News

Julia Moriarty (INSTAAR & ATOC) was named a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Early Career Researcher, receiving multiyear funding. The program helps support the next generation of U.S. STEM leaders. She will be working to improve predictability of water quality following floods in coastal urban systems.

Diane McKnight has been an integral figure in the Long-Term Ecological Research Program for decades. She was instrumental in launching the McMurdo LTER, spearheaded restructuring network coordination, and served as Chair of the LTER Network Executive Board. She’s mentored dozens of students and developed too many projects to count. The LTER Network Office sat down with Diane to chat about her life in the Network and her dreams for the LTER moving forward.

Long-Term Ecological Research Network communicator Gabriel De La Rosa spent three intense days on Niwot Ridge collecting the hundreds of data points that are a record of change in the alpine.

INSTAAR is pleased to announce four George R. Aiken Graduate Fellowships for 2023. CU Boulder graduate students Mackensie Bowen, Allison Cook, Tim Higgins, and Millie Spencer received the awards, which come with funding to support their research over the next year.

CU Boulder has named Associate Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences Nikki Lovenduski interim director of Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) effective August 28.

Researchers in the Taylor Lab study interactions between higher-elevation dwelling mountain chickadees and the closely related lower-elevation dwelling black capped chickadees. A recent study in Global Change Biology investigates barriers that prevent the two species from mating and what happens when they do mate and produce offspring.

Julio Sepúlveda (INSTAAR Fellow and GEOL Associate Professor) is part of a team of scientists from seven collaborating institutions who were awarded a new research grant that will fund an investigation of the ecological and environmental changes that occurred on land after the asteroid impact and mass extinction event at the Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary.

INSTAAR's admin staff gathered in late July. Their day began with a round of "two truths and a dare", storytelling, and lawn games like badminton. If you haven't heard Patti's story about finding a rattlesnake during a big outdoor concert this summer, you should ask her! After a tasty lunch,...

A group from the University of Georgia is looking at alpine cushion plants—compact green mounds with small leaves and ephemeral flowers that hug Niwot Ridge and are found in many alpine areas across the world. They are studying how the flowering time and reproduction of these plants is changing as the climate warms and snowmelt advances.

Del Norte artist Jocelyn Catterson and INSTAAR/Geography prof Holly Barnard will lead a workshop "Water Art + Science" on Friday at Rio Grande Farm Park, on #groundwater in the San Luis Valley.