement that settled Alaska Native aboriginal land claims was not...

Using 155 distributed seismic stations spanning Alaska and western Canada, we document how environmental factors like storms and sea ice influence microseismic noise. We examine power spectral densities of continuous seismic data and focus on secondary microseisms (5–10 s) and short period secondary microseisms (1–2 s) from 2018 to 2021. We cross‐c...

Newsletter of the Alaska Entomological Society

The 2022 NASA Salinity and Stratification at the Sea Ice Edge (SASSIE) expedition measured ocean surface properties and air-sea exchange approximately 400 km north of Alaska and in the Beaufort Sea. The survey lasted 20 days, during which time screen captures from the shipboard S-band radar were collected. Our goal was to analyze these images to de...

Thomas Carroll Wilson nació en 1906 en Virginia, EE.UU. Ingresó a la Universidad de Cornell, Nueva York en 1924, y comenzó estudios de geología. En 1928, después de dejar la universidad, Tom trabajó como ingeniero de prospección minera en Arizona. En 1929, Tom dio un paso importante al abandonar la minería por la geología del petróleo, aceptando un...

The Rakhine-Bangladesh megathrust, also known as the Sumatra-Andaman Trench, is thought to be connected to the Kaladan Fault based on seismic sections, sedimentological, and stratigraphic data. However, during the Miocene, this shallow megathrust, situated within an ocean-continent subduction zone, did not exhibit typical oceanic or subduction-rela...

High‐tide flooding—minor, disruptive coastal inundation—is expected to become more frequent as sea levels rise. However, quantifying just how quickly high‐tide flooding rates are changing, and whether some places experience more high‐tide flooding than others, is challenging. To quantify trends in high‐tide flooding from tide‐gauge observations, fl...

Newsletter of the Alaska Entomological Society

Informative landslide hazard estimates are needed to support landslide mitigation strategies to reduce landslide risk across the United States. Whereas existing national-scale landslide susceptibility products assess where landslides are likely to occur, they do not address how often, which is a critical element of landslide hazard and risk assessm...

Across Alaska, there have been synchronous declines in the abundance, mean age, and size of Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha , Salmonidae), a species with immense social and ecological importance. The decline of Chinook salmon, and regulations addressing declines, have drastically impacted people who rely on Alaska's fisheries. Despite the...

Rockfall is common in steep terrain and poses a hazard to nearby communities. While rockfall triggering mechanisms are highly variable and difficult to quantify, the susceptibility of rock slopes to planar, wedge, or toppling failure can be readily assessed using kinematic analysis. As such, valley slopes with favourable joint orientations exhibit...

Changing sea-ice conditions have significant societal impacts and implications across Alaska and the Arctic. This research examined the relationship between sea ice and extreme weather events with socio-economic impacts in Nome, Alaska (1990–2020), a community that has experienced notable changes in sea ice and impacts from extreme weather events....

Subaerial rock slopes may generate a tsunami by rapidly moving into the water. Large uncertainty in landslide characteristics propagates into large uncertainty in tsunami hazard, making hazard assessment more difficult for land and emergency managers. Once a potentially tsunamigenic landslide is identified, it may not be clear which landslide chara...

Mercury (Hg) is a bioaccumulative neurotoxin that can concentrate to potentially harmful levels in higher levels of marine food webs following conversion to methylmercury (MeHg). This is of public health concern as seafood is a main protein source for many in the Pacific region. To better understand Hg partitioning and transformations in the Pacifi...

Broadband seismometers are sensitive to tilt as a consequence of their design. We used broadband data from Erebus volcano on Ross Island, Antarctica, and Augustine volcano in Lower Cook Inlet, Alaska, to make tilt measurements associated with individual volcanic explosions and investigate the near‐terminal magmatic system configuration of each volc...