Doug Schneider
907-474-7449
5/28/11

As politicians and pundits debate the causes of climate change, the people who live and work in Alaska already know one thing for sure: The climate is changing, and they are feeling the effects.

Take the Alaska Native village of Quinhagak [QUINN-uh-hawk], along Kuskokwim Bay in Southwest Alaska that’s inhabited by 670 people.

“Quinhagak is not like it used to be, you know, a lot of snow,” recalled Wassilie Pleasant, a local resident and member of the village Native corporation. “You could even walk onto the tops of the houses because there was so much snow, they were almost covered. Today there is hardly any snow. It seems like every year it gets worse. It’s not cold anymore.”
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Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
3/29/11

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will host a groundbreaking ceremony for the new Life Sciences Facility Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 4 p.m.

The event will take place at the construction site, near the Irving Building on the West Ridge of the UAF campus. The public is invited to attend.

When completed, the facility will include 101,000 square feet of teaching and research space. The Life Sciences building is the final in a trio of interconnected buildings, including the State of Alaska Public Health Laboratory and the Biological Research and Diagnostics Facility, that support life science research and teaching on the UAF campus. It is the first new academic laboratory facility at UAF since 1994. The building is slated for completion in early 2014. The $108.6 million project includes a major utilities upgrade to support the building and the replacement of the UAF School of Natural Resources and Agricultural Sciences greenhouse.

Speakers at the event include Alaska Department of Labor Commissioner Click Bishop, UA Regent Tim Brady, UAF Chancellor Brian Rogers, Sen. Joe Thomas, former Reps. Gail Phillips and Mike Kelly, Institute of Arctic Biology Director Brian Barnes and College of Natural Science and Mathematics Dean Paul Layer.

ON THE WEB: http://www.uaf.edu/lifescience/construction/

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Marie Gilbert
907-474-7412
3/17/11

Climate change in the Arctic could change the balance of power between humans, animals and the germs or pathogens that make them both sick, according to a paper by University of Alaska Fairbanks microbiologist Karsten Hueffer.

Hueffer, an assistant professor at the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, published his findings in a recent issue of the online journal Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica.

“Interestingly, people and animals can reach a point of equilibrium in which the pathogens that affect them do not cause a lot of disease,” said Hueffer, who studies zoonotics, infectious diseases that spread between humans and animals. “Day length and temperature are thought to play a significant role in regulating this equilibrium.”

The rates of predicted climate change for the Arctic could spell disaster for this longstanding host-pathogen balance. A warmer Arctic could increase survival of organisms that carry disease and decrease survival of the animals they infect – including animals used as subsistence food by people living in the Arctic.

“What happens when a caribou has its calf on ground warm enough to have pathogens the calf cannot fight off?” said Hueffer. “The same issue could face bears giving birth in dens.”

Muskoxen are affected by a lung worm known to develop much faster when it’s warmer. “The faster the worm grows the more generations are born, which increases the disease pressure on the muskoxen,” said Hueffer.

Humans are at risk as well. A warmer Arctic and the prospect of an ice-free Northwest Passage is expected to drive an increase in development and other human activity in the North, all of which will increase contact among wildlife, humans and domesticated animals.

One potential outcome of increased human-animal contact is rabies.

Hueffer and colleagues from IAB, North Slope Borough, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska Department of Public Health and U.S. Centers for Disease Control plan to begin a large-scale project on the movement of red fox, arctic foxes and rabies this year.

“Arctic fox carry rabies, they move long distances and congregate where they find food,” said Hueffer. “One infected fox can infect other foxes and if they congregate near humans, the opportunity for rabies to infect domestic dogs and possibly humans increases.”

Both arctic and red foxes carry rabies. Arctic foxes spread the disease because they roam over large areas, while red foxes tend to be more territorial.

“The general presumption is that the reds will replace arctic fox in large areas of the Arctic, as we’ve seen happen in Europe and Canada,” said Hueffer. “We’re studying that movement and want to know if the reds will continue to remain territorial or start to move around a lot and spread rabies like the arctic fox.”

