Rivers and streams in Alaska are changing color – from a clean, clear blue to a rusty orange – because of the toxic metals released by thawing permafrost, according to a new study.

Dozens of once crystal-clear streams and rivers in Arctic Alaska are now running bright orange and cloudy, and, in some cases, they may be becoming more acidic. This otherwise undeveloped landscape now looks as if an industrial mine has been in operation for decades, and scientists want to know why.

"This is the first time in our lives that we have seen a cormorant in Kotzebue Sound."

Over the past five days there have been increasing reports of unusual behavior in a variety of bird species including brant goose, snow goose, white-fronted goose, and Canada goose.

Hikers on Kesugi Ridge observe a large abundance of Rusty Tussock Caterpillars all over cairns marking the trail from Coal Creek to Byre's Lake. They swarmed on the hiker's bodies and packs and from a distance covered structures to the point where they looked black.

A squat lobster (Munida quadrispina) was pulled up in a shrimp pot placed in Prince William Sound, which is not a common event. Squat lobsters are commonly found in Southeast Alaska during ADF&G shrimp survey pots and in scallop dredge surveys near Yakutat, Kayak Island, Kachemak Bay, and Kodiak.

"My family and I have been RV camping across Alaska for the last several years. This year, the mass amounts of dead spruce trees have been more apparent than any year prior."

The drought has had damaging economic and ecological impacts.

Unfamiliar insect found near Potters Marsh, identified as a red velvet mite (family Trombidiidae).

Recent storms have destroyed the progress made in ice formation endangering coastal habitats and fishing practices.

Mills in the heart of Canada's timber industry have fallen quieter this winter as wildfires and infestations made worse by climate change have made vast tracts of once valuable forest into barren stands of dead trees.

In some regions, this was the first time in 37 years of water surveys that there was no cold pool.

The catch is shifting northward as water temperatures rise, forcing crews to retool their boats and rework their businesses. Pollock is retreating from Alaska while black sea bass throng around Rhode Island.

In 2016 and 2017 commercial fishers near Cambridge Bay in Nunavut were surprised when they pulled in sockeye salmon — because they were expecting to see only Arctic char. While these are just two fish, found far from their usual home waters, the two salmon are likely an indication that Pacific salmon will continue to

Mass die-offs and breeding failures, now ongoing for years, have marine biologists worried that this is a new normal caused by climate change.

On a remote Alaskan sandbar, under the watchful eye of a devoted scientist for more than four decades, climate change is forcing a colony of seabirds into a real-time race: evolve or go extinct.

Tapioca like growth identified as larval trematode parasites (digenean metacercariae).

Unseasonably warm in Arctic.

A small black fuzzy caterpillar seen in the NPS administrative building in King Salmon, Alaska

Coastal erosion near Cape Blossom

A recent study shows that polar bears' mercury levels are declining as melting ice drives them onshore. But is it all good news? Read on.

Study finds genetic evidence of climate-change adaptation.

Rare polar bear sighting in Sisualik summer camp, about 10-11 miles north of Kotzebue, AK.

The combination of abundant rain and snowfall and extremely warm mean annual air temperatures may have led to the destabilization of permafrost around lake margins. Rapid snow melt and high amounts of excess meltwater further promoted rapid lateral breaching at lake shores and consequently sudden drainage of some of the largest lakes of the study region.

Scientists have documented a recent population explosion of beavers on the Baldwin Peninsula near Kotzebue.

Recent discoloration of 75 streams in Arctic Alaska reflects increased iron and trace metal loading following climate-driven permafrost thaw. These findings have considerable implications for drinking water supplies and subsistence fisheries.