Climate & Environment

Scientists predict sea change in Arctic ecosystems by century's end

Megan Maneval — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 19:35:29 +0000

Scientists predict sea change in Arctic ecosystems by century's end Megan Maneval Mon, 11/24/2025 - 12:35

INSTAAR

A team, led by INSTAAR's Courtney Payne, used a powerful methodology to predict outcomes for life in the Arctic Ocean in the year 2100. The results show disrupted phytoplankton blooms, which will ripple throughout the ecosystem.

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A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time

Daniel William Strain — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 21:33:24 +0000

A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time Daniel William… Thu, 11/20/2025 - 14:33

Daniel Strain , Nicholas Goda

Credit: Adobe Stock

Dirt. For millennia, the dark, rich soil underlying farms and gardens worldwide has been central to human survival.

It’s also a lot more complex than it looks.

Within every clump of soil lies an intricate network of bacteria and other microbes that humans depend on for a wide range of reasons. Among other roles, these microorganisms pull elements like nitrogen from the environment and convert them into nutrients that plants need to grow.

But the intricacies of this cycle, which can shift from hour to hour and from location to location, have been devilishly hard for scientists to measure.

“It’s a challenging place to put electronics,” said Nicole Luna, a graduate student studying mechanical engineering at CU Boulder.

She’s a member of a team trying to address that by making reliable, inexpensive and easy-to-deploy sensors that monitor soil in real time as it, essentially, breathes in and out. Those data could help farmers optimize their use of fertilizers, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and saving money in the process.

“We all eat,” said Gregory Whiting, an associate professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering who heads up the CU Boulder team. “So it’s really important that food is produced in a way that will let us keep doing it for a long time.”

The effort is part of a $2 million project, led by the University of California Berkeley, to confront a persistent challenge in agriculture: nitrous oxide emissions from soil.

Nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas that can trap about 265 times more heat in the atmosphere by weight than carbon dioxide. Agricultural soils, through the activity of those hidden bacteria, dump more of this gas into the air than any other human source.

Researchers at CU Boulder and UC Berkeley are developing new suites of sensors to accurately estimate the nitrous oxide emissions from soil—in real time and for a fraction of the cost of existing tools. The group hopes that farmers could one day install these sensors across entire fields.

Out of balance

The project dovetails with Luna’s long-lasting love for green and growing things.

As a high school student growing up in the Los Angeles area, Luna competed in plant identification events hosted by the National Junior Horticultural Association. She and her fellow contestants named common horticultural plants from a few bits and pieces: Could they identify an elderberry tree by its flowers, for example, or the seeds of a persimmon?

A researcher in Gregory Whiting's lab lowers a soil sensor into the dirt. (Credit: BEEM Lab)

In 2015, Luna attended the organization’s national competition and placed first.

It’s a passion she brought with her when she moved to Colorado.

“When I moved here, the first thing I did was buy a book on native plants,” she said.

The world’s commercial plants, Luna added, from corn and soybeans to coffee and bananas, depend on soil that exists in a delicate balance.

To improve crop yields, farmers add fertilizers to their soils, usually in synthetic forms. But plants can only use so much of that fertilizer, and the rest goes to waste.

It carries a toll: Excess nitrogen can pollute waterways and escape into the air as nitrous oxide—sometimes known in dentist offices as laughing gas.

It also costs farmers a ton of money. According to estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, fertilizer use may make up more than 40% of the operating costs for corn and wheat growers. In 2024 alone, the nation imported nearly $4 billion in fertilizers from overseas.

“We need to produce a lot more food than humans ever have before because we have a growing population,” said Taylor Sharpe, a postdoctoral researcher in Whiting’s lab. “So it’s an issue of optimizing our agriculture.”

There’s just one big problem: Scientists have long struggled to measure nitrous oxide emissions from soils in real time, said Whendee Silver, a biogeochemist at UC Berkeley. She leads the nitrous oxide project, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E).

