News | Research

INSTAAR research is featured in thousands of news stories and more than 10,000 social media posts per year. Outlets include the New York Times, Washington Post, PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, and as well as more regional news outlets like High Country News, 9News, and the Denver Post. Selected highlights are listed below. Additional stories are noted .

Six people stand behind a low table, which holds a number of silicon molds of animal footprints, at the Natural History Museum in Kathmandu, May 2023. They include Alton Byers (third from left) and Ganesh Bahadur Thapa (fourth from left).

Tracking Himalayan wildlife (Nepali Times)

June 13, 2024

The Natural History Museum in Kathmandu revives the ancient art of tracking with an exhibit that includes casts of wildlife tracks made by INSTAAR research scientist Alton Byers.

An American pika forages avens on Niwot Ridge. Photo by Craig Stevenson.

Seminar series starts at Mountain Research Station

June 5, 2024

Seminars at the Mountain Research Station will address the plants, animals, soils, permafrost, fires, and water of the Front Range, and how climate change interacts with all of them. All are welcome to the seminars, which are free and open to the public.

An aerial view of the rust-colored Kutuk River in Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska. Photo by Ken Hill, National Park Service.

Rivers in Alaska are turning orange. The reason surprised even scientists (CNN)

June 4, 2024

A new paper by a team of USGS and CU Boulder scientists is mentioned in this news story on rivers and streams in Alaska changing color. The streams are turning from blue to rusty orange because of toxic metals released by thawing permafrost and leaching into stream water.

A mountain chickadee eats seeds from an auto feeder after landing on the perch that matches its radio tag and opens the feed door. Photo: Nicholas Goda, via University of babyÖ±²¥app Boulder

babyÖ±²¥app’s chickadees may lose their good memory to adapt to climate change, researchers find (The babyÖ±²¥app Sun)

May 28, 2024

The common mountain bird has an excellent memory for the right perch for free seeds, and has the flexibility to handle climate change. New research from the University of babyÖ±²¥app and colleagues has tightened a claw around the sets of genes that make mountain chickadees some of the most remarkable return-navigators in nature.

A mountain stream in the upper Mancos river basin, displaying a rusty red bed, flows toward the viewer. Mountain slopes covered with pine trees are in the background. Photo by Andrew Manning.

babyÖ±²¥app's streams are being loaded with toxic heavy metals (Newsweek)

May 22, 2024

babyÖ±²¥app's mountain streams are facing a "real challenge" from a rising concentration of heavy metal levels. These rising levels are only worsening with climate change, a new study found.

This enhanced-color image shows a 45-meter-diameter crater on the surface of Mars, appearing as a glistening sphere on a rusty red background. Glistening material is interpreted as water ice slowly subliming. Photo credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona

Modeling ice and snow on planets

May 16, 2024

A new model makes better predictions of the behavior of ice on Mars—and any other rocky planet with an atmosphere.

A stream with rusty orange streambed, centered in steep slopes with scree and evergreen trees, with a mountain in the background.

Warming climate is putting more metals into babyÖ±²¥app’s mountain streams

April 23, 2024

Warming temperatures are causing a steady rise in copper, zinc and sulfate in the waters of babyÖ±²¥app mountain streams affected by acid rock drainage. Concentrations of these metals have roughly doubled in these alpine streams over the past 30 years, a new study finds, presenting a concern for ecosystems, downstream water quality and mining remediation.

Earth Day graphic consisting of a series of images cropped diagonally that depict oceans, plants, ice, clouds, and more.  Some of the images are overlain with earth and recycling symbols

5 NSF projects transforming how researchers understand plastic waste (NSF)

April 22, 2024

The U.S. National Science Foundation champions research on how plastic impacts the planet. In this article, they highlight five projects that are changing how researchers think about plastic and what happens after it is tossed away. One of these projects is a study led by Alexandra Jahn about how sea ice moves microplastics in polar regions. Working with her are colleagues from NCAR, U Washington, and WHOI.

A Chickadee, in bold black and white, stands in profile on the tip of an evergreen branch

Mountain chickadees have remarkable memories. A new study explains why (CU Boulder Today)

April 17, 2024

A multi-university team of researchers, including four members of CU Boulder's Taylor Lab, have identified nearly a hundred genes associated with the birds’ spatial memory, or ability to recall the locations of objects. Their paper, published in the journal Current Biology, also suggests a potential trade-off may exist between having a solid long-term memory and being able to quickly ditch old memories to form new ones.

Noah Molotch shows analyses of snow-water equivalent for California at NASA JPL. Photo copyright by and courtesy of PIER GAGNÉ, Radio-Canada.

A new look at western water

April 4, 2024

The Mountain Hydrology Group will be developing a new snowpack data set to inform water supply management in the western United States, thanks to grant funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

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