Knowledge Neighborhoods

Combines intensive field campaigns, remote sensing, and atmospheric flux measurements to understand how snowpack, evapotranspiration, and surface energy dynamics control water availability across the upper Colorado River Basin.

Explores how trout predators drive nonconsumptive effects, trophic cascades, and life-history shifts in stream invertebrates, with research centered on Rocky Mountain creeks and connections to water management decisions on Snowmass Creek.

Examines how Rocky Mountain breeding bird communities — including hummingbirds, woodpeckers, and other species — respond to climate disruption, declining aspen health, and habitat fragmentation across elevational gradients in the Gunnison Basin.

Examines how plant community composition, species richness, and floral diversity shift across elevation gradients, successional timescales, and environmental disturbances in Rocky Mountain meadows and subalpine zones, with some connection to vegetation assessment near the Mount Emmons mine.

Integrates high-resolution remote sensing, machine learning downscaling, and field soil moisture methods to track snowpack dynamics, growing degree days, and hydrological processes across mountain watersheds.

Integrates genomic research, historical fire ecology, and nest success studies with conservation agreements and wildlife habitat policy to address the survival of the imperiled Gunnison sage-grouse in western Colorado.

Integrates glacial chronology, floodplain hydrostratigraphy, and cosmogenic dating methods to reconstruct landscape evolution and groundwater systems across Colorado's mountain watersheds.

Integrates long-term demographic monitoring, integral projection models, and pollination ecology to understand how climate variability — including lagged and dormant-season effects — shapes population vital rates in alpine plants and insect communities.

Examines how cytotype variation and genotypic diversity in quaking aspen shape physiological responses to drought and climate, combining flow cytometry, hyperspectral remote sensing, and field campaigns across Colorado study sites.

Connects dendrochronology and climate-driven forest carbon research with county-level fuels planning and conifer species management in the Gunnison Basin.

Explores how alpine plants like Cardamine cordifolia deploy chemical defenses — including endophytes, volatile compounds, and hormone signaling pathways — against specialist insect herbivores, using genomic and bioassay methods to uncover the molecular basis of plant-insect coevolution.

Bridges undergraduate field research education — including remote and in-person learning experiences — with local land use planning, trail management, and community housing policy in the Crested Butte area.

Combines remote sensing, thermal imaging, and geophysical methods to characterize floodplain hydrogeology and nitrogen cycling in riparian zones, while connecting to land management concerns around cottonwood forest conservation, grazing, and watershed protection in the Gunnison Basin.

Investigates how Engelmann Spruce and subalpine conifers take up and transport water under variable snowpack, precipitation, and vapor pressure deficit using stable isotope tracing, sap flow sensors, and cellulose analysis.

Examines how bark beetle disturbance and conifer needle litter decomposition across elevation gradients affect biogeochemical processes and downstream drinking water quality in Colorado watersheds.

Examines how mule deer browsing, predator-induced fear responses, and herbivory shape plant communities in and around the Gothic meadow landscape, including effects on aspen and wildflowers like Aquilegia coerulea.

Connects scientific surveys of rare wetland-dependent species — including dragonflies, ciliates, carnivorous plants, and tiger salamanders — with conservation advocacy around iron fens and other sensitive aquatic habitats in the Gunnison Basin and Colorado high country.

Explores distributed microphone array systems and acoustic localization methods for non-invasive wildlife monitoring, connecting sensor network engineering with ecological field applications.

Tracks long-term shifts in montane and alpine plant communities using historical herbarium records, GIS sampling, and nearest neighbor analysis to understand how vegetation composition and pollinator-relevant floral traits have changed across elevation gradients in western Colorado.

Uses the giant stonefly (Pteronarcys californica) as a biological indicator of cadmium and molybdenum availability in high-altitude Colorado river systems, connecting classical bioaccumulation research with water quality standards and emerging plasma-based purification technologies.