| UA News for March 4, 2024 |
| In today's news: researchers studied injuries in sled dogs which will help race vets and mushers make informed decisions about whether to take a dog out of the team during the Yukon Quest; UAA men's basketball beat Montana State Billings to earn a no. 6 seed in the GNAC tournament; UAA women's basketball also beat the no. 1 ranked team and will be going to the GNAC tournament as the no. 3 seed; a team of researchers have found a northern expansion of trees as sea ice reduces, which could lead to further warming of the Arctic; overflow or aufeis happens as underground spring water pushes up toward the surface; the UA Museum of the North open house provides an opportunity to explore museum collections and take a behind-the-scenes tour; UAF director for the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience Troy Bouffard is interviewed about military confrontation in the Arctic; UAA hockey swept their opponent this weekend for the first time since 2014; and UAA gymnastics is featured in a story about the unique athletic program at UAA.
Email mmusick@alaska.edu to suggest people to add to this daily news summary. |
| | | Study charts dog injuries’ impact on Yukon Quest finishes | Published Mar 4, 2024 by Alaska Native News Sled dogs that have wrist injuries during the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race are more likely to finish the race than dogs with other types of injury or illness, researchers have discovered.
Jenna Hattendorf, a doctoral student in veterinary medicine at Colorado State University, led the research with the guidance of Dr. Cristina Hansen, chair of the University of Alaska Fairbanks Department of Veterinary Medicine and Yukon Quest head veterinarian.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science, reviewed the vet books from the 2018-2020 races. They summarized illnesses and orthopedic injuries diagnosed in both dropped dogs and those that finished. Information from 711 records from dogs in teams that finished the race was used in the analysis, with more than 50 percent noting at least one abnormal finding.
The study’s findings may be used to help race vets and mushers make informed decisions about whether to take a dog out of the team during the race.
“Previous studies have detailed the injuries that resulted in dropping a dog from the race, but thus far, none have looked at the injuries sustained in dogs that went on to finish,” said Hansen. “We wanted to know what the chances of a dog finishing would be in order to make more informed decisions in the future.”
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| | UAA men’s basketball erases multiple double-digit deficits to beat Montana State Billings | Published Mar 4, 2024 by Josh Reed The University of Alaska Anchorage men’s basketball team came into its regular-season finale matchup against the Great Northwest Athletic Conference’s top seed, Montana State Billings, with playoff hopes up in the air, but knowing a win could keep its season alive.
After rallying from double-digit deficits in both halves, the Seawolves secured an 84-78 victory Saturday to earn a spot at this week’s GNAC championship tournament.
Even though UAA is entering the GNAC tournament as the No. 6 seed, it poses arguably the biggest threat of the entire field when the team is firing on all cylinders.
“We’re ready to go win it and that’s our goal,” Osborne said. “We’ve beaten every team in the league except Seattle Pacific, and I don’t know if we’ll get a chance to see them or not, but it doesn’t matter. We know we can play with anybody when we’re on-point offensively.”
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| | UAA women’s basketball beats nationally ranked Montana State Billings in overtime | Published Mar 4, 2024 by Josh Reed In many ways, the University of Alaska Anchorage women’s basketball team’s regular season finale at the Alaska Airlines Center on Saturday night was a microcosm of its entire 2023-24 season.
During the young Seawolves’ 84-72 overtime win over Montana State Billings, they came out of the gate swinging and ultimately stepped up as a collective when it mattered most to beat a formidable opponent.
“We’re really talented, and when this group locks in, they can do some special things,” UAA head coach Ryan McCarthy said. “Our biggest thing has been consistency this year and that’s part of the building process.”
The Yellowjackets came into the game ranked second in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference and ninth nationally in NCAA Division II. UAA’s triumph marked its third win of the season over a nationally ranked opponent. The first two occurred as part of a season sweep of Western Washington, which will be the top seed in the GNAC tournament this coming week.
While the Seawolves will head into the GNAC tournament as the No. 3 seed, they are clearly the most dangerous team of the bunch with a good shot at winning it all, given that they’ve already beaten the top two seeds and every other team in the conference at least once.
“We’re capable of beating anybody,” McCarthy said. “We took down the top two teams (in the GNAC) and two of the best teams in the country. March is a special time. We’re that team that is playing our best basketball at this point in time.”
