How do you assess a whole region’s plant life for extinction risk? Or use that information to protect unique floral biodiversity? Tune into this In Defense of Plants podcast with SES ecologist Dr. Helen Rowe for a discussion about how the IUCN SSC Sonoran Desert Plant Specialist Group is gathering data from community members and herbaria to set priorities.
The roots of most plants form symbioses with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and harnessing these symbioses could reduce irrigation and fertilizer inputs for more sustainable production of many crops, including biofuel sorghum. Regents’ Professor Nancy Johnson in the School of Earth & Sustainability was awarded $1.3 million to collaborate with researchers at the University of Georgia to study the beneficial associations between biofuel sorghum and AMF. Despite decades of efforts, successful… Read more
SES climate scientist Deborah Huntzinger recently published a paper in Science about the potential for forests to absorb our excess greenhouse gas emissions. You can learn more about challenges and solutions from her interviews with NAU News and the AZ Daily Sun.
NAU SES scientists are using drones, seismometers, cameras and more to study the aftermath of Museum Fire. This NSF-funded research is critical to understanding flooding potential and debris flows on a disturbed landscape. Plus major bonus, the article in the Daily Sun is written by one of our amazing local geology alums, John Noll!
Check it out! Lexi’s award and her work on the origins of the Colorado Plateau’s uplift is highlighted in NAU News today.
Learn how School of Earth and Sustainability climate scientists determined how global warming is a major new shift in long-term climate trends. Their findings were published in a major new study out this month. Check out the VERY cool infographic and NAU news story, or go straight to the open access paper.