The living dead: Wood frogs across Alaska will soon be frozen solid
After a half-year in the frozen living-dead stage, wood frogs thaw in springtime and hop away to a nearby breeding pond as if nothing happened.
Science
Middle Alaska begins its transition to a quieter, snow-covered world
Snow cover encourages colder air temperatures by reflecting the sun’s rays, not letting the dusky ground absorb warmth.
Sifting Alaska volcano data paydirt could help researchers forecast eruptions
A team of UAF doctoral students will dig into collected volcano data to see if they can find a key to better understanding volcano behavior.
In fast-thawing Siberia, radical climate change is warping the earth beneath the feet of millions
The permafrost that once sustained farming - and upon which villages and cities are built - is in the midst of a great thaw, blanketing the region with swamps, lakes and odd bubbles of earth that render the land virtually useless.
New monitors aim to help detect landslides in Sitka
The project was initiated after heavy rainfall in 2015 triggered a landslide that struck a Sitka subdivision and killed three men, she said.
Early-morning 5.0 earthquake near Talkeetna felt widely in Southcentral Alaska
The quake was reported by hundreds of people from Anchorage to the Susitna Valley.
Home sweet volcano: Alaska fur seals thrive on an unlikely island
Why the seals have chosen volatile Bogoslof Island over the dozens of other uninhabited Aleutian islands is a mystery to scientists.
Raccoons, wild pigs and other bad ideas for Alaska
Over the years, many people have tried to introduce non-native species to Alaska and native species to places where they didn’t previously live.
Alaska and feds must do more to clear drinking water of cancer-linked PFAS chemicals, report says
The Dunleavy administration this year scaled back water pollution standards for the chemicals.
Rapid tundra ‘greening’ on Alaska’s North Slope linked to retreating sea ice
But retreating sea ice might also be causing more cloudiness elsewhere, which could limit greening farther south, scientists say.
Changes to Alaska’s environment are many, and so fast
In a new publication, UAF researchers summarize what scientists have observed in this place that is changing faster than anywhere else in the U.S.
As Bering Sea ice melts, Alaskans, scientists and Seattle’s fishing fleet witness changes ‘on a massive scale’
Researchers now are uncertain when and to what extent the ice may return, and have scrambled to better understand the consequences of back-to-back years of its loss.
‘Planet walk’ puts some things in perspective
In a little less than a mile at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, walkers span the relative distance from the sun to dwarf planet Pluto.
Thermometers are at work everywhere in cold-conscious Alaska
But even though the state sees frigid cold, Alaska and Hawaii have identical record high temperatures.
Groups sue over federal rules they say could harm belugas in Alaska’s Cook Inlet
The lawsuit seeks to block rules that would allow certain oil and gas operations by Hilcorp Alaska.
Atmospheric rivers are sometimes good, sometimes bad for Alaska
These great firehoses in the sky can reach from near the tropics to the far north.
There’s a giant volcanic rock ‘raft’ floating in the Pacific Ocean
The pumice blob has the potential to deposit new, healthy coral around the badly damaged Great Barrier Reef, scientists say.
Mummy squirrel tells of a different Alaska 20,000 years ago
Not many ground squirrels live in Interior Alaska today, probably because the current landscape of tundra and boreal forest plants doesn’t provide them enough nutrition.
Alaska sets another first in testing of unmanned aircraft
Pilots and scientists from based at UAF conducted the first official beyond-visual-line-of-sight unmanned aircraft flight in the country approved by the Federal Aviation Administration.
When biologists stocked a deer-heavy Southeast Alaska island with wolves
The study, conducted in the 1960s, showed how many factors play into the dynamics of a wild animal population.