Miles Moore, a CU Boulder PhD student and researcher with the Niwot Ridge LTER, will be giving a talk on alpine tundra productivity through the Environmental Data Science Seminar Series. Follow this link for more information, including options for joining the meeting in-person or by remotely.

Title: Divergent trends in alpine tundra productivity linked to changes in snow-cover and summer temperature.

Speaker: Miles Moore, CU Boulder

Abstract: Alpine tundra productivity responses to climate change remain largely unknown in the Southern Rocky Mountains despite evidence of widespread greening in Arctic and Eurasian alpine systems. Using 39 years of Landsat data, 20 years of field biomass records, and a four-year warming–snow experiment, we show that regional NDVI declined slightly overall but exhibited strong spatial divergence across latitudinal gradients: warming reduced productivity in experiments, and browning was most common where growing seasons lengthened, while greening occurred where they’ve shortened. Finally, we examine preliminary NDVI trends at GLORIA sites across North America.

Speaker Bio: Miles is a PhD student in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder studying vegetation phenology and productivity. His research focuses on applying computational methods to understand how biological systems respond to environmental change under uncertainty. By combining Bayesian modeling, machine learning, and high-performance computing, he works to create data-driven, theoretically informed models of ecological processes, with a particular emphasis on alpine and mountain landscapes.

If you wish to attend, email us for additional information!

As part of the CU Mountain Research Station Summer Seminars, Mary Jade Farruggia will give a talk this Wednesday at the Mountain Research Station. MJ is a postdoctoral researcher in CU Boulder’s Mountain Limnology Lab working on synthesizing long-term mountain lake ecosystem datasets to detect and quantify drivers of change.

Talk Title: Smoke on the water: Impacts of wildfire smoke and ash on mountain lake water quality.

Talk Description: Wildfires are increasing in frequency and severity across North America. At first glance, high-elevation mountain lakes may seem relatively safe from fire – after all, fire and water don’t mix. But as it turns out, even remote mountain lakes far from the actual burned area can feel the impacts of fire. Wildfires produce large smoke plumes that can travel hundreds of miles beyond the actual bounds of the fire. Smoke transported from wildfires can block sunlight for days to weeks on end, and deposit ash carrying nutrients or toxic compounds into the water. We will explore lake exposure to smoke across North America and how it could affect lake water quality, and consider how the iconic mountain lakes we all love may actually be especially sensitive to wildfire smoke. 

Talk Time/Location: 7PM in the Megatron @ the CU Boulder Mountain Research Station

Learn more about the MRS @ https://www.colorado.edu/mrs/

View upcoming seminars @ https://www.colorado.edu/mrs/current-events/2025-summer-seminar-series

As part of the CU Mountain Research Station Summer Seminars, Sara Padula will give a talk this Wednesday at the Mountain Research Station. Sara is a Niwot Ridge LTER graduate student and PhD candidate in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at CU Boulder. Her work focuses on the the genetic basis of spatial cognition in local bird species. 

Talk Title: Hide It, find it, survive: The incredible memory of chickadees

Talk Description: Imagine scattering thousands of snacks across a snow-covered forest and months later, remembering exactly where each one is hidden. For chickadees, this isn’t just a challenge, it’s a way of life. These tiny songbirds survive the winter by storing food items around their environment when resources are plentiful and use their incredible spatial memories to find them again. But how do they do it? To unravel this mystery, I combine field experiments with cutting-edge genetic analyses to uncover the genes that contribute to their incredible memory capabilities. By investigating this question, I aim to uncover how memory evolves and how species that depend on it, like chickadees, may adapt to environmental changes brought on by climate change. 

Talk Time/Location: 7PM in the Megatron @ the CU Boulder Mountain Research Station

Learn more about the MRS @ https://www.colorado.edu/mrs/

View upcoming seminars @ https://www.colorado.edu/mrs/current-events/2025-summer-seminar-series

This meeting is mandatory for all students, faculty, and staff conducting field research on Niwot Ridge over the coming year.

Please email us for additional information including meeting location.

Graduate students funded by the Niwot Ridge LTER will update the Niwot community on their research progress.

Please email us for additional information including meeting location.

New in 2025: Optional information sessions on Niwot data for 30 minutes prior to the All-NWT meetings.

Data Session Topic: Submitting Niwot data for archiving. We will cover ezEML, updating existing datasets and Niwot data policies.

Additional Details: Please consider attending this data session if you have ever found yourself asking….
Do I need to submit data to Niwot?
How do I submit data to Niwot?
I found an error in a dataset I already published with Niwot, what do I do?
How does data submission through Niwot differ from other repositories to which I send data?

If you wish to attend, please email us for additional information.

James Rattling Leaf from the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center will lead a meeting focused on cultural intelligence and indigenous knowledge.