Red and arctic foxes are the primary wild carriers of rabies in Alaska. The Alaska State Virology Lab has 50 years of rabies data on foxes.

“With rabies, if we had a good understanding of the interaction between red fox and climate and how that affects rabies epidemics, we could be better at surveillance and prediction and be more proactive in issuing public health advisories to protect people, their domestic animals and wildlife,” Hueffer said.

Much of the research on host-pathogen interactions has been conducted at lower latitudes and may not be applicable in the Arctic. Hueffer and co-authors Todd O’Hara, UAF associate professor of wildlife toxicology, hope their paper can garner attention for a topic they believe will be of significant importance to Alaskans in the near future.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Karsten Hueffer, assistant professor of microbiology, UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, at 907-474-6313 or [email protected].

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Marie Gilbert
907-474-7412
3/3/11

The University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology has announced that veteran researcher Brad Griffith will serve as the new leader of the Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

“We are very pleased to have a leader with so much knowledge of and experience in the Alaska and circumpolar environment,” said IAB director Brian Barnes. “Brad is internationally recognized for his research in caribou biology, especially in migration and population dynamics of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, his research on Yukon River Basin ecological structure and function, and his work toward incorporating the effects of climate variability into the structured decisionmaking and adaptive management of Alaska’s wildlife resources.”

The Alaska unit is part of a nationwide cooperative program within the U.S. Geological Survey and Department of the Interior to promote research and graduate student training in the ecology and management of fish and wildlife and their habitats. The program has a record of high research productivity and, via graduate and post-graduate training, provides professionals whose science helps Alaska’s fish and wildlife managers make informed decisions.

“It is a great honor to have been selected leader of one of the oldest and largest Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units in the nation,” said Griffith, an associate professor of wildlife ecology who has been a scientist with the unit since 1989 and an assistant leader for wildlife since 1996.

The unit provides a direct link between UAF and the research needs of management agencies in Alaska.

“Our graduate training mission delivers trained natural resource professionals to Alaska,” Griffith said. “Our applied science program is explicitly focused on topics that are relevant to contemporary challenges faced by natural resource management agencies in Alaska.”

Those topics include lake drying and its effects on wetland biodiversity, enhanced ecosystem and salmon stock-recruitment models, and assessments of climate-change effects on invertebrate and shorebird communities in Arctic coastal lagoons. Griffith’s research focuses on the potential effects of industrial development and climate on circumpolar ungulates, such as caribou; the potential effects of climate on wetland biodiversity, and the implications of changing habitats for natural resource management agencies.

The Alaska unit exists as a cooperative agreement among the USGS, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the Wildlife Management Institute.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Brad Griffith, leader, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit leader, at 907-474-5067 or [email protected]. Brian Barnes, Institute of Arctic Biology director at 907-474-7649 or [email protected].

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Stevie Seibert
907-474-5229
1/21/11

Fish are the primary food for many animals in Alaska, including humans. Scientific research has revealed possible contaminates affecting fish in their natural habitats and risks associated with diets rich in fish.

On Jan. 25 at 7 p.m., Todd O’Hara will discuss the well-known health benefits of eating fish, along with the possible hazards. O’Hara, an associate professor of wildlife toxicology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Institute of Arctic Biology, will present “Healthy Alaska: What’s in Our Fish?” in the Westmark Gold Room. The lecture is the second installment in the Fairbanks portion of 2011 Science for Alaska Lecture Series.

Science for Alaska is sponsored by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the UAF Geophysical Institute and Alyeska Pipeline Service Company. The series runs on Tuesdays through Feb. 22, 2011 and is free to the public.
Hands-on activities for all ages begin at 6 p.m. inside the Gold Room. Families are welcome.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Todd O’Hara, associate professor of wildlife toxicology, 907-474-1838, or [email protected]. Marmian Grimes, UAF public information officer, at 907-474-7902 or via e-mail at [email protected].

ON THE WEB: http://www.scienceforalaska.com

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Kelsey Gobroski
Courtesy of UAF Sun Star
907-474-5078
10/26/10

An undulating moan fills a small radio studio as 20 students voice a zombie horde. Over time, they begin to snarl. Sounds akin to Gollum from “Lord of the Rings” coughing up a hairball pierce the monotone.

