News & Events
INSTAAR News
Rare earth elements and old mines spell trouble for Western water supplies
August 30th, 2021Acid rock and mine drainage into Western streams is a problem. Climate change is making it worse.
In memoriam: Rolf Kihl
March 4th, 2021Rolf Kihl, a meticulous and inventive scientist who established INSTAAR’s Sedimentology Lab and ran it for decades, passed away on January 19, 2021. The INSTAAR community mourns his loss.
The secret life of glaciers: Lake sediments reveal a 10,000 year record of climate and ice
November 20th, 2020A team of past and present INSTAAR researchers have reconstructed the history of Teton Glacier, Wyoming, by analyzing sediment from alpine lakes. Their work is documented in a new study published this week in Science Advances.
Mette Bendixen receives the AGU Science for Solutions Award
November 11th, 2020The American Geophysical Union has announced that INSTAAR postdoctoral scholar Mette Bendixen is the recipient of their 2020 Science for Solutions Award. The award follows Bendixen’s out-of-the-box work on an overlooked global challenge: the scarcity of sand resources.
Arctic communities planning for abrupt permafrost thaw
October 21st, 2020A new INSTAAR-led project will engage Indigenous and Western knowledge systems to better understand abrupt permafrost change in Alaska. The National Science Foundation selected the project as part of its Navigating the New Arctic funding area, one of ten “Big Ideas” that NSF is investing in as an area of profound national challenge and opportunity. The research project brings Alaskan communities together with social and natural scientists to examine changes in permafrost thaw lake environments, including associated effects on villages in the Yukon River watershed.
Lawns and landscaping complicate taking the measure of Los Angeles Basin’s carbon footprint
October 12th, 2020The Los Angeles Basin is often thought of as a dry, heavily developed landscape. But a new study in PNAS led by NOAA and the University of Colorado Boulder shows that the manicured lawns, emerald golf courses, and trees of America’s second-largest city play a surprisingly large role in its carbon footprint.