Climate change has led to earlier spring blooms for wildflowers and ocean plankton but the impacts on salmon migration are more complicated, according to new research.
Since 1980, fires have gotten significantly larger and more severe across California and the western United States, vastly increasing the amount of destruction they cause.
Alaska is warming faster than any other state. Pumped storage hydropower has the potential to integrate more wind and solar into the energy grid to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions driving climate change in the state.
A recent study has revealed that climate change has had a profound impact on the Colorado River Basin between the years 2000 and 2021. The study shows that over this period, more than 40 trillion liters (10 trillion gallons) of water were lost due to climate change effects, which is roughly equivalent to the entire storage capacity of Lake Mead.
The invasive Asian clam is more common in the lower Columbia River than its native habitat of southeast Asia, according to a study of the clam’s abundance in the river.
Rates of Chinook salmon bycatch in the Pacific hake fishery rise during years when ocean temperatures are warmer, a signal that climate change and increased frequency of marine heatwaves could lead to higher bycatch rates, new research indicates.
As scientists around the world sound the alarm about record sea surface temperatures, a new experimental NOAA forecast system predicts that half of the global ocean may experience marine heatwave conditions by the end of summer.
A new study of North American songbirds finds that birds can’t keep up with the earlier arrival of spring caused by climate change. As a result, they’re raising fewer young.
Oregon State University researchers estimate that gray whales feeding off the Oregon Coast consume up to 21 million microparticles per day, a finding informed in part by poop from the whales.
As the world warms, extreme weather events grow – and they also change. Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that climate change is shifting snowfall to rainfall on mountains across the Northern Hemisphere. Those surges of liquid water bring a distinct set of dangers, including floods, landslides, and soil erosion.
Specially designed gardens could reduce the amount of a salmon-killing toxic chemical associated with tires entering our waterways by more than 90 per cent, new research shows.
n the quarter century between 1996 and 2020, wildfires in California consumed five times more area than they did from 1971 to 1995. Researchers at the University of California and other international institutions have concluded that nearly all of the increase in scorched terrain can be blamed on human-caused climate change.
The breeding season for avian predators, March–August, overlaps with the peak out-migration of juvenile salmon and steelhead, April -- August, according to a recent survey of literature that looked specifically at peer-reviewed studies of Caspian terns, double-crested cormorants and gulls that prey on salmonids in the Columbia River basin.
U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) this week joined U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad to announce an $83 million commitment to rebuild the Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, $240 million for Northwest salmon and steelhead hatchery infrastructure, and $60 million for Mitchell Act hatcheries.
An Oregon State University researcher has been awarded a three-year, $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to lead a study about the movement of fish stocks due to changing climate conditions and the potential geopolitical tensions that could result from that shift.
In early 2014, a great anomaly descended upon the seas: A patch of warm water that manifested in the Gulf of Alaska. Scientists called it “The Blob.”
As the ocean warms, marine fish are on the move—beyond their traditional habitats and across international boundaries. Understanding these patterns of movement is essential to predicting change and managing climate-resilient fisheries.
Grizzly bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem have been able to gain the body fat they need for hibernation even as population densities have increased and as climate change and human impacts have changed the availability of some foods, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey and its partners.
A team of Oregon State University researchers is leading a three-year effort to learn more about climate fluctuations in Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary using more than 20 years of oceanographic data.
A new study offers a comprehensive look at the state of North American wild Chinook salmon. Researchers say findings hold new insights for fisheries managers looking to address wide-ranging declines among Chinook stocks.
Oregon’s Marine Reserves Program will take part in a groundbreaking new study designed to estimate how Oregonians assign value to the reserves beyond traditional economic impacts.
Deteriorating habitat conditions caused by climate change are wreaking havoc with the timing of bird migration.
The small size and isolation of the endangered population of Southern Resident killer whales in the Pacific Northwest have led to high levels of inbreeding. This inbreeding has contributed to their decline, which has continued as surrounding killer whale populations expand, according to research published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.
Bald Eagles and dairy farmers exist in a mutually beneficial relationship in parts of northwestern Washington State. According to a new study, this "win-win" relationship has been a more recent development, driven by the impact of climate change on eagles' traditional winter diet of salmon carcasses, as well as by increased eagle abundance following decades of conservation efforts.
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will require severely cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Doing so calls for the immediate, large-scale adoption of renewable energy like solar and wind, electrified transportation, energy-efficient systems, alternative fuels, and carbon capture and storage technologies across all sectors globally.
An Earthwise Knowledge Initiative Publication
