Scientists at Northern Arizona University, Arizona State University, the Arizona Geological Survey at the University of Arizona and the National Snow and Ice Data Center at the University of Colorado Boulder have been awarded almost $2 million from the National Science Foundation to develop a virtual reality teaching tool called Polar Explorer. In this… Read more
College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences
Ecologists compare accuracy of lidar technologies for monitoring forest vegetation
As light detection and ranging (lidar) technology evolves, forest ecology and ecological restoration researchers have been using these tools in a wide range of applications.
“We needed an accounting of relative accuracy and errors among lidar platforms within a range of forest types and structural configurations,” said associate professor Andrew Sánchez Meador, executive… Read more
Drought affects aspen survival decades later, new NAU study finds
Drought—even in a single year—can leave aspen more vulnerable to insect infestation and other stressors decades later, a new study by NAU researchers found. Aspen trees that were not resilient to drought stayed smaller than others, growing more slowly and succumbing to an outbreak of insects known as aspen leaf miners that have plagued interior Alaska for more than two decades.
The findings, led by research specialist Melissa Boyd and Regents’ professor Michelle Mack of the Center for Ecosystem Science… Read more
NAU geochemist on new study confirming cause of greatest mass extinction event
The most severe mass extinction event in the past 540 million years eliminated more than 90 percent of Earth’s marine species and 75 percent of terrestrial species. Although scientists had previously hypothesized that the end-Permian mass extinction, which took place 251 million years ago, was triggered by voluminous volcanic eruptions in a region of what is now Siberia,… Read more
New study shows a few common bacteria account for majority of carbon use in soil
Just a few bacterial taxa found in ecosystems across the planet are responsible for more than half of carbon cycling in soils. These new findings, made by researchers at Northern Arizona University and published in Nature Communications this week, suggest that despite the diversity of microbial taxa found in wild soils… Read more
NAU scientists: Bacterium causing deadly rabbit fever remains virulent for months in cold water
Study solves a long-term mystery, providing a plausible explanation for how Francisella tularensis can overwinter in the environment outside of a host
Although it is not spread through human contact, Francisella tularensis is one of the most infectious pathogenic bacteria known to science—so virulent, in fact, that it is considered… Read more