Category: Uncategorized

  • The difference a year makes

    The difference a year makes

    Summer is a risky season in the alpine. Plants can grow only in the limited time after the snow melts, and often die back as soon as the soil becomes too dry or the autumn snows begin again. The timing of snow melt is very unpredictable too. The amount of snow a mountain receives is…

  • Back to the mountains

    Back to the mountains

    How often do an industrial thermal camera and spectroradiometer end up in the hold of a Greyhound bus? The summer has come, and I am back in the Rockies for another summer field season focused on how alpine plant communities respond to climate change. Traveling with heavy research equipment is never easy, but after a…

  • Waves in the sand

    Leaving for fieldwork in a few days – enjoy these videos of standing and traveling waves in a beachside stream. The dynamics look like they are controlled by thresholds reached during the buildup and transport of sand by water.

  • Squirrel damage

    Squirrel damage

    Never underestimate a squirrel. Growing up near the Atlantic coast of North America, I was familiar with the native eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis) as a familiar feature of forest and urban environments. It seemed to coexist in both habitats well enough, and I never heard any stories of it causing ecological damage beyond the…