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Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

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Interdisciplinary science for understanding change in Earth systems

We investigate climate change, Quaternary history, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, Earth surface processes, biogeochemistry, carbon and nitrogen cycling, and more.

Research

Explore our labs & groups, our long-term collaborative programs, and our science articles, theses, and dissertations:

Lab researcher working with a wall of flasks for stable isotope analysis

Labs & groups

Steep forested towers of rock rise abruptly from a patterned set of small farm fields along a winding river

Programs

Closeup view of blueberries and other tundra plants

Publications

We take a global interdisciplinary approach

 

INSTAAR's research is truly global in scope, not only spanning latitudes, elevations, and timescales, but crossing multiple science disciplines. This wide range increases our ability to help solve the challenging environmental issues that confront our world.

Venn diagram of INSTAAR science showing overlapping science disciplines - hydrology, geomorphology, cyrospheric science, atmospheric science, paleoenvironmental science, oceanography, biogeochemistry, and ecology

See caption

We work across a number of science disciplines, including in the overlap between them. Small white circles represent individual INSTAAR faculty fellows (as of early 2022). Not shown are our non-traditional fields (for a traditional science institute) such as policy, art, and human dimensions. The INSTAAR members who work in these additional fields help broaden our policy relevance and public engagement.

News

Icebergs, looking like tumbled walls of white, float in the Greenland Sea.

CU Boulder at AGU2023: From Earth to space (CU Boulder Today)

From Dec. 11-15, tens of thousands of people from 100+ countries will gather in San Francisco for the 2023 meeting of the American Geophysical Union. Scientists from CU Boulder, including INSTAARs Anne Jennings, Ben Li, and Nicole Lovenduski, are tagged as Earth science experts in this CU Boulder Today resource on the conference. Read more
A landscape restoration project in a grassy gully on Colorado's Western Slope. Adding rocky protection and planting native grasses and shrubs has increased plant growth, trapped storm sediment, and increased soil storage.

Rewetting the sponge: How to increase biological diversity, reduce greenhouse gases, and cool the environment (Cool Boulder)

Tim Seastedt discusses how low-cost landscape restoration actions in Colorado can foster a more diverse and absorbent environment. These actions can rebuild soils and recharge soil water storage, increasing the ability of plants to perform evapotranspiration. Such changes provide many environmental benefits. Read more
Panoramic view of icebergs off Greenland in the Greenland Sea

What 25-million-year-old ocean sediment can teach us about our planet’s future (CU Boulder Today)

Anne Jennings and her colleagues spent two months on a ship off the coast of Greenland drilling sediment cores deep below the ocean floor. They were searching for clues that will help predict melting patterns of major ice sheets in our warming world. Read more
More research news

Research talks

During the Fall and Spring semesters, INSTAAR hosts research talks that are open to the public.  They are usually both online and in person. Speakers can be from inside or outside INSTAAR. Occasionally grad students will present research updates and PhD/MS defenses.  In the summer, INSTAAR's Mountain Research Station (MRS) hosts in-person summer seminars open to the public.

 

More events

Our research strengths

  • DEDUCING drivers and outcomes of climate and environmental change, constraining the range of our potential futures.
  • EXPLORING environmental connections between people, communities, climate change, and crucial ecosystem services.
  • DISCOVERING how climate change is altering environmental systems, and helping predict future transformations.
  • UNDERSTANDING the changing Arctic and the consequences at every latitude and altitude.
  • RECONSTRUCTING past climates to understand our potential future in a very changed world.
  • DECIPHERING fundamental Earth system processes, particularly interactions in land surface processes, coastal processes, and the critical zone.
     

Our ongoing and emerging research topics

Rooted in our research strengths, ongoing and emerging areas of study directly address the consequences of a changing world on people and communities.

  • Translational research that focuses on community benefit and multidisciplinary collaboration.
  • Permafrost change and resulting landscape and climate feedbacks.
  • Agricultural impacts on biogeochemical cycles.
  • Water quality and aquatic ecosystems.

  • Human dimensions and art-science collaborations.
  • Role of climate and environmental change in national security.
  • Extreme climate events.
  • Novel cyberinfrastructure and tools.

Research programs

Delve into the long-term collaborative efforts led by INSTAAR members

INSTAAR's national and international collaborations magnify our efforts and frame our work in a larger context.  We lead and manage long-running research programs around the world including two U.S. Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) programs.

Icon for Niwot Ridge LTER

Niwot Ridge LTER 

Logo for the McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER

McMurdo Dry Valleys LTER

Logo for the Mountain Research Station

Mountain Research Station

Logo for the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS)

Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System

Logo for Dynamic Water critical zone project

Dynamic Water
critical zone project

More programs

Labs & groups

See how INSTAARs band together around common questions, set of methods, or interests. Our 20+ labs and groups are the heart of INSTAAR, where research gets done and students become scientists.

 

Play Video


Tour a few of our labs

Our key approaches:

MEASURING & MONITORING

environmental variables and precise time-series, including long-term data.

 DATING

environmental phenomena, including using radiocarbon. 

 MODELING

the past, present, and future Earth system, including integrating disciplines and datasets.