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| | Research finds evidence that reductions in sea ice are helping tree lines spread north | Published Mar 4, 2024 by Bob Yirka A team of researchers from Alaska Pacific University, the University of Alaska Anchorage and, Northern Arizona University has found evidence that reductions in sea ice in the Arctic are helping white spruce trees move north and up mountainsides. In their study, published in the journal Science, the group compared tree-line spread in areas with reductions in sea ice and areas where little sea ice reduction has occurred.
In this new study, the researchers found that in parts of the Arctic where sea ice has been reduced due to climate change, water temperatures have been rising, leading to more snow falling in surrounding areas. That has led to encroachment of tree lines as seedlings fare better over the winter.
The researchers studied satellite images, comparing tree-line encroachment in areas near sea ice reductions with areas where there has been little change in sea ice. They also gathered data from 19 field sites over four years, hiking 1,500 miles. They found a pattern in which tree lines were encroaching near places where the sea ice has been retreating but not in other areas.
The researchers also found increased snow land near places where the sea ice has been retreating serves as a blanket on the ground. Everything below the blanket stays warmer through the long winter than it does in places with a thinner blanket. That allows microbes to decompose organic matter in the topsoil all winter long. And that in turn releases nutrients that feed seedlings—further helping them survive the winter.
The team concludes that as tree lines encroach, they cover more land with greenery, which absorbs heat, pushing the Arctic to grow warmer even faster.
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| Overflow is a winter hazard in Alaska | Published Mar 3, 2024 by Ned Rozell Alaskans and other northerners recognize fresh water covering a trail (sometimes solid, often wet) as aufeis, or overflow. Aufeis, pronounced off-ice, is a German word meaning “ice on top.”
Aufeis happens because underground springs pump water toward the surface no matter how cold the air above. On some northern waterways, fields of surface ice slowly build all winter; this can leave behind slabs 10 feet thick and acres wide. They don’t melt until late summer.
Dog mushers, snowmachiners and other trail users often encounter smaller patches of aufeis recharged from below. Those overflow patches often happen when a stream channel has frozen beneath the snow surface, plugging up a passage and forcing water to the surface.
Since the formation of aufeis is a gravity-driven system, wet and icy sections of trail vary all the time. The gradual nature of freezing also sometimes causes an aufeis sheet to tilt in a treacherous fashion after water reaches a trail of compacted snow, which acts like a dam.
“Any water seeping into the trail dam freezes there,” Best said. “Eventually the water reaches the elevation of the top of the trail and tries to flow across, only to freeze.
“This continues to happen vertically and laterally, which is why we find these sloping ice fields.”
Best had a tip for negotiating those canted fields of trail ice.
“If we step on the uphill side there will be water-saturated snow, but we can often sneak by on the downhill side where it is still mostly dry,” she said.
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| Open house is a chance to see inner workings of Museum of the North | Published Mar 3, 2024 by Della Hall As snow begins to melt off the museum roof with the increased sun’s warmth, I know that soon the museum will be filled with summer tourists. Sooner than that, visitors will have the opportunity to see behind the scenes at the University of Alaska Museum of the North’s (UAMN) annual Open House.
If you’ve been on a behind-the-scenes tour at UAMN before and think you’ve seen it all, chances are you haven’t seen the museum like this. Every department will be opening their doors to share with the public what we do every day. From the Fine Arts Department, I’ll be sharing newly acquired works of art and talking about the storage of museum collections in the secure, climate controlled collections range.
In addition to sharing artwork from the Fine Arts collection, botanical art will be on display in the Herbarium. Not only are the sheets of dried and preserved pressed plants aesthetically rich themselves, herbaria are home to an array of archival art, and inspire many artists’ work. Visitors will find Alaskan artist Karen Stomberg’s botanical imagery based on these specimens featured, alongside cyanotype prints, and plant collections.
