New research published in the journal Applied Optics describes the potential of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology to locate invasive lake trout.
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Dr. Andrew Hansen, a professor in the MSU Department of Ecology and Fellow of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems, has been awarded the Fulbright-Universidad Nacional de Colombia Distinguished Chair in Biodiversity and Sustainable Development. As a Fulbright Scholar in the Distinguished Chairs Program, Hansen will work on a project to help countries meet conservation goals outlined in the Convention on Biological Diversity 2010.
Dr. Cathy Whitlock, IoE Fellow and lead author of the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment, was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences according to an announcement made on May 1st. Whitlock is the first scientist from a Montana institution to receive this honor, in which members are elected in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. From a press release published by MSU News:
In a recent summit hosted by the Greater Yellowstone Coalition, land managers, conservationists, researchers, and students came together to discuss the changing landscape of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE).
The Blackfeet Nation recently released a Climate Change Adaptation Plan, the result of a planning process which began in 2016 and was led by Gerald Wagner of the Blackfeet Environmental Office and facilitated by the Center for Large Landscape Conservation. The plan addresses eight major sectors: agriculture, cultural resources and traditions, fish, forestry, human health, land and range, water, and wildlife.
A new study published in npj Climate and Atmospheric Science (a Nature publication) shows that snowpack levels across the western U.S. have declined over the last 100 years. The team of researchers analyzed data from snow monitoring sites across the West and found declines between 15 to 30 percent with the largest impacts occurring in the spring due to warming temperatures.
As Montana’s climate is projected to warm in the coming decades, spring wheat breeders at MSU are focusing on conventional breeding techniques to boost tolerance to drought and hotter temperatures in spring wheat varieties.
Recent research published in Science has identified “adaptive hot spots” for species that change their coat color in the winter from brown to white. As a changing climate leads to reduced snow cover in the winter, certain species like the snowshoe hare will be negatively impacted due to coat-color mismatch and consequently increased predation. By identifying adaptive hostpots in which brown and white-coated individuals coexist in winter, the international research team, led by Dr. L.
A new article in Science features the Water, Agriculture, Food, Energy, Research Nexus (WAFERx) project, with a focus on the project's research into bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) in the Upper Missouri River Basin. As the impacts of climate change become more pronounced in coming years, BECCS and other negative emissions technologies are looked to as a means of avoiding dangerous future climate scenarios by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
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