Map of global flooding on a particular day

New global map shows populations are growing faster in flood-prone areas (MIT Technology Review)

Aug. 5, 2021

Satellite imagery reveals how floods are changing and who’s most at risk. A new global floods database involved Bob Brakenridge and Albert Kettner of the DFO Flood Observatory.

Windmill on dry grass

A river runs dry: Farms and ranches along Colorado River in jeopardy (The National)

Aug. 2, 2021

A two decade-long drought fueled by climate change has farmers and ranchers worried about their future, reports a National News story that quotes INSTAAR Keith Musselman.

Map of the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta

Humans want stable landscapes; but rivers need to move (Univ. of Texas at Austin)

July 23, 2021

River deltas change over time, and the freedom to shift river location is important to maintaining a healthy ecosystem. However, humans are used to the stability of fixed infrastructure, so they struggle dealing with dynamic landforms like river deltas. But rivers changing course and evolving over time is a good sign for the delta and the environment around it. In a new commentary published in Earth’s Future, a national team of experts including Irina Overeem examines the ongoing conflict between stability and sustainability in heavily populated river deltas, such as the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna in India/Bangladesh and Mississippi in the U.S.

Example of an arid zone with sparsely vegetated landscape

Expert Q&A on efforts to reverse desertification (drylands reseeding) (Univ. of Victoria)

July 22, 2021

Restoration of degraded drylands is urgently needed to mitigate climate change, reverse desertification and secure livelihoods for the two billion people who live in these areas, say an international group of ecologists who examined the success of seeding drylands with key native plant species. Their study is published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. Lead author Nancy Shackelford started the project as a postdoc in Katie Suding's group.

Plumes of smoke pour out from the Colorado foothills from the Calwood Fire

Wildfires in U.S., Siberia are unusually intense, setting emissions records (Axios)

July 22, 2021

Wildfires across parts of the U.S., Canada, and Siberia are burning unusually intensely and emitting larger amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than typical during midsummer, scientists say. The fires are thriving in areas experiencing extreme heat and drought conditions. They are both a consequence of climate change and an accelerant of global warming.

Rows and rows of silver tubes holding ice cores in an NSF freezer facility

Cores 3.0: Future-proofing Earth sciences’ historical records (Eos)

June 24, 2021

Core libraries store a treasure trove of data about the planet’s past. What will it take to sustain their future?

Researcher works in a stable isotope lab that contains lots of blue and beige gas flasks

New analysis shows microbial sources fueling rise of atmospheric methane (NOAA Research News)

June 17, 2021

The sudden and sustained rise in atmospheric levels of the potent greenhouse gas methane since 2007 has posed one of the most significant and pressing questions in climate research: Where is it coming from? Now a research team has tested the leading theories for surging methane levels by analyzing the stable carbon isotope ratios (δ13C-CH4) from methane captured in a large set of global air samples to determine if one of the theories is more feasible than the others.

Researchers study the fall tundra in the Colorado alpine

Longer growing season could transform the tundra (Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine)

June 11, 2021

Across the tundra, warming temperatures are causing plants to stay greener longer and flower earlier—and that could reshape life there, according to new research led by INSTAARs. The findings, published today in Nature Communications, synthesized 30 years of experimental warming data from 18 different tundra sites across the globe and found that not only are leaves coming out earlier and staying on the plants longer in this critically understudied biome, but their reproductive cycles are not responding in the same way. This change could not only have cascading effects through the ecosystem, but could also change the balance of carbon between the land and the atmosphere.

Huey Creek in the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER, Antarctica

Slow research to understand fast change (EurekAlert!)

May 28, 2021

The Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network has generated 40 years of careful, reliable science about the Earth's changing ecosystems, which may prove to be just what's needed in this rapidly shifting world. By harnessing decades of rich data, scientists are beginning to forecast future conditions and plan ways to manage, mitigate, or adapt to likely changes in ecosystems that will impact human economies, health and wellbeing.

Aerial view of CU Boulder's east and main campuses with the foothills and continental divide

CU Boulder remains near top in 2020 global university rankings (CU Boulder Today)

May 26, 2021

CU Boulder's earth science and atmospheric science disciplines remained ranked No. 1 globally in ShanghaiRanking's report, the 2021 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects (GRAS). The university also scored highly in a dozen other academic categories in those rankings, highlighting the breadth of impactful CU Boulder research.

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