In the KSUA studio on Oct. 18, UAF’s zombie serial drama needed new voices. “Dead Air” radio DJs Matt Schantzen and Marcus Mooers say any texting addict can be considered a “zombie.” But “Dead Air” traffics in the undead of popular culture. Think the staggering bloodthirsty automatons in “Dawn of the Dead” or “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.”

Schantzen and Mooers’s pun-laden serial drama experiments with transforming zombies into audio. Its reality grounds itself in the concept of survival.

“Nobody in our show is safe,” Mooers said.

The everyday student needs basic survival techniques: self-defense, resourcefulness, critical thinking. Without this awareness, we’re on par with zombies, the hosts said. You can be a zombie by ignorance — or you hone survival skills by using those brains the undead crave. Schantzen and Mooers, along with others on campus, spice up these daunting concepts by capitalizing on zombie popularity.

This year, the DJs formed the Fairbanks chapter of the Zombie Research Society (ZRS), with Mooers and Schantzen as president and vice president. The first meeting is in November. There, the radio hosts will discuss their experiences at Seattle’s upcoming convention, ZomBCon, UAF professor Mike Harris will review zombie physiology, and Moore RA Taylor Shideler will teach zombie combat skills.

To Mooers, Schantzen, Harris, and Shideler, zombies transcend subculture. If “Dead Air” has enough realism, it may teach Alaskans survival by example, zombies or no zombies.

Ghoul-gray anatomy
In lecture, Harris’s voice slices through the classroom, confident. Sporting a red floral shirt, he weaves together old concepts and new topics. He hardly pauses, until a techno jingle reverberates into the air.

“Cookies!” Harris says, dancing with slow-motion swings of his arms and hips until the student silences her phone. “Let this be a warning: I will do the cookie dance, and you will bring cookies, if this happens again. Now, where was I?”
Filling any gaps between words with the expressive flicks of his hands, Harris conjures both ordinary and fantastic examples when teaching more than 40 animal physiology students.

“It’s cool how he can relate fantasy stuff to real world things,” said Ben Gray, a 27-year-old fishery sciences major.

Later in the semester, Harris will unleash the zombies.

Harris first used zombies four years ago in neurobiology when explaining fine-coarse motor control. He returned to the undead for animal physiology when he couldn’t figure out how to make the class relatable. Examples often engage a class, but what else would appeal to Harris’s academically diverse students? Ecology doesn’t have much common ground with medicine, so he brought back his teenage passion for zombies.

Harris isn’t the only one to use the undead as examples. In 2009, researchers from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa taught how math can simulate humanity’s survival in a zombie apocalypse.

“I don’t believe in the supernatural, but I’m perfectly willing to admit that scientists don’t understand all that is natural,” Harris said.

Zombies are “human physiology taken to an extreme,” Harris said. He argues that zombies are like reptilian humans. Reptiles, like zombies, do not have the luxuries of brain function outside their brainstems. Like platypuses, the egg-laying mammals, the undead are the exception – and the exception fascinates Harris. Zombies make scientists like Harris question the basis of metabolism, of humanity, and of life itself.

“Zombies are like humans, but inhuman – and the differences are what make them fascinating,” he said.

A student told Harris about the Zombie Research Society – an organization with chapters in more than 20 states, Germany, Japan, Canada and England – before the Fairbanks ZRS invaded campus. Harris called the interactions “hilarious,” a way for him to contribute to projects he wouldn’t have time to pull together himself.

Harris voices Dr. Ricci, disgraced scientist, on “Dead Air.” He relates to Ricci’s fascination with the science of zombies, he said.

“As soon as we find a zombie, we know [Harris] is itching to work in it,” Schantzen said.

Zombies walk among us
George Romero’s archetypes debuted in “Night of the Living Dead” in 1968, but zombie activity flourishes in Fairbanks.

“There’s recently been an unearthing –” Mooers said.

“Reanimation,” Schantzen corrected.

“– reanimation of zombie culture.” Mooers concluded.