“When microbes get the perfect storm of conditions, they’ll produce a lot of nitrous oxide. It can happen over the course of a few hours to a couple of days,” she said. “If you’re not making measurements often enough, it’s very easy to miss those hot moments.”

Traditionally, Silver’s lab has recorded nitrous oxide emissions from soil in real time using high-tech sensors called cavity ring-down spectrometers and six to 21 automated chambers. But these systems cost over $100,000 each, and the team uses at least two of them to monitor a single acre of land.

Which is where Whiting’s lab comes into the picture.

Gregory Whiting

Nicole Luna

Taylor Sharpe

Exploring a new world

Imagine an ordinary corn field where dozens of small sensors are buried underground. The sensors monitor the soil as it breathes on an hour-by-hour basis, circulating nitrogen through the environment.

To make that vision a reality, Whiting and his team have turned to an unlikely technology: screen printing, like the machines that people have used for decades to print graphics on T-shirts.

Luna explained that the group uses an advanced version of those machines to lay down specially formulated inks to make electronic sensors. These inks are tuned in just the right way so that they respond to changing conditions in soil.

Taylor Sharpe works on soil sensors in the field. (Credit: BEEM Lab)

The team’s sensors, which are shaped like a roll of quarters, don’t measure nitrous oxide directly. Instead, they measure multiple other features of soil, including temperature, moisture and oxygen levels. Previous research from Silver’s lab showed that those features help to drive nitrous emission emissions. The researchers can then use those measurements to calculate a rough estimate for emissions.

These sensors, in other words, provide a window to the mysterious realm underground.

“We can use these sensors to get real feedback from the field on how much nitrogen is being emitted as nitrous oxide, and give the farmers an idea of how much they should be fertilizing and watering,” Luna said.

The researchers also have a target of producing these sensors for just $10 a pop.

“We’re getting to the point where we have the tools, finally, to be able to measure microbial processes at the scale where they’re actually occurring,” Silver said. “There’s been a whole world that we haven’t been able to explore.”

This fall, her team at UC Berkeley buried CU Boulder’s sensors in a working corn farm in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They will monitor the sensors over the growing season to validate the readings they collect.

Whiting and his colleagues, meanwhile, are working to commercialize their sensor technology through a startup company called Tierra Metrics.

For Luna, the project as a chance to use her engineering skills to help people and the planet.

“I really care about the environment and our food supply, and this is a way that I can use my engineering skills to benefit the society at large,” she said.

Beyond the story

Our sustainability impact by the numbers:

First student-run campus environmental center in the U.S.
No. 11 university for environmental and social impact in the U.S.
First zero-waste major sports stadium in the U.S.

Follow CU Boulder on LinkedIn

Engineers at CU Boulder are developing new sensors that could one day help save farmers money, while reducing the environmental toll of agriculture.

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New pika research finds troubling signs for the iconic Rocky Mountain animal

Daniel William Strain — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 22:49:33 +0000

New pika research finds troubling signs for the iconic Rocky Mountain animal Daniel William… Tue, 11/18/2025 - 15:49

Daniel Strain

American pika (Ochotona princeps). (Credit: Steve Torbit/USFWS)

A new study led by the CU Boulder carries a warning for one of the Rocky Mountains’ most iconic animals—the American pika (Ochotona princeps), a small and fuzzy creature that often greets hikers in Colorado with loud squeaks.

The study draws on long-running surveys of pikas living in a single habitat about 10 miles south of Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

The researchers discovered that the “recruitment “of juveniles to this site seems to have plummeted since the 1980s. In other words, these populations are becoming dominated by older adults, with fewer juvenile pikas being born, or migrating in, to take their place.

The group published its findings recently in the journal “Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research.”

