Ecology News

Wildfire patterns in the West are changing, but according to new research, the trend in the Great Basin hasn’t necessarily been a simple increase. Exploring differences between current wildfire patterns and those from the past can help researchers pinpoi...

In the April 17 online issue of the AAAS journal Science, Zachariah "Zach" Gompert and colleagues use multiple phased genome assemblies and population-level DNA sequencing data to show complex chromosomal rearrangements are key drivers of repeated adaptiv...

You can’t escape it, dust is everywhere. It covers Utah communities with a fine layer of grit. It gets whipped in the wind to snow-covered peaks where it absorbs heat and melts the snowpack. It settles onto rivers and reservoirs and peppers farm fields. I...

To beat an enemy you have to know it — but cheatgrass makes that tough. “Cheatgrass is a formidable enemy because it is remarkably adaptable,” said Peter Adler, ecologist from the Quinney College of Natural Resources and director of the USU Ecology Center...

With a grant award from the American Mosquito Control Association Research Fund, Norah Saarman and her students are using morphology, DNA testing and machine learning to develop an efficient, cost-effective and accurate identification method to mitigate t...

Wildlife conservation is critical to sustaining the planet’s biodiversity and health. But putting together a conservation plan is a tall order. First of all, you need to determine what species you’re conserving, along with their numbers, habitat needs, th...

The National Climate Assessment is set to return in 2027, reaffirming its vital role in shaping U.S. climate policy and adaptation strategies — and two Utah State University faculty will contribute. Mandated by Congress through the Global Change Research ...

When a large mammal such as a deer or a moose is struck by a motor vehicle, the damage is usually dramatic. To reduce these unfortunate events, transportation officials have teamed with wildlife researchers to place warning signs, and to construct wildlif...

Utah State University’s Janet Quinney Lawson Institute for Land, Water, and Air unveiled its 2024 Report to the Governor and Legislature at a standing-room-only event on Tuesday. The event brought together a mix of stakeholders from Utah’s universities, t...

In 1995, officials began to reintroduce wolves to northern Yellowstone National Park, restoring a symbol of wilderness and seemingly triggering an ecological transformation. Elk had been overrunning the park, because most of their predators had been hunte...

New research from a team led by WATS and Ecology Center Professor Sarah Null explores how prioritizing the ecosystem during dam operations could help make water allocation more efficient and effective.

WILD and ECOL Associate Professor Justin DeRose and dendrochronologist Ryan Jess are using tree rings to look into the past to try and plan for the future.

USU faculty and former students decided to honor former Ecology Center Director Martyn Caldwell, who died in 2021, with a memorial endowment in his name.

CEE Faculty and ECOL Affiliate David Rosenberg gathered feedback from 26 Colorado River Basin managers and experts took on water user roles to discuss consuming, banking and trading Colorado River water.

Ecologist surveys field plot Full Size USU Biology and Ecology Center doctoral student Emily Burgess surveys a plot at USU's T.W. Daniel Experimental Forest in Logan Canyon. Burgess, who completed USU’s NSF-funded Climate Adaptation Science Research

A team of researchers, including the Ecology Center and WATS faculty Janice Brahney, is studying how wildfire smoke contaminates natural water bodies and have developed a new metric.

PSC and Ecology Center Faculty Matt Yost has been elected to serve on the board of the American Society of Agronomy.

The Ecology Center's Patrick Belmont (WATS, Department Head) and Roslyn McCann (ENVS) and other researchers investigate why universities are not better at committing to effective climate action policies on campuses.

WILD and Ecology Center researcher David Stoner shares information and advice about mountain lions and when they share space with humans in developed areas.

Recent research by Ecology Center faculty affiliate Janice Brahney shows that dust from the atmosphere acts like a fertilizer for algae, broadening its growth tolerance. Microscopic algae are the foundation of freshwater systems, but recent shifts from cl...

USU ecologist Moria Robinson, assistant professor in the Department of Biology and Ecology Center, is lead author of a Nov. 10 paper in Science exploring how and why patterns in plant-herbivore interactions vary across the globe.