 BUILDING

partnerships to effect societal change.

 

See labs & groups

Performing fieldwork across the globe

 

INSTAAR research sites are located on all seven continents, the atmosphere, and the world ocean.

While our name reflects our deep expertise and history in high-elevation, high-latitude environments, today we work from the tropics to the poles, and in the atmosphere and world ocean.  

Our research is deeply embedded in places where we have often worked for years or decades. We strive to be trustworthy partners who have reciprocal relationships with local communities. 

Play Video


Watch fieldwork highlights

Spanning timescales

INSTAAR researchers work across a broad range of timescales, reconstructing environments of the past, studying present conditions and processes, and improving predictions of our uncertain future. 

About half of our faculty fellows study past environments and processes. Most of the focus is on the recent geologic past within the last ~2.6 million years (Quaternary period).  Many studies are further focused on the last ice age (~115,000 to ~12,000 years ago) and/or the subsequent warmer and more climatically stable Holocene epoch when humans developed intensive agriculture.

Studies within one timescale often help increase understanding in another timescale. For example, measuring carbon dioxide levels in ice cores improves understanding of past environments which, in turn, feeds into climate models that can make better predictions of future climate change.

Research interests by timeframe

The height of each colored box is weighted by the number of INSTAAR Faculty Fellows researching that discipline/timescale (as of early 2022).

Timeline graph of research interests of INSTAAR faculty fellows showing that many disciplines study a wide range of timescales from deep geologic past to the present and into future predictions

 

 

More about INSTAAR

 Image at top of this page

Dramatic aurora looms over several lighted tents camped on sea ice with a frozen-in iceberg behind.  Greenland. Photo by Kerry Koepping


Ice Camp Aurora by INSTAAR affiliate Kerry Koepping, with help of his team and Inuit friends. Location: Scoresby Sund, Ittoqqortoormiit, Greenland. Koepping is the founder of the non-profit Arctic Arts Project and is dedicated to strengthening environmental sustainability by illuminating environmental issues through science and visual literacy.

  • Labs, groups, & programs
  • Sitemap

Labs & Groups

  • Advanced Laser Technology for Atmospheric Research (Fried)
  • Amino Acid Geochronology (Miller)
  • AMS Radiocarbon Preparation & Research (Lehman)
  • Coastal Oceanography Modeling (Moriarty)
  • Core Processing & Sedimentology (Roth & Anderson)
  • Cryosphere and Surface Processes (Overeem et al.)
  • Diatoms (Spaulding)
  • Ecohydrology (Barnard)
  • Hydroecology Science & Engineering (Gooseff) ↪︎
  • ICP-MS Trace Metals (Marchitto)
  • Micropaleontology (Jennings)
  • Mountain Hydrology (Molotch et al.)
  • Mountain Limnology Lab (Oleksy) ↪︎
  • Ocean Biogeochemistry (Lovenduski)
  • Organic Geochemistry (Sepúlveda)
  • Organic Matter Spectroscopy (McKnight)
  • Polar & Environmental Geochemistry (Diaz) ↪︎
  • Polar & Paleoclimate Modeling (Jahn)
  • Stable Isotope Lab
  • Suding Lab - plant community ecology ↪︎
  • Taylor Lab - evolutionary biology & genetics of birds ↪︎


Programs

  • Center for the Geochemical Analysis of the Global Environment (GAGE)
  • Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS)
  • Consortium for Capacity Building (CCB)
  • DFO - Flood Observatory
  • Dynamic Water critical zone project
  • McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER)
  • Mountain Research Station (MRS)
  • Niwot Ridge Long-Term Ecological Research (NWT LTER)

Research

  • Labs & groups
  • Programs
  • Publications
    • AAAR journal ↪
    • Theses and dissertations
    • Occasional Papers

People

  • Faculty Fellows
  • Faculty Research Scientists
  • Faculty Fellows Emeriti
  • Research Staff
  • Postdocs
  • Students
  • Affiliates
  • Admin Staff

Diversity

  • Underrepresented groups
    • DEI summer scholarships
  • Allies
  • Our actions
  • Addressing problematic behavior


Community

Meet an INSTAAR
Art+Science showcase

News

  • Research news
  • People spotlights
  • Diversity news
  • Community news

Events

  • Seminars
  • Grad talks
  • Diversity events
  • Community events


About INSTAAR

  • Governance
  • Visit INSTAAR
  • Contact Us

Prospective students

  • Grad application assistance (GAAP)
  • Undergrad opportunities


Resources for INSTAARs

Jobs

Support INSTAAR

INSTAAR logo on thin colored banner

Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research

INSTAAR

         

Email instaar@colorado.edu
Phone (303) 492-6387
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Mailing Address
Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
Campus Box 450
Boulder, CO 80309-0450 USA

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Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research
University of Colorado
4001 Discovery Drive
Boulder, CO 80303 USA

INSTAAR acknowledges that it is located on the traditional territories and ancestral homelands of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Ute and many other Native American nations. Their forced removal from these territories has caused devastating and lasting impacts. Full CU Boulder land acknowledgment

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