Published Sep 8, 2023 by Alexandra Heal

Firefighters are embarking on an ambitious experiment to stamp out blazes deep in the Alaskan wilderness as a way to avert carbon emissions in what experts say is a seismic shift in thinking in modern wildfire management that has traditionally focused only on fires that threaten human life, property or commercial interests.

All wildfires emit carbon dioxide, but fires can trigger an especially dangerous feedback loop in the boreal forest by burning through its carbon-rich soils and triggering the thawing and decomposition of its underlying permafrost — soil, gravel and sand that has been frozen for thousands of years. The high ice content of the Alaska permafrost, which harbors the bones of mastodons and saber-toothed lions, makes it vulnerable to abrupt thaw that can quickly disfigure the surrounding landscape and trigger carbon releases elsewhere. Fires are accelerating this process.

Permafrost thaw is now inevitable, said Torre Jorgenson, an affiliate professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. But, he said, “if you can preserve this stuff for another 100 years, that buys you some more time to address the climate crisis.”

Published Sep 8, 2023 by Caleb Jones

It’s a running-filled weekend in Fairbanks. The University of Alaska Nanooks are returning home to host the Nanook Forest Clash against the University of Alaska Anchorage on Saturday. This marks the first and only home meet for the Nanooks this season.

The meet is scheduled to start at 10:40 a.m. for the women, while the men start at 11:20 a.m. Both teams will run at the UAF Running Trails. The women’s teams will participate in a 6k run, the men follow that with a 8k run.

The two teams previously squared off in the Seawolf Throwdown which took place at UAA. This marks the Nanooks’ first time out since that meeting.

It was a very successful trip to Anchorage for the Nanook women’s team last time out. They took down UAA with 18 points to the Seawolves 39 in a dual-meet. Three Nanooks – Rosie Fordham, Kendall Kramer and Naomi Bailey – filled out the top three places. The three athletes finished the 5k in times of 18:10, 18:14 and 18:17, respectively.

Before the two teams meet again on Saturday, there will be a community 3k scheduled to start at 10 a.m. Check-ins begin at 9 a.m. for the community runners.

Published Sep 7, 2023

A new study has found minute levels of chemical contamination in a small sample of Arctic coastal fish species, an encouraging finding for residents who rely on them for subsistence foods.

The study looked for the presence of PFAS, short for per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, a broad category of harmful synthetic chemicals that don’t naturally degrade.

That characteristic has earned them the nickname “forever chemicals” as they persist and accumulate in the environment, contaminating sites across Alaska and throughout the world.

“Once these substances get into the water, they’re pretty much impossible to get out, and they can accumulate in the tissues of fish and wildlife,” said Kevin Fraley, a fisheries ecologist with the Wildlife Conservation Society and lead author of the study. “In Alaska, we eat so many wild foods that it’s a pretty big deal to see how much of it is out there.”

The study analyzed muscle tissue from fish species of importance to subsistence fishing.

They were collected during separate long-term research projects by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Published Sep 7, 2023 by Rod Boyce

The climate-driven advance of beavers into the Arctic tundra is likely causing the release of more methane—a greenhouse gas—into the atmosphere.

Beavers, as everyone knows, like to make dams. Those dams cause flooding, which inundates vegetation and turns Arctic streams and creeks into a series of ponds. Those beaver ponds and surrounding inundated vegetation can be devoid of oxygen and rich with organic sediment, which releases methane as the material decays.

Methane is also released when organics-rich permafrost thaws as the result of heat carried by the spreading water.

A study linking Arctic beavers to an increase in the release of methane was published in July in Environmental Research Letters.

Published Sep 7, 2023

A section of sedimentary rocks along the middle section of the Yukon River could get its own name after a research team spent three weeks this summer digging into the fine-grained details of sandstones and siltstones that line the riverbanks.

The team relied on a geologic map and an academic paper published in 1989 to pinpoint the location of the rocks, which date back to the Early Cretaceous period, almost 100 million years ago.

McCarthy and colleagues traveled more than 100 river miles along the Yukon. The goal was to understand how dinosaurs lived in Alaska’s Interior during the early Cretaceous. For his part, McCarthy was tasked with defining the ancient reptiles’ preferred habitat.

When sedimentary rocks form, they lock in the story of the place. By looking at the rocks up close, McCarthy was able to uncover specific details preserved in the rocks and recreate that story. He said that the landscape during the time of the dinosaurs wasn’t unlike the Yukon River landscape of today.

“Yeah, meandering channels, and oxbow lakes, and vegetated floodplain. That’s exactly what it is,” McCarthy said.

This package of rocks is unique enough to this stretch of the Yukon River that the team believes they may be able to name it. And that would be a first for McCarthy, who has traveled Alaska looking at the state’s rocks for four decades.