Utah's variable topography produces a tremendous range of wildfire behavior, according to new research from WILD and Ecology Center faculty member Jim Lutz and others.

A team from the Department of Watershed Sciences in the Quinney College of Natural Resources and the Ecology Center identified several factors to help answer the fundamental ecological question of what factors drive animal diversity.

Peter Adler will be succeeding Nancy Huntly as director of the Ecology Center at Utah State University.

Utah State University scientists Brennan Bean and Wei Zhang are among researchers investigating how to determine precautions needed in a changing climate related to heavy snowfall in a project titled "Understanding the Evolving Threat of Snow Loads and Ra...

Research by Eric Thacker and Kari Veblen is finding that transplanting mature, local sagebrush, though more expensive, may have better chances at survival than seeds or seedlings.

The UPR Science Reporter and Ecology PhD Candidate Erin Lewis reports on research showing how rising temperatures contribute to declining air quality in Utah and across the country.

An article in the Herald Journal highlights research by ENVS and Ecology Center faculty Peter Howe and other contributing researchers on how Utahn's perceptions and opinions of climate change and whether exhibited changes are human-induced.

USU Ecology PhD candidate Savannah Adkins says soils remove some 25 percent of annual carbon dioxide produced by fossil fuel burning from Earth’s atmosphere and could potentially remove as much as 35 percent of total greenhouse gases. Eliminating that muc...

USU ecologist Jessica Murray studies soil canopies in tropical montane forests of Costa Rica. The doctoral candidate published findings in the journal 'Geoderma' and presents at the 2023 ESA meeting.

UPR receives 14 Society of Professional Journalism awards, four of which were awarded to the Ecology Center's own Aimee Van Tatenhove and Ellis Juhlin

In some places rain is changing — it is falling less often, but with more intensity. New research is deciphering which plants will might thrive and survive under these new conditions, and it often depends on their roots.

Jennifer Reeve, associate professor of organic and sustainable agriculture, and Matt Yost, associate professor, Ecology Center faculty associate, and agroclimate Extension specialist, hope to find out how much carbon is pulled from the atmosphere by carbo...

Ecology PhD student Valerie Martin (BIOL) is featured in this Herald Journal article about protecting pollinating species in Cache Valley.

The Great Salt Lake Collaborative has created an interactive website to help Utahns understand the critical role Great Salt Lake and its wetlands play in the ecosystem that is crucial to 10 million birds.

USU experts and Ecology/CAS faculty Bethany Neilson and Sarah Null discuss how water shepherding could work to translate conservation efforts into real benefits for Utah’s landscape.

The Western U.S. is a hotspot for studying climate change impacts on the hydrological or water cycle. Despite lower-than-average total precipitation in 2021, the contrasting dryness and wetness in the Western U.S. has been widely described as a “precipita...

Authors of a new report on the Great Salt Lake do not mince words — without major intervention, they say, the Great Salt Lake could disappear within five years.

Jeanette Norton has received the Soil Science Society of America's highest honor

In newly published research, Joshua Carrell, Edd Hammill and Thomas Edwards from the Quinney College of Natural Resources are mapping out strategies so that an emerging demand for proposed energy development projects and the survival of Colorado Plateau’s...

Given the West’s increased focus on water conservation, experts on the front lines of our water worries say we’ve left out an important part of the discussion: huge swaths of data about water supply and demand are missing as indicated by research from Dr....

Sasha Reed, USGS Ecologist and friend of the USU Ecology Center and CAS program, is highlighted in the Salt Lake Tribune regarding her research on biocrust outside of Castle Valley

How did the world’s largest sand island, K’gari, the indigenous name for eastern Australia’s Fraser Island, along with the Great Barrier Reef, the world’s largest coral reef, come to be? Little is known about the formation of these UNESCO World Heritage-l...

New research by our own Dan Macnulty and others shows that wolf coat color may signal resistance to canine distemper virus, enabling the animals to identify partners that can offer a chance at disease-resistant offspring.

tah State University professor Ricardo Ramirez is an Aggie through and through. “I should note Ricardo began his undergraduate studies as a New Mexico State University Aggie and, later, as a postdoc, was a Texas A&M University Aggie,” said USU Science De...

