Affiliate Programs
University of Idaho
Presidential Water Initiative
University of Idaho
To reintegrate U of ID faculty with stakeholder groups in Southern Idaho, Drs. Alexander Maas and Laurel Lynch are developing an annual workshop and travel fund that enables faculty and advanced graduate students to meet with state agencies, industries, and NGO’s located in the greater Boise and Twin Falls regions. Our goal is to foster translational research by linking research and education to stakeholder needs, facilitating community-based participation in higher education.​
Environmental Management Council
Tompkins County, New York
2018-2020: Elected member of the Environmental Management Council, an official citizen advisory board that informs Tompkins County Legislature on local environmental issues. Currently serving on the Climate Adaption committee.
2018: Collaborated with a local citizen's science committee to organize public forums on Carbon-Farming initiatives and identify opportunities for regional carbon sequestration.
Media Coverage
Provided by the National Science Foundation:
Since the last ice age, plants in the Alaskan Arctic have been taking carbon out of the atmosphere and locking it away in the soil. So, for thousands of years, the soil microbes in this region of the world have subsisted on a limited carbon diet because much of the organic matter is frozen into the permafrost layer, which starts about a foot underground. But now, the permafrost is starting to thaw. That means all those microbes are about to find themselves at an all-you-can-eat carbon buffet. With support from the NSF, ecologist Matthew Wallenstein and a team from Colorado State University have come to the Toolik Field Station, deep inside the Arctic Circle, to drill soil cores for study. The researchers are trying to find out more about how microbes in the soil are cycling carbon from the Earth to the atmosphere. Scientists estimate the Arctic stores more carbon in its landscape than is stored in the entire atmosphere. So, if that carbon is released, it has the potential to impact climate worldwide, as well as crop productivity and wildfires.
Provided by PBS NewsHour and NPR Coverage:
On the Alaskan tundra, researchers are tracking the march of global warming. Science correspondent Miles O’Brien explores how soil composition and the sleep schedules of squirrels might offer data on the ways warmer temperatures are affecting ecosystems.
