Â鶹¹ÙÍø news
Hair ice enlivens an extended fall
October 24, 2025
Just when you thought you'd seen everything in the boreal forest, a reader points out white whiskers sprouting from the ground.
2025 growing season one of the longest in Fairbanks history
October 18, 2025
The 2025 Fairbanks growing season officially ended on Sept. 24, according to measurements taken at the Fairbanks Experiment Farm on the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks Troth Yeddha' Campus. The freeze on Sept. 24 ended a 129-day growing season, defined as the number of days between freezing temperatures, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the UAF Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Preparedness.
Â鶹¹ÙÍøer helps examine puzzling Arctic Ocean ice fog
October 17, 2025
A type of cloud that forms low near Alaska's northern coast and over the Arctic Ocean lasts far longer than scientific understanding says it should. Associate research professor Carl Schmitt is helping a federally funded research team figure out why it's happening.
Mountain glaciers will lose their insulating air layer
October 17, 2025
A natural cooling mechanism has been shielding the world's mountain glaciers from increasingly warm summer melt seasons, but new research by an international science team says the protective process will break down by mid-century.
Alaska volcano as climate disrupter
October 17, 2025
A circular scar on Alaska's face speaks to an event that may have contributed to the fall of societies on the far side of the world.
Â鶹¹ÙÍøer to discuss benefits of using kelp as fertilizer
October 15, 2025
Kelp shows great promise for improving soil health and crop production in Alaska. In a free webinar, Erin Oliver, a postdoctoral researcher with Washington State University, will discuss the lab and field studies conducted at the Matanuska Experiment Farm to investigate the effects of kelp on soil health and crop production.
Acoustic tagging seeks answers to king salmon decline
October 14, 2025
An ambitious new research project is aiming to better understand the lives of king salmon by focusing on their difficult journey from freshwater habitat to the ocean. The project, a collaboration between the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks and Alaska Department of Fish and Game, is using hundreds of acoustic tags and an array of underwater hydrophones to track young salmon as they navigate the Kenai River to Cook Inlet.
ACUASI adds new drones for cargo trials
October 14, 2025
Two large-payload unmanned aircraft have joined the fleet of the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks' drone industry development program. They will be used to test cargo deliveries and emergency responses.
Mendenhall Glacier to pull toe from lake
October 09, 2025
In the near future, Juneau's Mendenhall Glacier will withdraw its icy toe from the lake of its making, scientists say.
UAF receives $3.26 million grant for tribal heart health research
October 09, 2025
The National Institutes of Health has awarded the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks a $3.26 million grant for a new research project to address coronary heart disease among Yup'ik Alaska Native people in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta region.
Scientists aim to map Mount Edgecumbe volcano's upper plumbing
October 09, 2025
Mount Edgecumbe volcano in Southeast Alaska sits in a place where a volcano shouldn't really be sitting. Â鶹¹ÙÍø underway with new federal funding aims to solve that mystery.
Biologist to discuss Alaska's bats in free webinar
October 08, 2025
An Alaska wildlife biologist will lead a free lunch-and-learn webinar on bats in Alaska hosted by the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. Arin Underwood, who works with the Threatened, Endangered and Diversity Program with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, will discuss Alaska's tiny flying mammals.
Alaska climate report: Sea ice growth and other winter transitions
October 08, 2025
Sea ice has returned to its annual growing season, though it's a slow turnaround as usual. The Arctic sea ice extent likely reached its 2025 seasonal minimum Sept. 10, at 1.85 million square miles.
October 04, 2025
While applying to attend John McPhee's writing seminar at Princeton University in the fall of 2017, Ben Weissenbach wrote his 86-year-old instructor "I want to follow in your footsteps, literally." In completing his first book, "North to the Future: An Offline Adventure Through the Changing Wilds of Alaska," Weissenbach penned a compelling portrayal of wild places that are similar but not identical to the ones McPhee explored in his classic 1977 book "Coming into the Country."
State alerts beekeepers of discovery of 'economically significant' pest
October 03, 2025
A beetle that harms honey bees has been found in Alaska, according to the Alaska Division of Agriculture. Small hive beetles eat pollen, bee eggs, larvae and pupae (bee brood), and honey inside the hive. Their activity turns the honey foul and slimy. Their presence can lead to colony loss and reduced honey production, resulting in financial losses for the beekeeper.
Two UAF students awarded NSF Graduate Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fellowships
October 01, 2025
Two Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks graduate students are among the 1,500 recipients of the 2025-2026 National Science Foundation Graduate Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fellowships. Willa Johnson and Xochitl Muñoz will each receive three years of financial support, including a $37,000 annual stipend and funds to cover tuition and fees, in addition to professional development opportunities.
The quietly essential salmon stream
September 26, 2025
On this rainy September afternoon, Erik Schoen vacuums water from a backwater slough. The liquid will tell him if there are predators in this body of water.
Registration open for 2025 Alaska Invasive Species Workshop
September 25, 2025
The annual Alaska Invasive Species Workshop, a forum for land and invasive species managers and scientists to discuss current issues, will be held Oct. 28-30 in Anchorage.
The season of senescence is upon us
September 19, 2025
The glorious paper birch outside the window that has for the past three weeks beamed a sunny glow is losing its luster, one golden coin at a time.
Slugs slither into Fairbanks gardens
September 17, 2025
This summer, the real enemy in many Fairbanks gardens wasn't drought or moose — it was slugs. "I get more calls about slugs every year," said Gooseberry Peter, agriculture and integrated pest management program assistant with the Â鶹¹ÙÍø Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service. Most people calling have never had slugs before, making these slimy critters a major topic of conversation for Fairbanks gardeners this season.