If a deep freeze is an asset, Fairbanks might be a prime spot to wait out an apocalypse. Fairbanks ZRS argues that in the Interior, there are few people and a lot of land. Those few people carry guns and shop at disproportionately large box stores, they said. Topography would curtail Anchorage’s outbreak. It’s all there: climate, seclusion, weapons, supplies.

“Head of the Undead” Mooers used Fairbanks-based Zombait.org to lead six zombie walks since 2007. Through Zombait.org, he also organized multiple zombie proms with the Fairbanks Rollergirls.

The zombie walks are costumed, with as many as 40 people participating at a time. In 2009, they staged a tour guide being attacked and converted at a cemetery. Sometimes soldiers form a zombie civil defense force armed with Nerf chainsaws and Nerf guns.

Shideler teaches martial arts with a zombie twist. Last year, he brought the undead to Moore Hall as he taught a self-defense course through Residence Life. The zombie element is “to help draw people in,” he said.

Then there’s “Dead Air.” The DJs spend 15 hours a week preparing the third season of their volunteer-run serial drama. By the end of season two, they’d had 20 actors.

The idea for the show came from Mooer’s wife, Megan. When the two were dating, he lived in a small cabin. He played the video game “Dead Rising” while she was in the kitchen. She jumped every time gurgles of undead ghouls resonated from the nearby speakers. At that point, Mooers realized zombies had a future in radio.

“We just make a suggestion and let you scare the hell out of yourself.” Mooers said. A cup of water and some sticks mutates into an undead skull splintering.

They generate the sound effects on their own equipment.

When they travel to Washington for ZomBCon, they will air a climactic Halloween episode. After that, the drama will go on a short hiatus.

“Typically after Halloween, I don’t want to think or talk about zombies for two weeks,” Mooers said.

Halloween outbreak
On Halloween weekend, Harris will join Schantzen and Mooers in Seattle at ZomBCon, the first convention of its kind.

That Saturday, Harris sits on a panel about the pathology of zombification. On Sunday, he will present a lecture on zombie anatomy. While other scientists suggest “tongue-in-cheek scientific theories,” Harris plans to use the opportunity for realism, teaching a comparative anatomy lesson between humans and reptiles.

Much of the zombie media that fascinated Harris in childhood will be present at the convention: graphic novels, films, literature, even a prom, – and that’s just Friday.

“I am going to all of this. I am going to be getting very little sleep,” Harris said.

Schantzen and Mooers will be using their ZRS benefits to lasso as many interviews as possible. Music and the occasional interview comprise three quarters of “Dead Air.”

“To us, it’s more a scientific conference,” Mooers said.

ZRS membership grants them access to the red carpet screening of the original “Night of the Living Dead”. They also share a hotel floor with Romero and author Max Brooks, who wrote 2003’s best-seller “The Zombie Survival Guide.”

On the side, the DJs will attend a hands-on zombie combat demo and a multitude of panels. Guinness World Record representatives will stand by at ZomBCon, as Schantzen’s first zombie walk may end up breaking last summer’s record of 4,200 undead.

Although Harris, Mooers, and Schantzen aren’t paid for their work at the convention, the meetings with fellow enthusiasts will present opportunities for both “Dead Air” and zombie physiology.

”Sometimes you do stuff because it’s fun, not because you get paid or because it increases academic credentials,” Harris said.

Editor’s note: This story is reprinted with permission of the UAF Sun Star. Kelsey Gobroski is a UAF student and Sun Star contributor.

Marmian Grimes
907-474-7902
10/15/10

Seifert takes new sustainability role within Cooperative Extension Service
Rich Seifert, the longtime “energy guy” for the UAF Cooperative Extension Service, has a new role as community sustainability coordinator for Extension. Seifert will help Alaska communities become as self-sufficient as possible and will work to meet the needs for increasing energy, food and health security. Seifert and Extension will provide the link between the university and communities that need current, research-based information in these areas. He will also work with existing community sustainability organizations in all regions of the state and provide opportunities for them to share information. Seifert served as Extension’s energy specialist for 28 years, and retired from the university June 30. He began his new position Sept. 9 but will continue some of his energy education work until a replacement is hired. Seifert is available at 907-474-7201 or by e-mail at [email protected].