Please email us for additional information including meeting location.

Featured image: James Rattling Leaf, photo by CIRES.

New in 2025: Optional information sessions on Niwot data for 30 minutes prior to the All-NWT meetings.

Data Session Topic: Using Niwot data in your research. We will cover finding Niwot data, understanding metadata, versioning and proper citation, and downloading Niwot data.

Additional Details: Please consider attending this session if you have ever found yourself asking…
Does Niwot have data on <insert your topic here>?
How do I cite Niwot data?
What unit is <insert your favorite topic here> measured in?
I read a cool paper using Niwot data? Are those data still collected?

If you wish to attend, please email us for additional information.

JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST MEETING OF 2025!

Education and Outreach Coordinator Alex Rose will lead a creative and collaborative meeting that mixes data with art.

Please email us for additional information including meeting location.

Featured image: Fieldwork on Niwot Ridge, photo by Alex Rose.

New in 2025: Optional information sessions on Niwot data for 30 minutes prior to the All-NWT meetings.

Data Session Topic: Using Niwot data in your research. We will cover finding Niwot data, understanding metadata, versioning and proper citation, and downloading Niwot data.

Additional Details: Please consider attending this session if you have ever found yourself asking…
Does Niwot have data on <insert your topic here>?
How do I cite Niwot data?
What unit is <insert your favorite topic here> measured in?
I read a cool paper using Niwot data? Are those data still collected?

If you wish to attend, please email us for additional information.

Jen Morse and Alex Rose of the Niwot Ridge LTER help run SnowSchool, an outreach program for a regional elementary school. If you’re curious about working with them, please consider attending this training event on Jan 26 from 11am-2pm at the CU Mountain Research Station. Volunteers should plan to sign up for at least one SnowSchool program, which are on week days from 10am to 1pm.

To volunteer, you don’t have to study snow, you just have to like playing in it—all scientists welcome! For more information, please email us. To register for the training, contact frankie@wildbear.org.

Niwot researcher Katya Jay will present her poster, “Quantifying Climate-Driven Woody Encroachment Rates across Alpine Tundra Ecosystems,” at the 2024 annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU24).

For more information about AGU24, including the meeting schedule, click here.

Featured image: Katya Jay in the field, photo by Stephanie Maltarich.

Our December All-NWT Meeting will focus on the mid-term site review.

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu for meeting location information.

Featured image: Niwot researchers sampling plant, soil, and insects for the Tundra Warming Experiment, photo by Nancy Emery.

Join us for exciting updates from the 2024 field season!

Our November meeting will feature a series of short talks by Principal and Senior Investigators.

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu for meeting location information.

Featured image: Niwot researchers installing sensor stations for the Tundra Warming Experiment, photo by Luke Wheeler.

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu if there is a topic or issue that you would like discussed at our fall leadership meeting.

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu if there is a topic or issue that you would like discussed at our monthly staff meeting.

We will meet with Katie Jones from the National Science Foundation’s National Ecological Observatory Network to brainstorm ways to collaborate on topics of diversity, equity and inclusion and Indigenous data governance (IDGov).

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu if you would like to join us.

The Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) will host three talks on community-engaged research and K-12 education by Dr. Diane McKight, Dr. Holly Barnard, and Eric Parrish.

For more information on this event please visit the CU Events Calendar.

Presentation by Katie Ganon. August 17 at the MtnClim 2024 - Western Forestry and Conservation Association

Poster by Mia Ashby. August 8 at the 2023 ESA annual meeting in Long Beach, California

Program here

Presentation by Jon Henn. August 6 at the 2023 ESA annual meeting in Long Beach, California

Program here

Sunday, August 4, 1-4PM @ESA Annual Meeting.

Add course #13 to your registration (even if you’ve already registered)

Course website

• Assembling and stewarding a team

• Operational data synthesis

• Accessible, useable and citable products

Presentation by Hannah Miller. July 22 at the International Conference on Mercury as a Global Pollutant conference in Cape Town, South Africa.

Programme here

Monthly community-wide meeting of NWT LTER researchers.

Please email lternwt@colorado.edu for meeting location information.

As part of outreach and education on behalf of the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research program, CU Science Discovery’s Dr. Alex Rose turned students into scientists to observe, identify and record as many different organisms as possible at Crest View Elementary school. At the Crest View BioBlitz, 90 4th graders worked in small groups with researchers and naturalists from CU Boulder, Thorne Nature Experience, and Open Space and Mountain Parks. In only two hours on a chilly spring day, they found approximately 135 different organisms! Most importantly, everyone had a great time and couldn’t believe how many things they were able to find when they looked closely. 

Our favorite quote of the day: "This was totally worth missing recess for!”