UAF in the news: Week of Dec. 11, 2006

Submitted by Marmian Grimes
Phone: (907) 474-7902
12/15/06

Ice at North Pole could be gone by 2040, scientists warn
San Francisco Chronicle and multiple publications worldwide
Sea ice that for centuries has covered much of the High Arctic has been shrinking at a record pace due to global warming, and as winter began last month in the oceans surrounding the North Pole, larger stretches of open water remained free of ice than ever before, climate scientists reported Monday. Read more ...

An ice-free Arctic Ocean coming soon?
SITNews
"ÂSAN FRANCISCO-Sea ice coverage on top of the world shrank again in 2006, and experts are predicting that the polar ice cap may disappear in summer soon. Read more ...

Education on exhibit
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
On Thursday, the kindergartners in Katie Brown’s class at Denali Elementary got to explore the University of Alaska Museum of the North. The young students were in awe of the large brown bear standing guard over the entrance to the main exhibit on the ground floor of the museum. They asked questions about bird migration, learned about the life cycle of salmon and got to handle the jaw bone of a moose. Read more ...

Hunters, fishermen among suspects in sea lion population collapse
Anchorage Daily News and multiple other publications
The days of state-sanctioned sea lion hunts are long gone in Alaska, but fishermen and hunters who gunned down the fish-gobbling pinnipeds are suspects in the latest study about the animal’s crash. Read more ...

Regents approve virology lab design
Juneau Empire and KTVA
FAIRBANKS - The University of Alaska Board of Regents approved designs for a new state virology lab and approved a new bachelor’s degree in emergency management at UA Fairbanks. Read more ...

UA budget proposal includes $105 million for research facility
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Officials from the University of Alaska presented their operating and capital budget requests for the fiscal year 2008 to members of the Interior delegation Friday. Topping the $684 million the university will be requesting from the state this year is $105 million for the proposed BioSciences Facility, or BIOS, to be located on the Fairbanks campus of the statewide university. Read more ...

Tallying the effects of warming
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
When kids in the village of Unalakleet asked elders how things have changed over the course of their lives, the “universal” response was that the weather itself has changed, Henry Oyoumick told a statewide commission studying the impacts of climate change during a hearing Friday in Fairbanks. Read more ...

Bristol Bay
Here & Now (NPR)
President Bush considers opening a sensitve ocean ecosystem in Alaska to oil drilling. Rick Steiner, a marine biologist at the University of Alaska, is our guest. Read more ...

Alaska: DVD helps fishermen keep afloat
FishUpdate and Juneau Empire
A NEW DVD has been released, which underlines the importance of understanding and following stability guidelines for vessels. Read more ...

UAF project uses radar to look at surface water movement
Peninsula Clarion
High-frequency radar signals beaming from new radar stations at Nanwalek and Anchor Point began bouncing off waves on lower Cook Inlet recently, part of an effort by the University of Alaska Fairbanks to map surface currents over a 1,350-square-mile area between the mouth of Kachemak Bay and Augustine Island. Read more ...

Building to be named in honor of Akasofu
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner and KTVA
The University of Alaska Board of Regents last week unanimously approved a proposal to name the building that houses the International Arctic Research Center in honor of the center’s founding director, Syun-Ichi Akasofu, who plans to retire in 2007. Read more ...

Northern Lights might be on view tonight
Argus Leader
The solar winds could usher in a rare chance for South Dakotans to view a potentially brilliant Northern Lights display tonight, astronomy experts predict. Read more ...

Huge wildfire burn scars create local weather shifts
Anchorage Daily News
The blackened scars that Alaska fires leave on the landscape may result in more lightning, more rain in some areas just downwind of the scars and less rain farther away, according to two scientists. Read more ...