An American pika in Yellowstone National Park. (Credit: Adobe Stock)

Chris Ray makes notes during a survey of pikas in Colorado's Indian Peaks Wilderness. (Credit: Gabe Allen/INSTAAR)

Graduate student Rachel Mae Billings releases a pika after collecting data in Colorado's Indian Peaks Wilderness. (Credit: Gabe Allen/INSTAAR)

“It’s a fun encounter when you’re hiking on a trail in the Rockies and a pika yells at you,” said Chris Ray, lead author of the study and a research associate at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at CU Boulder. “If you don’t have that anymore, your experience in the wild is degraded.”

She added that scientists have long predicted that climate change might threaten pikas in the American West.

One 2015 study predicted that pikas could disappear entirely from Rocky Mountain National Park by the end of the century.

Ray and her colleagues can’t yet pinpoint the reason pika recruitment may be declining at this one site. But summers have been growing warmer at sites in the Rocky Mountains—a concerning bellwether for ecosystems that humans depend on.

“The habitats where pikas live are our water tower,” Ray said. “The permafrost, or seasonal ice, that’s underground here melts later in the summer and helps replenish our water supplies at a time when reservoirs are draining.”

Rock piles

The research takes a close look at the Niwot Ridge Long Term Ecological Research site north of Nederland, Colorado.

Niwot Ridge is home to sweeping tundra meadows and steep hillsides dotted with boulders. It’s also home to pikas. These animals have round ears and are about the size of rats, although they’re more closely related to rabbits and hares.

From 1981 to 1990, Charles Southwick, a former professor at CU Boulder, set out to follow the pika populations at Niwot Ridge. His team trapped and tagged pikas, which tend to stick close to taluses, or piles of rocks.

Ray has studied these animals in the American West, from Montana south to Colorado, for more than 35 years.

At Niwot Ridge, she took up Southwick’s mantle by using similar methods to survey pikas at this location in 2004 and from 2008 to 2020. The team takes rigorous precautions to ensure the health and safety of the animals.

“Pikas are useful as a study system because they're so visible and conspicuous, and they’re one way to get a handle on what changes are happening in alpine ecosystems,” Ray said.

In the current study, she and Jasmine Vidrio, a former undergraduate at CU Boulder, compared their findings to what Southwick saw decades earlier.

The results were disturbing.

Quiet hillsides

Based on the researchers' calculations, the proportion of pikas they trapped that were juveniles fell by roughly 50% from the 1980s to today—suggesting that younger pikas could be growing rarer on Niwot Ridge.

Ray explained that pikas may be especially vulnerable to climate change, in large part because they can only survive in a narrow range of temperatures.

“Pikas don’t pant like a dog. They don’t sweat,” she said. “The only way they can release their metabolic heat is to get into a nice, cool space and just let it dissipate.”

The researchers can’t conclusively link the possible decline of pikas on Niwot Ridge to warming temperatures. They also aren’t sure how widespread this trend is in the West.

But Ray noted that her results support previous predictions that juvenile pikas may have trouble migrating through the Rockies as temperatures continue to warm. To cross from one mountain habitat to another, pikas first have to climb down in elevation, facing hot conditions in the process.

She recalls one pika she encountered at the start of her career in the 1990s. She nicknamed the male Mr. Mustard because he had yellow tags on his ears.

“He was an adult when I trapped him, and he lived for nine more years,” Ray said. “I don’t see that anymore, so I do think things are changing.”

Pikas, which often greet hikers in the Rocky Mountains with loud squeaks, have long been a favorite of visitors to Colorado. A new study suggests that warming temperatures may already be taking a toll on these little animals.

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Identity, not guilt, may be the key to lasting environmental action

Megan Maneval — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 20:19:14 +0000

Identity, not guilt, may be the key to lasting environmental action Megan Maneval Mon, 11/10/2025 - 13:19

New research co-authored by CU Boulder shows, when it comes to green behavior, messages that emphasize being an environmental person, instead of guilt, lead to greater environmental behavior choices in the future.

