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Study Indicates Hail May Disappear From Colorado’s Front Range by 2070

By Guest PostJanuary 12, 2012Environmentclimate change, climate models, climate warming, colorado, colorado springs, continental divide, decision-makers, denver, downscaled, downscaling technique, eastern flank, flash floods, foothill communities, fort collins, global climate models, greenhouse gases, hail, hail damage, hailstones, james scott, joseph barsugli, kelly mahoney, michael alexander, nature climate change, precipitation, rain, regional scale models, regional topography, risk of flooding, rocky mountains, runoff, thunderstorms, weather scale

Summertime hail could all but disappear from the eastern flank of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains by 2070, says a new study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Less hail damage could be good news for gardeners and farmers, said lead author Kelly Mahoney, a research scientist at CIRES, but a shift from hail to rain can also mean more runoff, which could raise the risk of flash floods. “In this region of elevated terrain, hail may lessen the risk of flooding because it takes awhile to melt,” Mahoney said. “Decision makers may not want to count on that in the future.” (more…)

50-Million-Year-Old Cricket and Katydid Fossils From Colorado Hint at Origin of Insect Hearing

By Guest PostJanuary 7, 2012Nature, Science50 million year old, abdomens, chorus of crickets, colorado, crickets and katydids, crucial survival advantage, dena smith, eardrum, evidence of ears, evolution, fossil evidence, fossil insect, front legs, grasshoppers, green river formation, green river fossils, lacewings, lake deposits, modern insects, museum, paleontologist, roy plotnick, tachinid fly, utah, wyoming

*The team scoured more than 500 museum drawers of Green River fossils for crickets and katydids with intact front legs, looking for evidence of ears.*

How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50-million-year-old cricket and katydid fossils sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date are helping to trace the evolution of the insect ear.

According to paleontologist Dena Smith of the University of Colorado Boulder’s Museum of Natural History and University of Illinois Professor Roy Plotnick, who collaborated on the new study at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, or NESCent, in Durham, N.C., insects hear with help from some very unusual ears. (more…)

‘Mountain Pine Beetle Activity May Impact Snow Accumulation And Melt’

By Guest PostJune 10, 2011Environmentalbedo, atmosphere, british columbia, bryant kealey, colorado, colorado river, ecohydrology, eric small, evan pugh, gas, grand lake, gray phase, hydrologic models, jon hammond, leslie baehr, lodgepole pine trees, meltwater, mountain pine beetles, pyranometers, river basins, rocky mountain national park, salt lake city, ski resort, snow surface albedo, snowmelt, southern wyoming, tevis blom, transmission of sunlight, university of colorado boulder

A new University of Colorado Boulder study indicates the infestation of trees by mountain pine beetles in the high country across the West could potentially trigger earlier snowmelt and increase water yields from snowpack that accumulates beneath affected trees.

Led by CU-Boulder geological sciences department doctoral student Evan Pugh, the study was undertaken near Grand Lake, Colo., adjacent to Rocky Mountain National Park, an area that has been devastated by mountain pine beetle attacks in recent years. Mountain pine beetles have killed more than 4 million acres of lodgepole pine trees in Colorado and southern Wyoming since 1996, the most severe outbreak on record. (more…)

Saturn’s Rings Are Remnants of Massive Moon, Study Says

By PravdaDecember 13, 2010Scienceastronomer, aurélien crida, colorado, earth, elegant model, icy composition, massive moon, moon, Nature, planetary scientist, pure ice, remnant, ring of hydrogen gas, robin canup, saturn, saturn rings, saturns rings, solar system, southwest research institute in boulder, theory

Saturn's rings. Image credit: NASA/JPL

A new study conducted by scientists at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, has this week posited that Saturn’s rings are the remnants of a massive moon that once orbited Earth’s distant neighbour.

According to study author and astronomer Robin Canup, the moon plunged into Saturn around 4.5 billion years ago due to a giant ring of hydrogen gas responsible for creating rocky satellites but also for dragging larger moons out of orbit.

The scientific theory centres on the predominantly icy composition of Saturn’s rings, The Tech Herald reports. (more…)

‘Social Relationships in Animals Have a Genetic Basis’

By Guest PostDecember 8, 20102 commentsScienceamanda lea, animals, colorado, daniel t blumstein, female marmots, genetic, genetic component, genetic variation, human behavior, interactions, marmots, non-human population, rocky mountains, social behavior, social network trait, squirrels, tolerate aggression

The ability to tolerate aggression is partly genetic, UCLA life scientists report in the first study to demonstrate a genetic component to a social network trait in a non-human population.

“The ability to tolerate aggression is passed on across generations; there is genetic variation in the ability to tolerate aggression,” said the study co-author Daniel T. Blumstein, professor and chair of ecology and evolutionary biology at UCLA.

Blumstein, a leader in the field of applying social network statistics to animals, and his colleagues studied four groups of yellow-bellied marmots, which are related to squirrels, over six years in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Each group included 15 to 30 marmots. (more…)

A River Ran Through It

By Guest PostOctober 17, 2010Nature, Sciencealan tessier, arizona state university, climate change, colorado, colorado river delta, downstream, ecosystems, food chain, grand canyon, humans, irrigation, jacques finlay, john sabo, las vegas, los angeles, minneapolis, Mississippi, new york city, Phoenix, river flows, rivers, sea of cortez, small tributaries, storm floods, streams

About the image: A now dry Colorado River delta branches into the Baja/Sonoran Desert near the Sea of Cortez. Image credit: Pete McBride

Rivers and streams supply the lifeblood to ecosystems across the globe, providing water for drinking and irrigation for humans as well as a wide array of life forms from single-celled organisms up to the fish humans eat.

But humans and nature itself are making it tough on rivers to continue in their central role to support fish species, according to new research by a team of scientists including John Sabo, a biologist at Arizona State University.

Globally, rivers and streams are being drained due to human use and climate change. These and other human impacts alter the natural variability of river flows.

Some affected rivers have dried and no longer run, while others have seen increases in the variability of flows due to storm floods. (more…)

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