More severe and frequent fires in the Alaskan boreal forest are releasing vast stores of carbon and nitrogen from burned trees and soil into the atmosphere, a trend that could accelerate climate warming. But new research published this week in the journal Science shows that the deciduous trees replacing burned spruce forests… Read more
Michelle Mack
Seven new Regents’ professors showcase NAU’s research and scholarly excellence
At President Rita Cheng’s recommendation, the Arizona Board of Regents on Friday approved seven Northern Arizona University professors to be promoted to the rank of Regents’ professor, the highest rank a faculty member can achieve.
The professors are Scott Goetz, School of Informatics, Computing, and Cyber… Read more
Fuels, not fire weather, control carbon emissions in boreal forest, new study finds
As climate warming stokes longer fire seasons and more severe fires in the North American boreal forest, being able to calculate how much carbon each fire burns grows more urgent. New research led by Northern Arizona University and published this week in Nature Climate Change suggests that how much… Read more
NAU researchers win $1.3M in NSF grants to study major shifts in carbon storage
Two researchers at the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society have won separate awards totaling $1.3M from the National Science Foundation to better understand where carbon is being stored and released in the terrestrial biosphere. Using different approaches, the two projects aim to better predict carbon storage by plants and soils in critical regions of the globe, and how that storage is being altered by changing climate patterns.… Read more
A tale of two understories: how mosses and climate are shaping the fate of nitrogen in the boreal
Mosses and their microbial partners are important players in fertilizing the boreal forests that make up nearly a third of all Earth’s forests. But climate may be changing mosses’ role in how these forests access nutrients, according to a new study led by the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at Northern Arizona University… Read more
NAU scientists help chart a path to understand how Arctic vegetation is changing
As Arctic tundra has warmed more than twice as fast as the rest of the… Read more