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Students learning dam good lessons from nature's busy builders

Megan Maneval — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 20:04:19 +0000

Students learning dam good lessons from nature's busy builders Megan Maneval Mon, 11/10/2025 - 13:04

In a capstone project partnership with the Boulder Watershed Collective, Masters of the Environment students learn what it means to live alongside beavers.

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Billions live in environments that violate human rights

Yvaine Ye — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 16:02:04 +0000

Billions live in environments that violate human rights Yvaine Ye Thu, 11/06/2025 - 09:02

Yvaine Ye

More than 99% of the world’s 7.7 billion people have one or more of their environmental rights threatened, according to new research.

In the most comprehensive analysis of inequality in environmental conditions to date, CU Boulder researchers revealed that nearly half of the global population lives in regions facing three or more environmental problems. Those include polluted air, unsafe water, extreme heat, food insecurity and biodiversity loss.

The analysis was published September 25 in Environmental Research Communications.

It provides strong evidence for urgent climate action, as representatives from nearly 200 countries prepare to convene for the 30th Conference of the Parties (COP30), the United Nations’ annual climate meeting, in Brazil beginning November 10.

“Over the years, communities around the world have been fighting for local environmental justice,” said first author Naia Ormaza-Zulueta, a postdoctoral researcher in the Better Planet Lab at CU Boulder. “We want to stitch their stories into a single, undeniable global tapestry so that they can’t be dismissed as isolated problems.”

In 2022, the UN formally recognized that everyone on the planet has the right to a healthy environment. The landmark resolution, while urging countries to take action to protect that right for their people, is not legally binding.

The resolution also failed to account for environmental harm caused by activities in other countries, said Ormaza-Zulueta, who's also a researcher at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Extensive research has shown that large, industrialized nations, such as the United States, emit the most greenhouse gases, but lower-income countries experience the greatest impacts.

Credit: Naia Ormaza-Zulueta and Zia Mehrabi/CU Boulder

Pollution without borders

Ormaza-Zulueta and Zia Mehrabi, a data scientist in the Department of Environmental Studies and founder of the Better Planet Lab, wanted to put a number on how many people have had their environmental rights threatened.

They collected large datasets on environmental problems to calculate whether an individual in a given location around the world is experiencing, or has recently experienced, conditions that violated their rights in five core areas defined by the UN: clean air, clean water, a safe climate, healthy and sustainably produced food, and thriving biodiversity and ecosystems.

The team found that almost everyone on Earth lived in places that have recently experienced at least one environmental risk that failed to meet the UN conditions. Over 45%, or 3.4 billion people, had at least three rights threatened, and1.25%, or 95 million experienced all five conditions.

“The numbers are heartbreaking,” said Ormaza-Zulueta.

Naia Ormaza-Zulueta

Having access to clean air, defined as an annual average outdoor particulate matter concentration below the World Health Organization guideline, was the most common threat, followed by access to healthy and sustainably produced food.

In Colorado, a study has revealed that ozone pollution, mainly from cars, and oil and gas operations, causes more than 800 deaths each year.

“A lot of people think Boulder has great air quality for being so close to the mountains,” said Mehrabi. “But the reality is that our ozone level is high for multiple months during the summer. There are days when the air quality is so bad that our children can’t play outside.”

Hotspots of injustice

While most people are at risk of poor environmental conditions, not everyone feels the same impact. Consistent with previous research, disadvantaged populations, such as those with lower incomes, those who are displaced and those living on Indigenous lands, are far more likely to experience poor air quality, limited access to clean water and excessive heat than the rest of the population.

Those living in wealthier areas usually experience the best environmental conditions and are more likely to escape the worst impact as climate change progresses.

Internationally, several environmental impact hotspots stood out in the study: South Asia, for example, contains 41% of all people living with all five threats to environmental rights, despite making up only one-fifth of the world’s population.

Much of the poor environmental conditions around the globe result from the activities of wealthy nations, the study found. For instance, pollution from the United States is responsible for 12,000 deaths from poor air quality in India each year and 38,000 deaths in China. Meanwhile, emissions from the 27 countries in the European Union have made extreme weather events 1.8 times more likely in Southeast Africa and the Amazon rainforest.

