News

Their collaborative art piece, part of a CU Boulder-sponsored exhibit, is one of several hanging in the Colorado State Capitol building.

INSTAAR Fellow Suzanne Anderson was part of a deep dive into the future of hydrologic science and the responsibilities of scientists, recorded at the inaugural Frontiers in Hydrology Meeting.

Birds continue to thrive in Colorado’s Snake River watershed, despite increasing heavy metals and rare earth elements in streams, finds a study by Kelly Watson and Diane McKnight.

We are grieving the loss of Mark Williams, Professor Emeritus of Geography and INSTAAR Fellow Emeritus, who passed away in Boulder on June 6. Mark led Niwot LTER at CU for two program cycles, and was a founder of the Critical Zone Observatory program at CU Boulder.

Just north of Nederland, about 26 miles from Boulder, is CU Boulder’s “classroom in the sky”—the Mountain Research Station. It is home to some of the world’s longest-running alpine research, from how vegetation responds to wildfires, to how wildlife responds to climate change, to the changing composition of the soil itself.

Nikki Lovenduski was part of a collaborative study that found that nuclear war would wreak havoc on the world’s oceans, causing them to cool rapidly and become choked with sea ice. Ocean marine life would die out, and marine ecosystems would take decades—possibly even longer—to recover.

Noah Molotch is quoted in this Los Angeles Times article about mapping the recent historic snowpack in California using laser pulses and spectrometers from the air. The flights are collecting data to estimate when and how fast the snow will melt, helping officials prepare for the runoff, manage water releases from dams, and asses areas at risk of flooding.

Snow is melting earlier, and more rain is falling instead of snow in the mountain ranges of the Western U.S. and Canada, leading to a leaner snowpack that could impact agriculture, wildfire risk and municipal water supplies come summer, according to a new CU Boulder analysis. Kate Hale and Noah Molotch are authors on the study.

INSTAAR is pleased to announce that Sylvia Michel is the first recipient of its Outstanding PRA Award. This new award recognizes a professional research assistant (PRA) who has demonstrated excellence in their role and within the larger communities of INSTAAR and the University.

Airy Peralta and Jared Collins are the recipients of the first INSTAAR Graduate Community Awards. The award is a new honor that recognizes students who expend substantial effort in activities that promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the INSTAAR community and as representatives of INSTAAR.