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.

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.

Monthly community-wide meeting of NWT LTER researchers.

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

March 27, 2024: Synthesis Skills for Early Career Researchers .
Group synthesis projects use and combine data from multiple sites, times, or approaches. They also build professional networks, expand your scientific perspective, and produce impactful science. But doing them well requires a particular combination of skills, including both technical and interpersonal skills. In the Fall of 2024, the LTER Network Office will begin offering a course for 27 LTER early career researchers that will include in-person and virtual components, a dozen instructional modules in key synthesis skills, and a small-group synthesis project. Join the March Community Call to learn about the course plan and opportunities to take part as a project science mentor or a participant..

Register here: https://lternet.edu/stories/lter-community-calls/

Monthly community-wide meeting of NWT LTER researchers.

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

February 28, 2024: Haley Branch, Postdoctoral Fellow, Yale University.
Dr. Haley Branch (postdoctoral fellow in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University) will lead us through an NSF proposal she wrote to help promote fieldwork inclusivity for disabled researchers. Many disabled students do not consider a career in EEB because of the dominance of and emphasis that the field places on fieldwork. Additionally, there is little information available about accessible fieldwork options. Haley plans to help the LTER Network build a database that will provide students and researchers with information regarding the accessibility of the different LTER locations. This will include information about the site itself, available lodging, laboratory set up (if any), etc. The first aim is to survey the locations for current accessibility and the second is to suggest potential opportunities where access could be increased at various application levels.

Register here: https://lternet.edu/stories/lter-community-calls/