Zia Mehrabi (Credit: Patrick Campbell/CU Boulder)

“No matter where we live, our rights are inherently connected to those of people in other parts of the world,” Ormaza-Zulueta said. She added that the large demand for products in the United States and Europe has caused biodiversity loss and deforestation in the Amazon rainforest. The resulting global warming and increased frequency of extreme weather events are felt around the world.

“An unstable environment destabilizes our society,” Mehrabi said. “There is already a lot of fear in the United States and elsewhere about conflict, immigration, and other signs of instability. Environmental issues are only going to make them worse.”

Even though the statistics are bleak, Mehrabi said they don’t tell the whole story. In addition to the five core categories, many people are at risk of other poor conditions that were not measured, such as exposure to toxins released from mining and plastic waste.

“There are many solutions to these environmental problems we’re facing now, from responsible clean energy to a more sustainable and just supply chain. We need strong policies that encourage businesses to adopt these solutions,” Mehrabi said.

Mehrabi pointed to due diligence laws in countries such as the Netherlands, France, and Germany, which require domestic companies to uphold human rights across their global operations. He said other nations need to follow suit.

The team hopes this study can empower communities and lawyers working on environmental rights issues.

“By showing how these injustices are happening across the world, deniers can no longer dismiss the polluted river here or dirty air there as anecdotes. This can be a critical tool for pushing for policy changes,” Ormaza-Zulueta said.

A global analysis found that almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition, with the greatest burdens falling on low-income and Indigenous communities.

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Almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition. (Credit: Yogendra Singh/Pexels)

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Almost everyone on Earth experiences at least one poor environmental condition. (Credit: Yogendra Singh/Pexels)

Long-term surface observations reveal clouds play key role in Arctic winter warming

Megan Maneval — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 22:10:27 +0000

Long-term surface observations reveal clouds play key role in Arctic winter warming Megan Maneval Tue, 11/04/2025 - 15:10

CIRES

Ground-based measurements from Alaska's North Slope offer a new perspective on how changing Arctic clouds impact rising temperatures on Earth's surface.

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Antarctic glacier retreated faster than any other in modern history

Megan Maneval — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 17:55:57 +0000

Antarctic glacier retreated faster than any other in modern history Megan Maneval Mon, 11/03/2025 - 10:55

Findings show the unprecedented speed of retreat is similar to the dramatic glacier retreats that occurred at the end of the last ice age.

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CU Boulder delivers impactful research and creative work, despite federal funding uncertainty

Megan Maneval — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 17:04:13 +0000

CU Boulder delivers impactful research and creative work, despite federal funding uncertainty Megan Maneval Fri, 10/31/2025 - 11:04

CU Boulder researchers continued to deliver meaningful, positive outcomes in the university's public research mission through strong results in fiscal year 2024–25. Highlights of their work include big innovations in quantum technology, improving our understanding of space weather, and enhancing environmental resiliency.

The pace of growth in research funding at CU Boulder tapered in the new year due to cuts and funding pauses by federal agencies, including the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and NASA. At $766.7 million, the newly released sponsored research funding numbers for CU Boulder reflect a 3.3% increase over the prior year.

CU Boulder drives $5B boost to Colorado's economy

“The research, scholarship and creative work produced by CU Boulder faculty, researchers and students directly impacts people’s lives,” said Massimo Ruzzene, senior vice chancellor for research and innovation and dean of the institutes. “We are committed to advocating for the support needed to drive advances that strengthen our national security, enhance peoples’ health, ensure our nation’s continued leadership in scholarship and innovation, and spark economic development in Colorado and beyond.”

