As Arctic tundra has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet in… Read more
NAU scientists help chart a path to understand how Arctic vegetation is changing
Arctic
NAU scientists, national partners win $3.3 million to study microbes’ role in a changing world
If the fate of carbon is a test that planet Earth is taking right now, one of the answer keys is likely to be found in soil, where microorganisms—which account for nearly 15 percent of global biomass, by some estimates—eat, store and respire carbon and other nutrients. As Earth warms, how these microbes change the way they live will have potentially big consequences for where the carbon goes.
Now, a team led… Read more
The frozen world and oceans at risk, says new UN special report co-authored by NAU researchers
Sept. 25, 2019
The world’s oceans are getting hotter and acidifying under climate change at unprecedented rates, threatening coastal and high-mountain communities, marine ecosystems and global fishing stocks, according to a new Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) released this week by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Ted Schuur, a researcher in the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at Northern Arizona University, was one of the lead authors on the… Read more
Protecting future generations: NAU scientists study Arctic community’s exposure to toxic pollutants
St. Lawrence Island, just south of the Bering Strait in Arctic Alaska, is one of the most isolated places on the planet. Wild, mountainous and remote, the island is inhabited by 1,600 indigenous Yupik Eskimos who subsist by hunting and fishing.
Although the island’s natural environment may appear pristine, residents are exposed to high levels of persistent organic pollutants—toxic chemicals that remain in the environment for many years. Residents are concerned… Read more
NAU’s Permafrost Carbon Network study links climate policy to reduced effects of emissions from thawing soil
Findings of a new study organized by the Permafrost Carbon Network (PCN) suggest that putting more effective greenhouse gas controls in place for the rest of this century could help mitigate the effects of climate change on the release of carbon from thawing soils of the northern permafrost region.
The paper, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represents a collaboration between ecosystem scientists Ted Schuur and Christina… Read more