Boyer named head of Center for Alaska Native Health Research
Bert Boyer has been named director for the Center for Alaska Native Health Research, part of the Institute of Arctic Biology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Boyer has been serving as acting director since February, when CANHR director Gerald Mohatt died. Boyer, who was the center’s co-founder along with Mohatt, is the principal investigator of several CANHR genetics studies. Boyer is a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology. He will give an overview of CANHR at the Alaska Federation of Natives at 10:25 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 22.

New librarian takes helm at Geophysical Institute’s Keith B. Mather Library
Former Vassar College science librarian Flora Grabowska was recently named the new librarian and research assistant professor at the Keith B. Mather Library at the UAF Geophysical Institute. At Vassar, Grabowska was a strong proponent of open access, which is a move to provide scientists, teachers, students and the public free and unrestricted use of research published in scholarly journals. Before earning her master’s degree in library science in 1981, Grabowska was a scientist herself. She worked in biochemistry at the University of British Columbia and at the Macaulay Institute for Soil Research in the United Kingdom. The Keith B. Mather Library is the most northern special library in the Unites States. The library has a number of special collections, including the largest aurora collection in the country. Although the library supports the GI and IARC, it’s open to the public Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The library is located in Room 202 of the Akasofu Building on UAF’s West Ridge.

UAF Alumni Association elects board members, officers
This spring, the University of Alaska Fairbanks Alumni Association elected several new board members and officers. New board members include Jim Dixon of Fairbanks, Dani Carlson of Fairbanks, Sam Enoka of San Francisco and Tania Clucas of Fairbanks. During the meeting, the board elected new officers, including Randy Pitney of Fairbanks, president; Dan Flodin of Chugiak, vice president; DeShana York of Anchorage, secretary; and Derek Miller of Fairbanks, treasurer.

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Diana Campbell
907-474-5221
9/29/10

The University of Alaska Fairbanks will study how the genetics and diet of Yup’ik Eskimos affect the blood-thinning properties of a common drug used by heart and stroke patients.

The research could lead to personalized drug prescriptions. The UAF Center for Alaska Native Health Research will conduct the research as part of a $1.02 million National Institutes of Health sub-award through the University of Washington.

“We’ll be looking at the genetic code that contributes to the rate the body breaks down the blood thinner warfarin,” said Bert Boyer, acting CANHR director. “Knowing this information may eventually help physicians find a safe and effective dose.”

CANHR researchers will team with UW professors Wylie Burke and Ken Thummel and others to create a Northwest-Alaska center to study pharmacogenomics—how genetics affects a person’s ability to process drugs—in rural and underserved populations. UW received a five-year, $10 million grant from the NIH Pharmacogenomics Research Network and is one of 14 awardees nationally.

Pharmacogenomics researchers are looking to identify how genes could be used to tailor drug prescriptions to make them more effective and safer for patients.

Warfarin is a successful, but hard-to-manage, blood thinner, especially for people with limited access to health care like Alaska’s Yup’ik Eskimos in the Yukon-Kuskokwim delta, where the CANHR study will take place. Too much of it could cause hemorrhaging and too little leads to blood clotting and blockage, Boyer said. A patient has to be monitored closely.

Genes have a substantial effect on the way the body processes drugs, he said. “If we know how genetic changes contribute to warfarin breakdown, perhaps physicians could prescribe a safe and effective dose more quickly.”

Previous research in the United States has documented warfarin’s interaction with genes in the Caucasian population, but Alaska Natives and Native Americans have not been studied.

CANHR researchers will also look at how polyunsaturated fatty acids and vitamin K interact with warfarin among the Yup’ik people. Their marine-based diet is rich in the fatty acids, but not foods with a lot of vitamin K, which is commonly found in green, leafy vegetables. The fatty acids are believed to act as a blood-thinning agent while vitamin K encourages blood clotting, Boyer explained.

