Many northern forests are limited by nitrogen (N) availability, slight changes in which can have profound effects on ecosystem function and the activity of ectomycorrhizal (EcM) fungi. Increasing N and phosphorus (P) availability, an analog to accelerated soil organic matter decomposition in a warming climate, could decrease plant dependency on […]
Fossil Creek Restoration Can we restore a river after a century of disturbance? Research in the Marks Lab has addressed the following questions: How did native species respond to restoration? Employing a BACI design (Before After Control Impact), we determined the relative importance of flow restoration versus non-native fish removal […]
Join ECOSS and gain career ready skills! The Center for Ecosystem Science and Society (ECOSS) provides valuable undergraduate experiences in ecosystems and climate ecology. Currently there are three avenues to work with ECOSS as an undergraduate student: student worker positions in the Laboratory or field, The ECOSS mentoring program, and […]
The American Geophysical Union (AGU) has partnered with NAU to implement its Bridge Program. The goal is to increase the number of students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups obtaining graduate degrees in the geosciences. As partners with AGU’s bridge program, NAU faculty help to fulfill this goal by demonstrating […]
Ecological memory stored in a landscape can help an ecosystem recover from disturbances like fire and outbreaks of disease. But what happens when climate warming disrupts that process? How long before ecological memories stored in the warming Arctic are overwritten by new ones, and what does that mean for the […]
Interviewed by STICH Scholar and Ecoss social media specialist Kayla Blair. Meet Natasha Wesely, a second year PhD student in Dr. Andrew Richardson’s lab. Natasha focuses on modeling different major ecosystem processes. One of her projects involves her creating a new soil restoration model to investigate how soil respiration is driven […]
Interviewed by STICH Scholar and Ecoss social media specialist Kayla Blair. Meet Vic Monsaint-Queeney, a PhD candidate in Bruce Hungate’s lab! Here, Vic studies bacteria in the soil on the San Francisco Peaks in Flagstaff, where she looks at the different types of nitrogen that these microbes consume. The research involves […]
Interviewed by STICH Scholar and Ecoss social media specialist Kayla Blair. Meet Jasmine Anenberg, a PhD student in the Bowker lab! This lab’s main job is to learn about and restore soil function to areas that have been degraded, by preventing erosion, stimulating nutrient cycling and productivity, or manipulating water […]
ESSTE is a unique, 3-semester internship and mentorship opportunity for undergraduate students to help prepare the next generation to address the challenge of increasing drought, fires, and floods. The ESSTE program is in response to an awareness that there is a lack of job training and placement in fields related […]
A study led by Northern Arizona University offers new evidence that a common framework to sort bacteria into two lifestyles doesn’t easily apply to bacteria living in wild soil. The findings, published in The ISME Journal, show that rather than bacteria falling into two major lifestyle groups—one adapted to be competitive and […]