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November 12, 2018
Better Data, Bigger Challenges
The current expedition onboard Falkor has two simultaneous objectives: to develop new ways to map and image the seafloor, and to make those maps available as quickly as possible so researchers can use the maps to support the science studies being conducted at sea.
November 5, 2018
Management Strategies of a Senescing Rio Grande Cottonwood Bosque
The Rio Grande’s bosque, as we have come to know it across our lifetimes, is an ecological anomaly. The cottonwood gallery forest that stretches several hundred miles between the banks of the Rio Grande and its adjacent irrigation ditches is, generally speaking, comprised mostly of the same age class of trees.
November 2, 2018
Exploring the hydrothermal vents of the Pescadero Basin
New vents are always an exciting find, but this new Auka vent field boasts a particularly intriguing combination of carbonate chimneys, hydrothermal petroleum, diverse vent fauna, and a deep ocean setting (>3500 meters). We are embarking on a cruise to investigate these unique vents, as well as to explore the still-mysterious surrounding area. (Pssst – We think there might be even more vents!)
October 29, 2018
When moths turn away moose
While most of Alaska has not felt too wintery yet, 175,000 moose have noticed a change. As biologist Tom Seaton pointed out in last week’s column, moose are now seeking out what amounts to a large dog-food sack of twigs each day. There are no more pond greens to slurp or succulent leaves to strip from stems.
June 22, 2018
Warming in the north continues as predicted
Just outside my window here at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, workers are drilling into the asphalt of a parking lot using a truck-mounted rig. They twist a hollow bit 25 feet into the ground and pull up hard, clear evidence of why the blacktop is sinking.
June 5, 2018
Exploring Fronts with Multiple Robots: The Night Cast
“Have you ever done a XBT cast?” John Fulmer asks. I have not, but I am excited to learn about another device used for deep-water oceanography.
May 2, 2018
Bosque del Apache – BEMP’s 33rd BEMP site!
It was muddy… really, really, muddy. The cold February nights didn’t have much of a chance against the quick warming sunshine that had us in t-shirts before lunch.
April 24, 2018
Voyage to the White Shark Cafe: The Wild West
It might seem strange traveling to a food-limited environment to study the lives of massive apex predators such as white sharks, but it was the sharks themselves who led the way.
April 6, 2018
Alaska creatures without us
“The bottom line is salmon — and the marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems that support them — would be better off without us.”
February 9, 2018
Where are the Yukon chinooks headed?
“It’s more than just a fish, it’s a culture,” Brown said to the Fairbanks crowd, many of them Alaska Natives.
