Featured Research Projects

RMBL PHENOLOGY PROJECT:  The project brings together long-term studies on flowering plants, pollinators, and climate (among other variables) to examine the importance of the timing of biological events (phenology) and the influence of climate on the phenology, diversity and abundance of plants and pollinators in high altitude meadows.

 

WATER RESEARCH IN THE GUNNISON BASIN The Watershed Function group aims to predict how mountainous watersheds retain and release water, nutrients, carbon and metals. Researchers will quantify how droughts, early snowmelt, and other perturbations that are expected to be increasingly common will influence mountainous watershed dynamics that impact downstream water availability and biogeochemical cycling.

 

ATMOSPHERIC RESEARCH IN THE GUNNISON BASIN: The Gunnison Basin will host two major meteorological research projects led by some of the top atmospheric scientists in the country.  SAIL is a two-year campaign through the Department of Energy that will focus on understanding the physical processes that control where and how precipitation forms across the watershed.  SPLASH is a one-year project funded by the National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration that is complimentary to SAIL with additional emphasis on improving weather and water prediction capabilities in complex mountainous terrain.