Many other types of collections and specimens will be on display in the labs. New acquisitions will also be highlighted by the Ethnology and History department, including a collection of Inuit carvings, items recently donated by the Christopher Johnson McCandless Memorial Foundation, and Dr. Grafton Burke’s microscope used in the Fort Yukon hospital. In the Archaeology lab, guests will see objects and tools highlighting the human habitation of Alaska for at least the last 14,000 years. The Entomology Department will share pollinators, butterflies, and ants, in addition to many varieties of insects. Visitors will be able to watch the Ornithology lab staff prepare scientific study bird skins, while the Mammalogy staff will display skins, skulls, and oddities, in addition to sharing a woodchuck specimen preparation. The Earth Sciences Department will showcase fossils of Ice Age mammals plus Cretaceous dinosaur bones and tracks from Alaska. Fishes and marine invertebrate specimens will be on view, and visitors will learn how DNA is studied in aquatic environments. The Genomic Resources freezer room will also be open for visitors to learn about the storage of frozen tissue samples at the museum.
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| | Over 8,000 soldiers took part in an international military exercise in Alaska | Published Mar 3, 2024 by Ayesha Rascoe NPR's Ayesha Rascoe speaks with Troy Bouffard at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, about the possibility of military confrontations in the Arctic Circle.
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST: More than 8,000 soldiers participated in a military preparedness exercise in Alaska last month. Many were from the U.S., but troops came from Canada, Mongolia, South Korea, Sweden and Finland, with more countries observing. It's the largest exercise of its kind, and it came as America, Russia and China are looking to the Arctic as a new space for competition. Troy Bouffard is the director for the Center for Arctic Security and Resilience at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Thank you for joining us.
TROY BOUFFARD: Thank you for having me.
RASCOE: So what does a military exercise in the Arctic look like? Like, what kind of activities are they doing?
BOUFFARD: Well, here in Alaska, the Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center, JPMRC, is used to test brigade-level combat readiness for the U.S. Army, and brigade is about 3,500 soldiers. The JPMRC compound is capable of handling brigade-on-brigade-sized forces to test various skills, what we call in the U.S. Army warfighting functions - maneuver and movement, fires, command and control intelligence and sustainability.
RASCOE: But why are more of these exercises happening? Like, is there a concern that there may have to be some fighting in the Arctic?
BOUFFARD: Not so much a concern for fighting or any threat that we can actually point to in the Arctic at this time, but we always have to be prepared. There was a point when Russia was at its peak military development in its Arctic progress, and they had a slightly superior capabilities edge on the United States. It indicated a need for us to also be capable in the Arctic in order to meet circumstances in the future we can't even really imagine at this point.
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| | UAA men’s hockey uses most potent offensive outing in decades to sweep Stonehill | Published Mar 3, 2024 by Josh Reed Less than a week after the University of Alaska Anchorage men’s hockey team had its four-game winning streak snapped in a shutout on the road, the Seawolves (13-16-2) bounced back in a major way on their home ice, with a 9-3 victory over visiting Stonehill on Friday night at the Avis Alaska Sports Complex.
“Anytime you get shut out, you want to have a good response and find the back of the net and hopefully get a couple guys going,” UAA head coach Matt Shasby said.
The result of the first in a two-game series marked the highest-scoring game in program history since March 6, 1993, when they defeated Alabama Huntsville 10-1. The Seawolves followed up that win with a 12-2 victory Saturday, recording their home sweep since Jan. 10-11, 2014.
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| | What it's like competing for the most remote team in NCAA gymnastics | Published Mar 2, 2024 by D'Arcy Maine With just two home meets all season, and the closest opponent more than 2,200 miles away, the Alaska Seawolves may have one of the toughest schedules in NCAA gymnastics. Here's how they do it.
MARIE-SOPHIE BOGGASCH KNEW "absolutely nothing" about Alaska -- the state or the school -- before she arrived in Anchorage for her official recruiting visit in 2012.
She was a talented elite gymnast in Germany, finishing as high as 12th in the national championships in 2011. But she didn't become aware of NCAA gymnastics until February of what was the equivalent of her senior year of high school. She began the recruiting process soon after -- years later than most other potential college athletes. By then, most schools had used up all of their scholarships for the incoming academic year, and the University of Alaska at Anchorage was the only program to offer her a full scholarship spot.
It was 4,662 miles away from home -- and a minimum of three flights and about 21 hours of travel -- but Boggasch knew it was right for her from the moment she set foot on campus. She loved the coaching staff, the welcoming nature of everyone she encountered, the area's natural beauty and the school's aviation department.
Almost twelve years later, she is still there -- and is now the head coach.
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