On a 10-meter-square plot of frozen soil in central Alaska, Ted Schuur is creating a window to the future. Schuur, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff, is intentionally warming this patch of permafrost to see how much of its carbon— now locked in frozen plant matter buried for centuries or more—will thaw, decompose, and escape to the atmosphere, where it will make an infinitesimal contribution to global warming.
In 2002, the Odyssey probe discovered evidence of past ice on Mars. The U.S. Congress authorized the Iraq War resolution. The Anaheim Angels won the World Series. And in a meadow 15 miles north of Read more…
By the end of this century, permafrost in the rapidly warming Arctic will likely emit as much carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere as a large industrial nation, and potentially more than the U.S. Read more…
The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (Ecoss) at NAU has been named one of 15 new partner institutions of the AGU Bridge Program, which works to support students in applying to and succeeding in Read more…