News

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.

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.

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.

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.

In INSTAAR's Stable Isotope Lab lie rows of metal flasks holding clues to the cause of an alarming rise in a powerful greenhouse gas. They contain samples of air from around the world that Sylvia Michel‘s team of methane detectives analyse to reveal whether the gas came from burning fossil fuels and wood, or from wetlands and cow guts. Note that a subscription is required to read this article.

Heat and shifting weather patterns have intensified wildfires and reduced water supplies across the Southwest, the Pacific Coast, and North Dakota. Keith Musselman quoted.

"Zombie fires" may sound like something straight out of science fiction, but they're a real phenomenon that is likely to become more common in the area ringing the Arctic, and possibly the Arctic itself, as climate change continues, a new study finds. Merritt Turetsky comments on the study and explains its context.

With a changing climate, fires in far northern forests that smolder throughout winter and erupt again in spring could become more common.

Geologist (and INSTAAR) Robert S. Anderson and astrophysicist Fran Bagenal recognized for ‘distinguished and continuing achievements in original research’.

Report on a management plan for solid waste in Sagarmatha (Mt. Everest) National Park, Nepal, from a paper led by Alton Byers published in Mountain Research Development.