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UAF Research News
  • A painting depicts a brown furry elephant-like creature in three different illustrations.

    Mastodons long gone from the far north

    June 06, 2025

    A long, long time ago, a hairy elephant stomped the northland, wrecking trees and shrubs as it swallowed twigs, leaves and bark.

  • A woman shows two children how to take ocean water samples as they stand on a beach in Southeast Alaska

    4-H pH program gives Sitka youth a taste of ocean science

    June 05, 2025

    Youth in Sitka spent five months testing the water as part of an ocean acidification education program called 4-H pH. The project, funded by the NOAA Ocean Acidification Program, is part of a citizen science program called Global Learning & Observations to Benefit the Environment Program, or GLOBE.

  • Maps show projected sea surface temperature trends over 2015-2099 due to moderate-high greenhouse gas emissions. The upper map includes a model where winds can't change the ocean circulation, and the lower one shows the same model with wind-driven changes.

    Changing winds could amplify North Atlantic climate anomaly

    June 04, 2025

    As the planet's oceans are gradually warmed by the effects of climate change, a huge area in the North Atlantic stands out as an unusual zone of relative cooling. A region that stretches roughly from Greenland to Ireland, counterintuitively dubbed the North Atlantic warming hole, is a conspicuous patch of blue on global climate change maps. Researchers say its temperature contrast could intensify in the decades ahead as shifting climate-driven winds amplify the cooling process in the North Atlantic.

  • A man in a white hardhat and orange safety vest talks while pointing to a metal structure under a large pipe. Other men stand around him listening.

    The greatest story of man and permafrost

    May 29, 2025

    In 1973, Elden Johnson was a young engineer working on one of the most ambitious and uncertain projects in the world -- an 800-mile steel pipeline that carried warm oil over frozen ground. Decades later, Johnson looked back at what he called "the greatest story ever told of man's interaction with permafrost."

  • an illustration of two types of birds, including a group of birds that look like baby ducks, in a prehistoric landscape with dinosaurs in the background

    Study finds birds nested in Arctic alongside dinosaurs

    May 29, 2025

    Spring in the Arctic brings forth a plethora of peeps and downy hatchlings as millions of birds gather to raise their young. The same was true 73 million years ago, according to a new paper in the journal Science. The paper documents the earliest-known example of birds nesting in the polar regions.

  • A bird with a bright orange breast, black head and back, and yellow bill stands upright on grass.

    The American robin returns on time

    May 22, 2025

    American robins have returned to northern Alaska.

  • A human hand holds a small bird by the legs; the bird's mouth is open.

    An old friend returns to the far north

    May 16, 2025

    A Fairbanks biologist recently cupped in his hand a tiny bird whose arrival he had been rooting for. That bird -- a female Hammond's flycatcher -- now holds the title of the oldest known of its species.

  • Three children holding cups gathered around a table. One of the children is holding a bug.

    UAF to host free Arctic Research Open House

    May 12, 2025

    The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host its annual Arctic Research Open House Thursday, May 15 from 4 - 7 p.m. on the West Ridge of the Troth Yeddha' Campus in Fairbanks.

  • Black and white photo of Dale Guthrie in a heavy turtleneck sweater and jacket leaning against a birch tree and looking directly into the camera.

    Dale Guthrie opened door to lost world

    May 09, 2025

    Sometimes -- but not very often -- a door creaks open to a lost world. Sometimes the right person steps in. Dale Guthrie, an Alaska biologist and paleontologist who died in 2024 at the age of 88, was that guy.

  • four people lying on a steep gravel hill digging with small hand tools, with a large body of water in the background

    New ancient fish species earliest known salmon ancestor

    May 09, 2025

    A new paper published this week in the journal Papers in Paleontology has named three new species of fish from that time period, including a salmonid, dubbed Sivulliusalmo alaskensis.

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