Published Jul 16, 2023 by https://www.kdlg.org/people/jack-darrell

This summer is a colder, rainier, and buggier season in Bristol Bay, and across Alaska. Meanwhile, last week the world faced four straight days of the hottest temperatures on record, marking Earth’s extreme warming.

The biggest challenge of climate change for Bristol Bay salmon isn’t necessarily warming temperatures right now. It is the variability, said Bill Templin, Chief Salmon Fisheries Scientist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Of course, there is no open-shut case. Templin referenced recent research from the University of Alaska which shows that different species of salmon are associated with different temperatures and locations at sea. This may provide part of the reason why some salmon species are booming while others, like chinook, are under threat. As sockeye are pushed to the top of that climate bubble, other species that respond less favorably to warmer sea surface temperatures begin to tip over the edge.

But what is that tipping point for Bristol Bay sockeye?

Templin believes we have to go back to the lakes to understand what a tipping point may look like.

"Tipping points have been seen in other systems, maybe not the way that we often think of them. But kind of a point where - not a point of no return, so to speak - but where systems flip into a new mode."  

Published Jul 16, 2023 by Nathaniel Erickson

First things first: This white stuff is a form of protein, and it actually has a name: albumin. This particular protein as described by the Oxford Dictionaryis water soluble and coagulable with heat, which explains why it changes shape during the cooking process.

Like Dr Donald Kramer, former professor of seafood science at the University of Alaska, explains Cook’s Illustrated’s Kitchen SmartsWhen fish is cooked, the albumin denatures (in other words, the molecular bonds in the protein are broken, giving it a looser structure) and is pushed from inside the fish onto its surface.

Published Jul 16, 2023 by Fifty-six Alaska athletes

We are athletes from Alaska, and we support transgender children playing sports on teams that align with their gender identity. Our backgrounds are diverse, ranging from K-12 to NCAA Division 1-level competitive sports and beyond. We believe all children deserve the same opportunities to play, lose, win and learn.

It can be hard to understand what it means to be transgender, especially if you’ve never met a transgender person. But we can all agree that transgender kids should be treated with dignity and respect, just like everyone else. Trans kids are kids, just like your kids and like the kid you used to be. Trans kids like all the same things those kids like. They like to learn, dance, play, sing and compete in sports.

In 2021, the Alaska Legislature proposed a statewide anti-trans sports ban that was stopped after overwhelming public testimony, and a similar ban by the Alaska School Activities Association was tabled after public testimony earlier this year. But now the Alaska Board of Education has proposed a similar regulation change that would violate every student’s privacy and prohibit trans children from playing sports on teams that match their gender identity. We want to encourage the Board of Education to consider how that change would hurt trans children and all of Alaska’s young people.

Published Jul 16, 2023 by Julie Stricker

A group of women gathered in the OneTree Alaska classroom on the University of Alaska Fairbanks campus last week to begin a project to weave 50 years of climate data into art, one day, one row at a time.

The Tempestry Tapestry Project is an offshoot of the Tempestry Project (tempestryproject.com), a global collaboration of fiber artists who encode climate data into knitted, crocheted or woven items as a way to spread environmental education and climate activism. That project dovetails with OneTree’s mission to engage learners of all ages in boreal forest education, citizen science and forest product development.

“We are centrally concerned with phenology, seasonality and climate change,” said Jan Dawe, OneTree’s director. Phenology is the study of cyclic and seasonal natural phenomena, especially in relation to climate and plant and animal life. OneTree Alaska is part of the UAF Institute of Agricultural, Natural Resources and Extension.

“Our Tempestry Tapestry Project provides a wonderful way to combine the birch sap data we collect every spring with Rick Thoman’s green-up index and Susan Harry’s pollen data,” Dawe said.

OneTree Alaska’s Tempestry Tapestry Project is based on the data collected from 50 years of tracking green-up in Interior Alaska, beginning in 1974. The project maps green-up, the flow of birch sap and pollen over a 92-day period between March 1 and May 31, with the exception of 1975, Dawe said. Meteorologist Ted Fathauer and Thoman created the algorithm based on degree days to predict green-up. And while science is the backbone of Tempestry, Brooks said the OneTree weavers aren’t bound to faithfully reflect the daily stripes in their work for this particular project. She is already planning to weave the stripes according to the actual temperatures.

Published Jul 16, 2023 by Ned Rozell

I was sad to learn recently that Craig George was missing and presumed dead when a raft he was floating upon hit a logjam in the Chulitna River on July 5. The Chulitna flows south from Broad Pass in the Alaska Range. George had run that river many times.

George, 70 at the time of the accident, was an icon of northern science, having lived much of his life in Barrow, now Utqiaġvik, the northernmost community in the United States. The retired biologist with the North Slope Borough was a world expert on bowhead whales who had the respect of scientists worldwide and the residents in his adopted town.

Published Jul 16, 2023 by Iris Samuels

The melting permafrost, which once held together the soft ground into which the road had been chiseled, is set to continue. Landslides in other parts of the park — away from the road — pop up occasionally, indicating the ongoing impacts of higher temperatures and disappearing permafrost.

In a study published last year, researchers from the International Arctic Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks found that climate change is likely to lead to a higher landslide risk along the Denali Park Road in the coming years, and park staff are already tracking around 150 sites where damage is occurring. None are as serious as Pretty Rocks — yet.

Published Jul 15, 2023 by Yvonne Krumrey, KTOO

If they were lucky, Juneau residents wandering the Behrends neighborhood may have stumbled upon something magic last week. Every year, a fairy forest pops up ever so briefly along Evergreen Avenue. 

These designs are all the handiwork of Sarah Neicko, a University of Alaska Southeast professor of behavioral health. She was inspired to make a fairy forest when she bought her house 5 years ago. 

The forest has been taken down for the year, but Niecko says to stay tuned to see when it pops up again next summer. She doesn’t like to advertise it, though. 

“I think there’s something special about ‘When is the fairy forest going to happen?’” Niecko said. “It kind of adds to the mystique.”

One hint? It’ll be a sunny week when she sets it all up again.

Published Jul 15, 2023

Mt. Shishaldin's explosive eruption continued Saturday, and a continuous ash plume extended over 80 miles to the SSE from the volcano with an altitude of about 16,000 ft above sea level. 

Seismicity remained elevated for over 6 hours and frequent explosion signals were being detected at regional infrasound (pressure sensor) networks.

Some explosions sent ash plumes as high as 20,000 ft above sea level.

Due to the duration of the current activity and the extent of the distributing ash cloud the Aviation Color Code was raised to RED and the Volcano Alert Level was raised to WARNING.

The recent magnitude 7.3 earthquake located 55 mi (89 km) SW of Sand Point is not related to volcanic activity.

On Sunday, Mt. Shishaldin's explosive eruptive activity declined.