Research
Lina Pérez-Angel and Julio Sepúlveda led a team to study a sediment record millions of years old from the tropical Andes. They found that the region heated up dramatically when atmospheric CO2 levels were similar to today’s.
Breaking ice, moving earth: Greenland will release more sediment into the ocean as the climate warmsA new paper from Irina Overeem and Ethan Pierce describes how icebergs export Greenlandic sediment into the Arctic Ocean — and how that process might change in the future.
INSTAAR fellow Keith Musselman and collaborators have constructed an "EcoTram" that continuously measures hydrological and ecological variables across a 400-foot transect high in the Indian Peaks. The system provides a wealth of data for investigations into shifting mountain systems.
Between ambitious projects, big awards and groundbreaking publications, it’s been a newsy year at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research. Here are our top stories of 2025.
Diane McKnight and Tom Marchitto are collaborators on a new project looking for a way to extract rare earth metals from contaminated Colorado streams. The goal is to improve water quality while also increasing the domestic supply of raw materials for advanced technologies.
INSTAAR's Arctic Rivers Project is blending Indigenous knowledge with climate science to describe a shifting arctic environment. Eos news reports on the project's unique blend of methodologies, including participatory mapping, remote sensing and biological modeling.
Researchers in Nancy Emery's lab are investigating how alpine plants respond to climate change at Niwot Ridge. Anticipated funding cuts could threaten the long-term ecological records that make this research possible.
Researchers at the stable isotope lab just finished resampling more than a mile of ice from Greenland. Further analysis will probe unanswered questions about climate change, sea ice and Earth’s history.
The Maxwell/Hanrahan Foundation has pledged $75,000 to support student research at the Mountain Research Station. The donation will fund three years of research expenses and stipends for undergraduate and graduate students.
A team, led by INSTAAR’s Courtney Payne, used a powerful methodology to predict outcomes for life in the Arctic Ocean in the year 2100. Their results predict disrupted phytoplankton blooms, which will ripple throughout the ecosystem.