Tag Archives: boulder

Southwest Regional Warming Likely Cause of Pinyon Pine Cone Decline, Says CU Study

By Guest PostFebruary 18, 2013Environmentbird, black bears, black chinned hummingbirds, boulder, climate change, climate warming trend, cone initiation, creeping climate change, crossbill, dramatic warming, drought, ecologists, ecosphere study, ecosystems, environmental stimulus, fire, forcella, frank forcella, germination, growing season, impact, increases in temperatures, insects, jeffry mitton, lower elevations, mammal species, masting events, miranda redmond, negative effect, new mexico, northern arizona, northwestern oklahoma, nut carrying cones, nutcrackers, pinyon pine, pinyon pine reproduction, pinyon pine seedlings, pollination, precipitation, season, southwest, temperature, university, university of colorado, us tree, woodland ecosystems

Creeping climate change in the Southwest appears to be having a negative effect on pinyon pine reproduction, a finding with implications for wildlife species sharing the same woodland ecosystems, says a University of Colorado Boulder-led study.

The new study showed that pinyon pine seed cone production declined by an average of about 40 percent at nine study sites in New Mexico and northwestern Oklahoma over the past four decades, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Miranda Redmond, who led the study. The biggest declines in pinyon pine seed cone reproduction were at the higher elevation research sites experiencing more dramatic warming relative to lower elevations, said Redmond of CU’s ecology and evolutionary biology department. (more…)

Biodiversity Protects Against Disease, Scientists Find

By Guest PostFebruary 15, 2013Natureamphibian eating birds, amphibian infections, amphibian species, aquatic parasite cycle, biodiversity, biodiversity matters, bird species, boulder, california tiger salamander, community of frogs, complex ecosystems, dan preston, decrease in disease, deformed frogs, disease transmission, doug levey, egrets, factor, grasslands, herons, humans, humans and wildlife, hypothesis, infection with ribeiroia, jason hoverman, katie richgels, large scale ecosystems, life cycle, lyme disease, malformations, national science foundation, northern leopard frog, organisms, parasite transmission, parasitic infections, pathogen, pieter johnson, pond, pond community, protects against disease, purdue university, replicate, reservoir hosts, ribeiroia ondatrae, salamanders, toads, university of colorado, west nile virus

Discovery resulted from study of amphibians in ponds

The richer the assortment of amphibian species in a pond, the more protection that community of frogs, toads and salamanders has against a parasitic infection that can cause severe deformities, including the growth of extra legs.

The findings, published in a paper in this week’s issue of the journal Nature, support the idea that greater biodiversity in large-scale ecosystems, such as forests or grasslands, may also provide greater protection against diseases, including those that affect humans.

A larger number of mammal species in an area may curb cases of Lyme disease, while a larger number of bird species may slow the spread of West Nile virus. (more…)

Analysis of Greenland Ice Cores Adds to Historical Record and May Provide Glimpse into Climate’s Future

By Guest PostJanuary 30, 2013Environmentalpine research, Antarctica, Arctic, arctic sciences section, atmosphere, belgium, boulder, canada, change, China, climate, climate conditions, denmark, dorthe dahl-jensen, earth climate, eemian interglacial, eemian like, eemian period, france, future, future climate, Germany, global temperatures rise, greenland ice cores, greenland ice sheet, historical record, ice ages, ice sheet, Iceland, Japan, jim white, last interglacial period, national science foundation, neem, northern greenland, northern hemisphere, paleo climate models, sea-level rise, south korea, subsurface ice layers, Sweden, switzerland, the netherlands, united kingdom, united states, university of colorado, university of copenhagen, west antarctic

The International North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) project results indicate that melting of Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea level rise than melting of the Greeland ice sheet some 100,000 years ago

A new study that provides surprising details on changes in Earth’s climate from more than 100,000 years ago indicates that the last interglacial–the period between “ice ages”–was warmer than previously thought and may be a good analog for future climate, as greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere and global temperatures rise.

The research findings also indicate that melting of the massive West Antarctic ice sheet may have contributed more to sea-level rise at that time than melting of the Greenland ice sheet. (more…)

JILA Physicists Achieve Elusive ‘Evaporative Cooling’ of Molecules

By Guest PostDecember 30, 2012Scienceatoms, bec, bose einstein condensate, boulder, chemical reaction, colorado, control, cool atoms, cup of coffee, electromagnetic pulses, energy state, evaporative cooling, gas, hydrogen atom, hydroxyl radicals, jila, jila theorist, john bohn, jun ye, magnetic fields, millikelvin, mk, molecules, novel way, oh, oh molecules, oxygen atom, physicists, potassium, potassium rubidium molecules, quantum simulators, reactive molecules, rubidium atoms, ultracold chemistry, university

Achieving a goal considered nearly impossible, JILA physicists have chilled a gas of molecules to very low temperatures by adapting the familiar process by which a hot cup of coffee cools.