Evolution can repeat itself, says Utah State University alum Samridhi Chaturvedi PhD’19, resulting in parallel adaptations in independent lineages occupying similar environments. Consider the plant-eating stick insect Timema: Multiple species of the genus...

USU evolutionary ecologist Joseph Wilson and colleagues "think like predators" to study mimicry among North American bumble bees. They report findings in the open access journal "Scientific Reports."

Researchers at Utah State University are creating a new hydrologic information system that will generate important new insight about the nation’s water resources.

The Moab Sun News published an article highlighting the sustainable ranching research work of USU faculty and two USU PhD students: CAS trainee and ENVS student Will Munger and Ecology student Maria Stahl.

In August, the Great Salt Lake State Park’s marina was closed due to low water levels. In late September, the U.S. Geological Survey’s Saltair Lake Elevation Gage could “no longer measure accurate water levels” for that same reason. These are both symptom...

The cause-effect sequence or “feedback” between plants and their soil microbial communities plays an important role in structuring plant communities. To predict this synergistic coexistence, researchers conduct short-term, pairwise experiments — measuring...

Starved for freshwater, the Great Salt Lake is getting saltier. The lake is losing sources of freshwater input to agriculture, urban growth and drought, and the drawdown is causing salt concentrations to spike beyond even the tolerance of brine shrimp and...

With record high temperatures scorching Utah into September this year and crushing previous years’ records, the effect of excess carbon in Earth’s atmosphere is impossible to ignore. Carbon sequestration — or locking carbon into soils — is the main driver...

A well-designed fence can help to prevent conflicts with carnivores, but with so many options for material, placement and logistics, researchers can struggle to identify what strategies have the best chance for success. They turned to ranchers for help.

It’s ancient, it’s massive, and it is faltering. The gargantuan aspen stand dubbed “Pando,” located in south-central Utah, is more than 100 acres of quivering, genetically identical plant life, thought to be the largest living organism on earth (based on ...

Karin Kettenring, WATS and Ecology Center faculty, and her lab members discuss their work which is replacing the invasive phragmites with native plants in the wetlands around the Great Salt Lake.

Ask any landowner their opinion of beaver working in streams and rivers on a property, and you’ll likely get a mixed reaction. Beaver are, after all, powerhouse workers that could potentially have major — and sometimes problematic — impacts on a landscape...

For more than two decades trends for above-normal temperatures and below-normal rainfall have ruled the West. Official maps are painted in wide swaths with angry red and dark-red stripes — category markers for extreme and exceptional water shortages. Wate...

Dust from the drying lakebeds threatens the health of millions of people nearby. The remaining water is saltier and less hospitable to life — potentially killing off once robust Artemia (brine shrimp) populations. Fewer birds and visitors flock to its sho...

A recent article in The Atlantic highlights research done by our own Paul Rogers

Michelle Baker, professor in the Department of Biology and the USU Ecology Center, has been selected to serve as dean of Utah State University’s College of Science.

Research tracking the flight habits of American white pelicans could make it safer for aircraft to take to the skies. Research by Ecology student Aimee Van Tatenhove focuses on this issue.

Utah State University physiological ecologist Susannah French is studying the effects of human-induced changes on varied lizards, including iguanas of the world’s tropics and, closer to home, the American Southwest’s side-blotched lizard.

Sublette County cattle and sheep are part of across-the-West depredation reduction demonstration project attempting to ward off predators using motion-triggered LED lights fitted to livestock ear tags. Features research by our own Julie Young

New research from WILD faculty Erica Stuber et al. examines the accuracy of information produced by citizen science apps for monitoring bird populations and found that it could actually offer a lot of utility for researchers. (Tim Lumley photo)

There’s something utterly bewitching about the sound of steak dropping onto a hot, oiled skillet. Or maybe it’s the umami scent of a bacon-topped burger sizzling on the grill, wrapped in smoke and flame. Or perhaps your preference is a perfectly peppered ...

