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Environmental DNA (eDNA) analysis is an emerging tool with significant potential to advance biomonitoring, particularly in remote and logistically challenging environments. To evaluate the state of eDNA research in Alaska, we conducted a literature review and a regional survey. The review identified 22 peer-reviewed studies published between 2010 and 2025, while the survey of 54 individuals representing state, federal, academic, tribal, and nonprofit organizations (46 responses) captured information on ongoing and unpublished projects. Our literature review and survey results reveal that most published and ongoing studies in Alaska employ eDNA metabarcoding to assess community assemblages, species distributions, and biodiversity patterns. However, respondents reported several barriers to implementation, including limited funding, infrastructure, and assay availability, as well as uncertainty in laboratory selection, sampling protocols, and data analysis. Despite these challenges, cross-sector collaborations are developing. Within the growing effort to harness eDNA as a management tool, collaborations with subsistence harvesters are in the forefront of using eDNA for management purposes. This study provides the first comprehensive overview of eDNA research in Alaska, identifies key data gaps, and offers examples of co-production of knowledge currently underway in the state. Frameworks developed in Alaska may inform the advancement of remote biomonitoring programs globally. 

Understanding how species are responding to environmental change is a central challenge for stewards and managers of fish and wildlife who seek to maintain harvest opportunities for communities and Indigenous peoples. This is a particularly daunting but increasingly important task in remote, high‐latitude regions where environmental conditions are changing rapidly and data collection is logistically difficult. The Arctic–Yukon–Kuskokwim (AYK) region encompasses the northern extent of the Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha range where populations are experiencing rapid rates of environmental change across both freshwater and marine habitats due to global climate change. Climate–salmon interactions in the AYK region are a particularly pressing issue as many local communities have a deep reliance on a subsistence way of life. Here, we synthesize perspectives shared at a recent workshop on Chinook Salmon declines in the AYK region. The objectives were to discuss current understandings of climate–Chinook Salmon interactions, develop a set of outstanding questions, review available data and its limitations in addressing these questions, and describe the perspectives expressed by participants in this workshop from diverse backgrounds. We conclude by suggesting pathways forward to integrate different types of information and build relationships among communities, academic partners, and fishery management agencies. 

Abstract Disentangling the influences of climate change from other stressors affecting the population dynamics of aquatic species is particularly pressing for northern latitude ecosystems, where climate‐driven warming is occurring faster than the global average. Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) in the Yukon‐Kuskokwim (YK) region occupy the northern extent of their species' range and are experiencing prolonged declines in abundance resulting in fisheries closures and impacts to the well‐being of Indigenous people and local communities. These declines have been associated with physical (e.g., temperature, streamflow) and biological (e.g., body size, competition) conditions, but uncertainty remains about the relative influence of these drivers on productivity across populations and how salmon–environment relationships vary across watersheds. To fill these knowledge gaps, we estimated the effects of marine and freshwater environmental indicators, body size, and indices of competition, on the productivity (adult returns‐per‐spawner) of 26 Chinook salmon populations in the YK region using a Bayesian hierarchical stock‐recruitment model. Across most populations, productivity declined with smaller spawner body size and sea surface temperatures that were colder in the winter and warmer in the summer during the first year at sea. Decreased productivity was also associated with above average fall maximum daily streamflow, increased sea ice cover prior to juvenile outmigration, and abundance of marine competitors, but the strength of these effects varied among populations. Maximum daily stream temperature during spawning migration had a nonlinear relationship with productivity, with reduced productivity in years when temperatures exceeded thresholds in main stem rivers. These results demonstrate for the first time that well‐documented declines in body size of YK Chinook salmon were associated with declining population productivity, while taking climate into account.