News

A frozen landscape of research

Glen Liston During the fourth International Polar Year of 2007-2009, thousands of scientists from more than 60 countries are conducting more than 200 expeditions or projects on physical, biological, and social issues in the Arctic and Antarctic.

Liston joins CSU scientists and faculty who conduct International Polar Year related research in other areas including Diana Wall, Edward Ayres, John Moore, Breana Simmons, and Matthew Wallenstein from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory; Shane Kanatous, Department of Biology; and Ken Reardon, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. "The research being done at the poles will advance our understanding as to how these frigid ecosystems are tied to our lives and how their climate and hydrology affect the world," Wall says.

Scientists develope calculating tool for farmers to use

Tractor on field CSU scientists will develop a baseline compilation of land use and management practices relevant to greenhouse gas emissions and sequestration throughout the state. A calculating tool will be developed for farmers to use in evaluating alternative cropping practices and assessing greenhouse gas mitigation benefits on their land....

"We want to get people involved at the grassroots level in the design of the state-level assessment and receive feedback about the online decision tool that we are developing. Ultimately we want to work collectively with the agricultural industry to come up with a mitigation system that will realistically work for them and the State," said Keith Paustian, also a senior research scientist at the university's Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory.

The Colo. Front Range and Antarctic research: Spring community lecture series at Fort Collins Main Library

Iceberg Scientists will share their stories about Antarctica with the local community through a lecture series held at the Fort Collins Main Library this spring.

Nature Conservancy and NREL Associate Scientist Barry Baker Worries About Water as Chinese Glacier Retreats.

China's lowest glacier, the Mingyong glacier — an enormous, dirty, craggy mass of ice wedged in a mountain valley 8,900 feet above sea level — is melting. And as it melts, the glacier on the edge of the Tibetan plateau is retreating up the mountain faster than experts can believe.

"It's truly amazing how much it's traveled," says Barry Baker of The Nature Conservancy, part of a team of international scientists who recently visited the shrinking glacier. "It is just unbelievable."

Book Release from Kathy Galvin, Robin Reid, Roy Behnke and Tom Hobbs--“Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid landscapes.”

Book Cover Nearly 25 percent of the earth's land mass is dominated by rangeland landscapes which support the livelihoods of more than 20 million people and provide habitats for some of the world's large wildlife populations. Socio-cultural and climate changes are fragmenting these regions, and the resulting consequences for humans and ecological processes are being explored by Colorado State University scientists. Those findings are included in a new book, Fragmentation in Semi-Arid and Arid Landscapes - Consequences for Human and Natural Systems.