Research
Nathalie Vriend updated an article for The Conversation that explains what happens in an avalanche, techniques for surviving one, and how they are impacted by climate change.
Researchers at the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long-Term Ecological Research Program have spent more than three decades studying ecosystems in one of the world’s most hostile environments. Diane McKnight and Mike Gooseff discuss the importance of the research, its challenges, and its rewards.
Lina Pérez-Angel and Julio Sepúlveda led a team to study a sediment record millions of years old from the tropical Andes. They found that the region heated up dramatically when atmospheric CO2 levels were similar to today’s.
Breaking ice, moving earth: Greenland will release more sediment into the ocean as the climate warmsA new paper from Irina Overeem and Ethan Pierce describes how icebergs export Greenlandic sediment into the Arctic Ocean — and how that process might change in the future.
INSTAAR fellow Keith Musselman and collaborators have constructed an "EcoTram" that continuously measures hydrological and ecological variables across a 400-foot transect high in the Indian Peaks. The system provides a wealth of data for investigations into shifting mountain systems.
Between ambitious projects, big awards and groundbreaking publications, it’s been a newsy year at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Here are our top stories of 2025.
Diane McKnight and Tom Marchitto are collaborators on a new project looking for a way to extract rare earth metals from contaminated Colorado streams. The goal is to improve water quality while also increasing the domestic supply of raw materials for advanced technologies.
INSTAAR's Arctic Rivers Project is blending Indigenous knowledge with climate science to describe a shifting arctic environment. Eos news reports on the project's unique blend of methodologies, including participatory mapping, remote sensing and biological modeling.
Researchers in Nancy Emery's lab are investigating how alpine plants respond to climate change at Niwot Ridge. Anticipated funding cuts could threaten the long-term ecological records that make this research possible.
Researchers at the stable isotope lab just finished resampling more than a mile of ice from Greenland. Further analysis will probe unanswered questions about climate change, sea ice and Earth’s history.