The Pando aspen clone and the associated research of our own Paul Rogers is highlighted in a special feature in National Geographic.

Sixteen Aggies, including Ecology majors Courtney Check (Fellow), Emily Burgess (Honorable Mention), and Maria Stahl (Honorable Mention) are named 2022 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellows or receive honorable mention from competitive STE...

Listen to a UPR UnDisciplined piece featuring our own Patrick Belmont and Jordan Smith as they discuss the future of ski resorts in the face of decreasing snowpack due to climate change

Trees have a complex relationship with snow and energy as the season warms up, but new research shows that big trees can protect melting snowpacks in water-stressed environments.

In 1990-1991, USU Moab professor Wayne Freimund participated in a research project at Arches National Park dealing with visitor management; and now he will be reexamining that research to see how their thinking and findings from the past compare to the re...

In the Western U.S. where skiing, hiking, biking, hunting and other forms of outdoor recreation are core to many people’s lives, and where local economies rely on income generated by these activities, the impacts of a changing climate are already difficul...

Full Size USU Ecology doctoral student Jessica Murray, at a field site in Costa Rica's Monteverde Cloud Forest Biological Preserve, is a 2022 recipient of the Ecological Society of America’s Katherine S. McCarter Graduate Student Policy Award.

Researchers at Utah State University are looking at ways to improve the air quality by focusing on methane gas that cows release into the air. We've all had to pass gas and so do cows but for them, it's on a pretty regular basis.

USU's Julie Young is featured in an article on how to stay safe during a mountain lion encounter.

Pando is formed of 47,000 genetically identical aspen stems that emerged from a single seed, likely back when the last ice sheets had receded. USU's Paul Rogers, director of the Western Aspen Alliance, describes it as ‘a forest of one tree. We can think o...

Although some scientists long questioned the direct effect of wolf reintroduction to aspen regrowth in Yellowstone, a recently published study by USU's Dan MacNulty and Lainie Brice shows aspen regrowth was not as robust as originally advertised.

A new institute at Utah State University that focuses on sharing evidence-based research with state decisionmakers released its 2021 Report to the Governor on Utah's Land, Water, and Air on Dec. 14.

Full Size The award-winning book "Yellowstone Wolves" was written by the people who prepared and performed reintroduction and spent 25 years researching and managing wolves

Full Size A new grant will allow researchers to determine how water markets can be used to make water management systems more resilient. The interdisciplinary team include (left to right) Matt Yost, Niel Allen, Sarah Null, David Rosenberg, and Alfonso T

A multi-disciplinary team of researchers at USU creating tools to better understand the global impact of climate change and other disasters as part of a national initiative.

New research from Stefani Crabtree shows that modern subsistence diets, and the diets of ancient people, were much broader than what most people eat today. Crabtree learned how to hunt goanna lizards and other aspects of subsistence eating from Nyalanka T...

Most people are oblivious to the vast, interconnected network that underlies a forest floor, but it’s a system that plants literally depend on for survival — especially big trees. They are able to fend off attackers better when they are connected to this ...

Professor Sarah Null of Utah State University will be working with a diverse team of experts to study how to better manage water stored for the environment, to better protect vulnerable ecosystems during a time of biodiversity loss and accelerating climat...

How resilient mountain pine beetles (Dendroctonus ponderosae) are to changing temperatures.

UNESCO today released the first global scientific assessment of its World Heritage marine sites’ blue carbon ecosystems, highlighting the critical environmental value of these habitats.

In addition to annoying bites and buzzing, some mosquitoes carry harmful diseases.

Online film screening window: Friday - Sunday, March 5-7 2021 Panel Discussion via Zoom Monday, March 8, 2021 Noon MST Click for more information

USU entomologists, faculty member Joe Wilson, left, and alumna Olivia Carril, search for bees in an area under development near Utah's GSENM. The longtime collaborators are featured in a new documentary premiering Sept. 24. Tony Di Zinno.

Leaders across the west are grappling with how to continue to share a diminishing supply of water from the Colorado River.