The bulk of the research funding, or 69%, comes from federal agencies, including NASA, the NSF, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIH, the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy. The state of Colorado contributed $15 million of the total. Nonprofits and international organizations supported CU Boulder research and creative work to the tune of $102 million; industry accounted for $31 million; and other universities provided $47 million of the funding.

Here are a few research program highlights from CU Boulder.

Innovating at a quantum scale

The NSF invested $20 million in CU Boulder to launch a facility known as the National Quantum Nanofab. In this facility, Colorado researchers and quantum specialists from industry and research institutions around the country will design and build devices that tap into the world of the tiny packets of energy that make up light.

Principal Investigator Scott Diddams, professor in the Department of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, alongside a team of physicists and engineers, leads the work in this makerspace.

Improving understanding of space weather

A team at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) has received $2 million to develop a concept study for a NASA mission that will investigate how Earth’s lower atmosphere influences the upper atmosphere. The results will improve and expand our understanding of the space weather system surrounding our planet.

The group, which is led by LASP researcher Aimee Merkel, is one of three selected by NASA to develop detailed proposals for the agency’s DYNAMIC (Dynamical Neutral Atmosphere-Ionosphere Coupling) mission.

Helping communities adapt to climate change

CU Boulder’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) has received a new five-year, $1.4 million cooperative agreement to continue hosting the North Central Climate Adaptation Science Center (NC CASC) from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Since its founding in 2018, the center provides actionable science to help communities, ecosystems and economies in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kansas and Nebraska adapt to climate change.

Led by William Travis, associate professor of geography, the center advances the development and delivery of actionable science to help fish, wildlife, water, land and people in the North Central region adapt to a changing environment.

Learn more about NC CASC here.

Pairing humans and AI to help students learn

CU Boulder joined six other teams that make up the Learning Engineering Virtual Institute (LEVI). The institute's goal is to double the rate of middle school math learning within five years, focusing on students from low-income backgrounds.

Professors Sidney D'Mello and Tamara Sumner of the Department of Computer Science and Institute of Cognitive Science join professors Peter Foltz, Jennifer Jacobs and Jeffrey Bush of the Institute of Cognitive Science in leading the project team. CU Boulder's project is the Hybrid Human-AI Tutoring (HAT) platform.

Learn more about LEVI and HAT.

Creating a Band-Aid for the heart

In the quest to develop lifelike materials to replace and repair human body parts, scientists face a formidable challenge: Real tissues are often both strong and stretchable and vary in shape and size. A CU Boulder-led team, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, has taken a critical step toward cracking that code:

They’ve developed a new way to 3D print material that is at once elastic enough to withstand a heart’s persistent beating, tough enough to endure the crushing load placed on joints, and easily shapable to fit a patient’s unique defects.

A significant amount of sponsored research funding is directed to programs and researchers with unique expertise, such as biotechnology and aerospace, which stimulates industry.

Sponsored research funding from federal, state, international and foundation entities targets specific projects to advance research in laboratories and in the field. Research funding also helps pay for research-related capital improvements, scientific equipment, travel and salaries for research and support staff and student assistantships. CU cannot divert this funding to non-research-related expenses.

CU Boulder researchers continued to deliver meaningful, positive outcomes in the university's public research mission through strong results in fiscal year 2024–25.

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Naval grant to improve ionospheric research over the open ocean

Megan Maneval — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 16:54:39 +0000

Naval grant to improve ionospheric research over the open ocean Megan Maneval Fri, 10/31/2025 - 10:54

Brian Breitsch is improving our understanding of the upper atmosphere in some of the most isolated places on Earth, thanks to an $840,000 federal grant.

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Climate & Environment

Scientists predict sea change in Arctic ecosystems by century's end

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A window underground: New sensors measure emissions from soil in real time

Out of balance

Exploring a new world

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New pika research finds troubling signs for the iconic Rocky Mountain animal

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Quiet hillsides

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Identity, not guilt, may be the key to lasting environmental action

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Pollution without borders

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CU Boulder delivers impactful research and creative work, despite federal funding uncertainty

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