JILA is a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology located on the CU-Boulder campus. (more…)

Massive Crevasses and Bendable Ice affect Stability of Antarctic Ice Shelf, CU-Boulder Research Team Finds

By Guest PostDecember 8, 2012Environmentantarctic peninsula, boulder, breakup, catastrophic collapse, colorado, crevasses, daniel mcgrath, floating, glacial inflows, glacial outlets, harihar rajaram, ice shelf, ice type, icebergs, konrad steffen, larsen a, larsen b, larsen c, last century, massachusetts, meltwater, seawater, sheet of ice, southern hemisphere, summer, suture zones, ted scambos, tom weston, university, waleed abdalati, warmer climate, weddell sea

Gaping crevasses that penetrate upward from the bottom of the largest remaining ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula make it more susceptible to collapse, according to University of Colorado Boulder researchers who spent the last four Southern Hemisphere summers studying the massive floating sheet of ice that covers an area twice the size of Massachusetts.

But the scientists also found that ribbons running through the Larsen C Ice Shelf – made up of a mixture of ice types that, together, are more prone to bending than breaking – make the shelf more resilient than it otherwise would be. (more…)

Degraded Military Lands To Get Ecological Boost From CU-led Effort

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2012Environmentamerican west, arid ecosystem, arid land, atmospheric dust, bacteria, biocrusts, biological soil crust, boulder, central america, China, colorado, cyanobacteria, degraded, desert environment, dugway proving ground, erosion, extreme environment, ferran garcia pichel, fort bliss, fungi, general george patton, hawaii, inoculation, jayne belnap, lichens, metropolitan area, michael duniway, microbial communities, military activity, military exercises, military installation, military vehicles, modeling, mojave desert, mosses, new mexico, nichole barger, northwest utah, pollutant, polyacrylamide, probability, restore, sasha reed, soil erosion, soil fertility, soil surface, South Africa, south america, survival, texas, university, water retention, word war

Some arid lands in the American West degraded by military exercises that date back to General George Patton’s Word War II maneuvers in the Mojave Desert should get a boost from an innovative research project led by the University of Colorado Boulder.

Headed up by CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Nichole Barger, the research team is focused on developing methods to restore biological soil crusts — microbial communities primarily concentrated on soil surfaces critical to decreasing erosion and increasing water retention and soil fertility. Such biological soil crusts, known as “biocrusts,” can cover up to 70 percent of the ground in some arid ecosystems and are dominated by cyanobacteria, lichens, mosses, fungi and bacteria, she said. (more…)

2001-02 Drought Helped to Shift Rocky Mountain Pine Beetle Outbreak into Epidemic

By Guest PostNovember 5, 2012Environment19th century, alpine research, Arctic, beetles, boulder, british columbia, climate, colorado, continental divide, drought, dynamics, epidemic, episode, evan pugh, forest, front range, lodgepole pine, mountain, native insect, new mexico, North America, northern, pine beetle, ponderosa pine, precipitation, rocky mountains, tania schoennagel, teresa chapman, thomas veblen, university, warmer climate, western slope, wyoming

A new University of Colorado Boulder study shows for the first time that episodes of reduced precipitation in the southern Rocky Mountains, especially during the 2001-02 drought, greatly accelerated development of the mountain pine beetle epidemic.

The study, the first ever to chart the evolution of the current pine beetle epidemic in the southern Rocky Mountains, compared patterns of beetle outbreak in the two primary host species, the ponderosa pine and lodgepole pine, said CU-Boulder doctoral student Teresa Chapman. The current mountain pine beetle outbreak in the southern Rockies — which range from southern Wyoming through Colorado and into northern New Mexico –is estimated to have impacted nearly 3,000 square miles of forests, said Chapman, lead study author. (more…)

Racial ‘Hierarchy of Bias’ Drives Decision to Shoot Armed, Unarmed Suspects, CU-Boulder Study Finds

By Guest PostOctober 25, 2012Politicsafrican american, asians, behavior, bernadette park, bias, black men, blacks, boulder, cell phone, charles judd, Chicago, colorado, cultural stereotype, dangerous, ethnic environment, ethnic group, florida, hierarchy, hispanics, joshua correll, jurisdiction, multi, new mexico, police officer, positive bias, russell sage foundation, san diego, shoot, state university, students, suspects, university, Washington, whites, young

Police officers and students exhibit an apparent “hierarchy of bias” in making a split-second decision whether to shoot suspects who appear to be wielding a gun or, alternatively, a benign object like a cell phone, research conducted by the University of Colorado Boulder and San Diego State University has found.

Both the police and student subjects were most likely to shoot at blacks, then Hispanics, then whites and finally, in a case of what might be called a positive bias, Asians, researchers found. (more…)