The beaver relocation project, a partnership between Utah State University, the U.S. Forest Service and the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, is part habitat restoration and part population growth for the species.

Dr. John M. Neuhold, professor emeritus of Utah State University’s Quinney College of Natural Resources and first director of the Ecology Center, passed away on June 29, 2020, at the age of 92.

A recent study found wind and rain are scattering tiny pieces of plastic throughout national parks and wilderness areas in the West — including one unique landscape in Idaho.

A new study by USU Assistant Professor, Trisha Atwood, suggests modern-day megaherbivores could suffer the same fate with unknown consequences for Earth.

Michelle Baker, associate dean in Utah State University’s College of Science and professor in the Department of Biology and the USU Ecology Center, will serve as the college’s interim dean, beginning January 1, 2021.

In a paper published July 23, 2020 in Science, USU Ecologist Zach Gompert and colleagues describe a supermutation in insects that can help explain large gaps in evolutionary trees.

Support fellow Aggie researchers by registering for the 2020 ESA Meeting by Thursday, July 23 and participate in live or recorded presentations. Use the hashtag #ESAWatchParty2020 to advertise a talk or to post something on Facebook and Twitter.

Creosote bushes produce tufts of fluffy, white fruits. Living nearby are similarly white and fluffy wasps known as thistle-down velvet ants.

The Native American Summer Mentorship Program was created with the express purpose of bringing scholars together to experience hands-on research with USU faculty, one-on-one.

“There’s no nook or cranny on the surface of the earth that won’t have microplastics,” said USU Ecologist Janice Brahney in a New York Times article highlighting her important research on plastic pollution in the air.

Spring is in full swing. Trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and birds are singing. But a recent study in PNAS found that those birds in your backyard may be changing right along with the climate.

Wildfires were once an important driver of ecosystem health in western U.S forests, but decades of fire suppression, natural and human-caused disturbances and environmental change have combined to create conditions that favor wildfires.

“Western tanagers pass through Utah’s Cache Valley every spring but sometimes they linger in large numbers before heading to their mountain destinations,” says Utah State University ornithologist Kim Sullivan.

The Navajo Nation has been hit hard by the pandemic with more than 4,400 cases and nearly 150 deaths. Among the volunteers who have joined the relief effort are USU Biology and Ecology doctoral students Elizabeth Simpson, Megan Kepas, and Hannah Wilson.

Trisha Atwood, Bonnie Waring, and Karen Beard received a significant National Science Foundation grant to study the impact of migrating, plant-eating birds on the carbon cycle.

Two longtime members of Utah State University’s Department of Environment and Society were honored recently by the Society for Range Management (SRM) for their career achievements in rangeland science and management.

Why are there so many species of plants? Why do some plants thrive, while others don’t?

The Great Salt Lake is facing multiple threats that put ecosystems, economies and species at risk, said Wayne Wurtsbaugh, Utah State University professor during a “Canyon Conversations” lecture Saturday morning.

Humans are a complex species. Convincing them to do something … like protect themselves from a grizzly attack might seem like a straightforward task.

Researcher Courtney Flint, a natural resources sociologist, will address how understanding the relationship between Utah's lands and personal well being.

For tens of millions of people, migration is a tough reality. What causes people to migrate away from their home countries, and what happens when they do?

Wolves are charismatic, conspicuous and easy to single out as the top predator affecting populations of elk, deer and other prey animals say Utah State University researchers Michael Kohl and Dan MacNulty.

Ecology Center and Department of Watershed Sciences faculty, Sarah Null, spoke recently with the National Geographic about her research on drought and dams on the Mekong River.

Utah State University ecologist Bonnie Waring heads one of seven projects chosen nationally by competitive peer review for a U.S. Department of Energy Terrestrial Ecological Sciences grant.

Utah is experiencing an explosion in population and a changing economy. These conditions are transforming the way the state uses water, particularly in the case of urbanization.

Jim Lutz and graduate student Sara Germain of the Department of Wildland Resources in the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources were featured in a BBC video on the life history of trees.

