Taline Leon, undergraduate researcher, works with air samples in the INSTAAR Stable Isotope Lab. Photo by Sylvia Michel, 2022.

Two new tenure-track faculty positions are open now

Feb. 3, 2022

INSTAAR is seeking two new faculty colleagues at the Assistant Professor level: one in contemporary carbon cycles and one in aquatic ecology or aquatic biogeochemistry.

Skier on a half pipe

Q&A with an expert: Winter Olympics in a warming world (CU Boulder Today)

Feb. 1, 2022

When the 2022 Winter Olympics kick off in and around Beijing, China, this Friday it will mark the first time in the history of the Winter Games that outdoor events rely almost entirely on artificial snow. Noah Molotch speaks to the science of human-made snow, its use at the Olympics, and how climate change may impact the future of snow sports around the world and here in Colorado.

Seastedt (third from left) and Wildland Restoration Volunteers build erosion control structures to enhance sage grouse habitat and re-wet meadows in North Park area, CO.

Retired 鈥渇ree-range ecologist鈥 helps students become green ambassadors (Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine)

Jan. 27, 2022

Professor emeritus Tim Seastedt has studied prairie grasslands and alpine tundra for more than 40 years. Since retiring, Seastedt has devoted his time to hands-on Front Range ecological conservation and restoration efforts, in tandem with students and youth from underrepresented groups and volunteer organizations.

Boulder flatirons after a light snow

The Western U.S. might be seeing its last snowy winters (Fast Company)

Jan. 12, 2022

Because of climate change, the snowpack in the Western U.S. is already 20% less than it was in the 1950s, a volume of water that could fill Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country. By the end of the century, most years in the region could be nearly snowless. Keith Musselman is interviewed.

Coastal erosion reveals the extent of ice-rich permafrost underlying active layer on the Arctic Coastal Plain in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area of the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska

Warming permafrost puts key Arctic pipelines, roads at 鈥渉igh risk,鈥 study says (Washington Post)

Jan. 11, 2022

In coming decades, the shifting terrain that accompanies the warming of the permafrost caused by climate change will put most human-made structures in the Arctic at risk. Nearly 70 percent of the infrastructure in the Northern Hemisphere's permafrost regions鈥攊ncluding at least 120,000 buildings and nearly 25,000 miles of roads鈥攁re located in areas with high potential for thaw of near-surface permafrost by 2050, according to new research. Quotes Merritt Turetsky: "I am writing a eulogy for the ecosystem that I love. The permafrost has been there for thousands of years in some places, and it will never come back."

Thawing permafrost on various peatlands in Alaska

The great Siberian thaw (The New Yorker)

Jan. 10, 2022

Permafrost contains microbes, mammoths, and twice as much carbon as the atmosphere. What happens when it starts to thaw? Merritt Turetsky weighs in.

Closeup of a fire

Climate scientists grapple with wildfire disaster in their backyard (Axios)

Jan. 3, 2022

The wind-whipped firestorm that tore through parts of Boulder County, Colorado, on Thursday struck at the heart of one of America's top climate science and meteorology research hubs. Merritt Turetsky is among those interviewed.

Dry grass

How climate change primed Colorado for a rare December wildfire (NBC News)

Jan. 2, 2022

The ground, typically moist from snow this time of year, was dry and flammable as a result of unusually warm temperatures and a lack of precipitation in recent months, said experts including INSTAAR snow hydrologist Keith Musselman.

a common redpoll on a tree branch in winter, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska

Why redpolls look different, despite being the same species (earth.com)

Dec. 9, 2021

Redpolls, an Arctic-dwelling finch that flies south only sporadically, all share a characteristic red marking on their heads. But some redpolls are white with small bills, while others are larger and have whiter bills. Due to these differences, scientists initially thought that there were three different species of redpoll. However, new genetic research led by CU Boulder and including INSTAAR Scott Taylor has found that these apparently different species are in fact the same, but have a 鈥渟upergene鈥 that controls differences in morphology and plumage color.

Redpoll Finch on a tree branch against a dark background

Common arctic finches are all the same species (Colorado Arts & Sciences Magazine)

Dec. 8, 2021

New research from CU Boulder confirms that there are not, in fact, multiple species of Redpoll Finches, as previously thought. Instead, the three recognized species are all just one with a 鈥渟upergene鈥 that controls differences in plumage color and morphology, making them look different.

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