[1] Many different geological features make up the basin, including several types of terrain, shrubland, and rivers.

In the mid to late 1800s, European and American explorers discovered its natural resources and began settling in the region.

[1] The Yukon River Basin remains a relatively intact ecosystem, known for its density of salmon, which are used as both food for the villagers and a growing industry for the community.

Some of the oldest known humans who inhabited North America are thought to have lived around the western part of the Yukon Basin.

[1] The earliest exploration and European settlement in the Yukon River Basin was by Robert Campbell in 1840.

These soils include Entisols, Gelisols, Inceptisols, Inceptisols/Gelisols, Mollisols, Spodosols, and Rough Mountainous Land.

[2] The climate around the Yukon River Basin varies because of factors like its topography and large size.

With that being said, annual rainfall is greater on tall, rugged mountains than on flat lowland areas of the whole region.

Climate change has been a serious, on-going issue throughout the Yukon River Basin and other surrounding areas.

With drier, hotter temperatures, there have been more forest fires and melting permafrost, which leads to changes in water flows.

[2] The recent change in climate has also taken a toll on the Yukon River basin, such as flooding in 2009 due to the above average snow and ice levels, followed by and abnormal high spring temperatures.

[9] The basin consists of thousands of lakes, ponds, sloughs, wetlands, and rivers/streams to provide habitats for these animals.

[9] Plant life includes white spruce, paper birch, and quaking aspen forests, willow and alder thickets, grasslands, and meows.

This is due to the large fat reserves that they must build up in order to make the long journey up the Yukon River.

[10] They did this by capturing and tagging adult chinook salmon from June to mid July in the lower Yukon river.

[10] The tagged fish had radio transmitters, which were used to track the salmon and their migration patterns throughout the Yukon river.