Jacqueline J. Peña, a recent Ecology master’s alumna, from the Department of Wildland Resources in the S.J. and Jessie E. Quinney College of Natural Resources, was awarded the 2018 Ecological Society of America (ESA) E. Lucy Braun award for her poster.

It’s a dog-eat-dog world and, in the struggle for existence, organisms interact with each other and their environment in a myriad of ways. Along that journey, they adapt, or perish, as they’re exposed to peril at every turn.

For wildfire firefighters, knowing exactly how long it takes for them to reach safety is critical, and new research provides more precise information about the time to cross different terrains and different slopes.

Up in the mountains near Preston, Idaho and the Oneida Narrows of the Bear River, Professor Joe Wheaton of Utah State University and his students are working to restore a small stream called Station Creek.

Researchers at the University of Utah recently published a paper describing new technology that will make the development of biofuels from plants more economically feasible.

A controlled detonation Sunday night in Juab County lit up the sky with a massive fireball.

The warm temperatures of spring are heading our way and the intense heat of the summer is just around the corner. Now, there is new research investigating how we perceive extreme heat and how it can affect us.

Listen as UPR's Niall Clancy visits a unique stream restoration project in southern Idaho. Features Professor Joe Wheaton from the Utah State University Restoration Consortium.

Elk roam the winter range that straddles the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park with little regard for wolves.

Born in Sweden in 1814, Anders Ångström was a physicist, solar astronomer and a pioneer in the field of spectroscopy. He was among the first scientists to identify hydrogen in the Sun’s atmosphere and to examine the spectrum of the Aurora Borealis.

When millions of geese descend from the warm winds carrying them north along the Pacific coast to Alaska, they are arriving a bit earlier every year. Shifts in global climate patterns are changing the way migratory birds move around the globe each spring....

Logan Mayor Holly Daines held a second public hearing at Logan City Hall last night to discuss allowing dogs into Logan City parks for a 12-month trial period.

Heat waves are more dangerous than tornadoes, statistically. They kill more people than sharks, and put more human lives at risk than blizzards, floods or lightning storms.

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the American West. This week, UPR's Niall Clancy explores the perceptions and realities of the ESA with the help of the University of Utah's Dr. Bob Keiter.

This episode of Science Utah features stories from UPR's Riana Gayle and Niall Clancy. Tune in to hear about northern Utah's Bear Lake, its fishes, and what's being done to conserve them.

USU AggieAir At Forefront Of DroneDrones may be the future of convenience and delivery, but there are still many challenges when it comes to using them in urban environments.

For Science Utah's inaugural podcast episode, reporters Ashley Rhode and Rachel Hager join producer Niall Clancy for a discussion about Utah's state insect.

Join UPR for a new podcast - Science Utah! Each episode features stories and commentary by UPR's science reporters on subjects like bees, air quality, or even dog poop.

The second USU Research Landscapes event will be held on June 18, and will feature research about Utah's water usage by Department of Biology Professor Michelle Baker.

Declines in native bee populations are widely reported, but can existing data really analyze these trends?

You would think that scientists would know how many species occur in an area, especially one as well-populated as Cache County.

How do you tackle a wicked problem like climate change? The truth is there are no easy answers.

A weave of Utah State University international relationships has led to worldwide forest ecology research, the establishment of a consortium, and hopefully a better understanding of one of the world’s oldest and largest single organisms.

Utah State University researchers Paul Rogers and Darren McAvoy have conducted the first complete assessment of the Pando aspen clone and the results show continuing deterioration of this 'forest of one tree.'

Joanna Endter-Wada and Karin Kettenring contributed a guest editorial to the October edition of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment on the value of wetlands to mitigate weather catastrophes.

Scientists get a bad rap for being poor communicators, says USU Physics alum and faculty member Rob Davies (Physics, MS’96, PhD ’99).

he cause-effect sequence or “feedback” between plants and their soil microbial communities plays an important role in structuring plant communities. To predict this synergistic coexistence, researchers conduct short-term, pairwise experiments — measuring ...