The project will also offer a chance to use an isotopic measurement tool developed by CANHR, said Diane O’Brien, a scientist at the center. Typically, researchers studying diet ask participants questions about what and how much they eat and analyze the answers. However, O’Brien found that the stable isotope nitrogen 15 can be found in hair and blood samples and is an accurate measurement of how much polyunsaturated fatty acids a person has eaten.

“It’s a quick, inexpensive and easy way to measure fish intake,” O’Brien said. “It was CANHR-developed and now being applied. It’s exciting.”

CANHR, part of the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, was established in 2001 by a NIH National Center for Research Resources grant. CANHR’s mission is to build and increase research capacity to improve Alaska Native health.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Bert Boyer, CANHR acting director, 907-474-7733, [email protected]. Diane O’Brien, CANHR associate professor, 907-474-5762, [email protected].

ON THE WEB: http://canhr.uaf.edu

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Ned Rozell>
907-474-7468
7/02/2010

An ancient jawbone has led scientists to believe that polar bears survived a period thousands of years ago that was warmer than today.

Sandra Talbot of the USGS Alaska Science Center in Anchorage was one of 14 scientists who teamed to write a paper based on a polar bear jawbone found amid rocks on a frigid island of the Svalbard Archipelago. The scientists determined the bear was an adult male that lived and died somewhere between 130,000 to 110,000 years ago, and that bear was similar to polar bears today. Charlotte Lindqvist of the University at Buffalo in New York was the lead author on the paper, published in the March 2010 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

A polar bear near Barrow. Photo by Ned Rozell.

An Icelandic researcher in 2004 found a fossilized lower jawbone, in excellent condition and complete with a canine tooth, on a narrow spit of land on the far west edge of Norway’s Svalbard Archipelago. It was a stunning find because there aren’t many fossils of polar bears around. The largest bears in the world spend most of their lives on sea ice, so they often die there, and their remains either sink or get scavenged by something else.

With bone and tooth in hand, scientists got to work with the latest techniques for finding the age of formerly living creatures and determining their genetic backgrounds. The latter is the specialty of Sandra Talbot. She is a research wildlife geneticist who earned her doctorate degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks by helping determine that the mitochondrial DNA of brown bears on Admiralty, Baranof and Chichagof islands of Southeast Alaska is more closely related to that of polar bears than to the DNA of other brown bears.

Talbot says the evidence of a polar bear from 130,000 years ago shows that the creatures somehow survived conditions warmer than they face today.

“This is verifying that the polar bear lived through at least one warming period,” Talbot says. “The Eemian was a very hot period, and polar bears survived it,” she says.

During the Eemian, about 125,000 years ago, the planet was warm enough that hippos lived where London is now. Polar bears, now adapted to eating seals that live only near sea ice, somehow made it through a few thousand years when there may not have been much sea ice, if any existed at all.

“It gives us hope that they survived that stage,” Talbot says. “It does make you think about refugia more.”

“Refugia” are places that polar bears may survive without ice. The Svalbard Archipelago may have been one of those places. Biologists today think polar bears would have a difficult time living on land, because other species like the grizzly bear could outcompete them.

The warm period of the Eemian might have come at a time when the polar bear wasn’t such an ice specialist, Talbot says.

“We can’t predict whether the polar bear is too far out (in its evolution towards a life on ice),” she says. “It’s interesting that there are a few examples of hybridization (between polar bears and brown bears). That’s something worth watching.”

And maybe polar bears have been trying to adapt to life on land, but one species has blocked that avenue of evolution. Polar bears that wander onto land, especially near a human settlement, tend to get shot. And humans — who didn’t wander out of Africa until about 45,000 years ago — weren’t present on the edge of the sea ice when polar bears first made it their home.

“We weren’t impacting them then the way we are now,” Talbot says.

Though the polar bear perhaps prospered through hot times in the past, what they have in store ahead may be their greatest challenge ever.

“We’re going into a very similar period of time, but it’s generally thought that this is going to be warmer than (the last great warm period),” Talbot says.

This column is provided as a public service by the Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, in cooperation with the UAF research community. Ned Rozell is a science writer at the institute.