The world’s oceans are getting hotter and acidifying under climate change at unprecedented rates, threatening coastal and high-mountain communities, marine ecosystems, and global fishing stocks, according to a new Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (SROCC) released this week by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel Read more…
Ecoss researchers show that more carbon is being released from thawed permafrost than previously thought. A new paper published this month in Nature Geoscience introduces a new way to track soil carbon in permafrost, which changes the understanding of how environmental change influences ecosystem carbon storage. The experiment builds on Read more…
Ecoss Assistant Research Professor Christina Schädel talks to KNAU and explains what the latest IPCC Special Report on 1.5° warming means for Arizona. Schädel was a contributing author to the report. Short excerpt from the interview: KNAU: What kind of changes are we seeing from climate change here in Arizona? Read more…
Findings of a new study organized by the Permafrost Carbon Network suggest that putting more effective greenhouse gas controls in place for the rest of this century could help mitigate the effects of climate change on the release of carbon from thawing soils of the northern permafrost region. Ecoss’ Research Read more…
“NAU Regents’ Professor Bruce Hungate, director of the Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss), recently joined a new initiative lead by LLNL to study how the soil microbiome controls the mechanisms that regulate the stabilization of the organic matter in soil. “How do different kinds of microorganisms in the soil grow? How Read more…
Permafrost, the “always-frozen” deep soil layers of the Arctic, naturally undergoes freeze-thaw cycles with the passage of the brief Arctic spring and summer, which thaws the uppermost layers and fosters a burst of tundra plant growth and pooling meltwater from thawed soil. For millennia, this cycle has re-frozen the Read more…
When it comes to climate change, not all carbon is created equal. Among greenhouse gases, methane is 34 times more potent than carbon dioxide. In this recent study published in Nature Climate Change, Northern Arizona University assistant research professor and lead author of the study, Christina Schädel, analyzed carbon release Read more…
Scientists who study climate and ecosystems in the Arctic have weighed in on future changes in the region affecting soils, streams and wildfire, which will be releasing greater amounts of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.Because the Arctic is home to billions of tons of naturally occurring carbon Read more…