How long does a tree or ecosystem remember a drought?

A team of NAU scientists, led by SICCS professor Kiona Ogle, won a $3.6 million grant from the NSF to study the legacy of extreme climate events on ecosystems in the American West; they hope to not only know how long an extreme event influences ecosystems but also figure out how to better forecast such effects.

Earth to reach temperature tipping point in next 20 to 30 years, new NAU study finds

Postdoctoral scholar Katharyn Duffy led an international team that looked at 20 years of data from throughout the world and found that record-breaking temperates are contributing to a significant decrease in plants’ ability to absorb human-caused carbon emissions.

Fuels, not fire weather, control carbon emissions in boreal forest, new study finds

Northern Arizona University researcher Xanthe Walker is the lead author on research published this week that found that the amount of carbon stored in soils was the biggest predictor of how much carbon would combust and that soil moisture also was significant in predicting carbon release.

A tale of two understories: How mosses and climate are shaping the fate of nitrogen in the boreal

Northern Arizona University biology professor Michelle Mack is a senior author on the study, which demonstrates the invisible connections between trees and the dynamic understory of mosses and microbes that help govern their growth. Ecoss coordinator Victor Leshyk created the cover art for this month’s New Phytologist.