"Citizen Scientists" Support Alpine Research!
Increases in temperature and changes to the availability of moisture and snow…
Alpine Adaptation: Dig-Down & Stand Your Ground
Extreme conditions at high-elevations tend to impede the establishment of annual plants…
Alpine Adaptation: Duck and Cover
Leaves and flowering stems flattened to the ground and outwardly spreading from…
Alpine Adaptation: Hold Tight & Take It Slow
These prototypical "cushion plants" are extreme alpine specialists. Short and dense branching…
Alpine Adaptation: Red is the New Black
Hairs are one way to deflect damaging UV radiation while locking in…
Alpine Adaptation: Solid As A Rock
Lichens are the primary colonizers of new habitat in alpine regions. Unlike…
Alpine Adaptation: Stay Shaggy!
Temperatures may be low but sun-exposure is extremely intense at high-elevations due…
Alpine Invaders
Climate Change can negatively impact Alpine regions by making them more susceptible…
Alpine Meadows
Alpine meadows exist where soils have deepened and matured through centuries of…
Alpine Refugia
Mountaintops have served as unlikely shelter for populations of cold-adapted species throughout…
Aquatic Hitchhikers
Although all plants need some water to grow, aquatic plants have adapted…
Ballast Plants
Ships transporting cargo and passengers use ballast to stabilize the ship at…
Bioremediation
Bioremediation is the use of living organisms to remove contamination from the…
Climate Change & Alpine Retreat
Temperature and moisture availability are factors which influence the distribution patterns of…
Climate Research and Herbarium Specimens
Climate research requires lots of data. Data about the conditions on earth now,…
Duck dispersal
As more land is developed, plants have an increasingly difficult task of…
Escapes from cultivation
Humans have a long history of moving and cultivating plant species. But…
Exploring the Bahamas with Lewis Jones Knight Brace
The Bahamas suffered its worst natural disaster recently as Hurricane Dorian, a…
Extreme Alpine Plants
Cabinet of CuriositiesExpeditions
Few places on the land's surface present weather conditions that are more…
Firewood and pathogens
As plants travel the world with people, these plants can bring along…
Fragile Alpine Ecosystems
Relatively few organisms are sufficiently adapted to the harsh conditions of Alpine…
Fruit-eating lemurs
Given the abundance of tasty fruit, it is clear that many plants…
Fungi of Australia
As the continent of Australia continues to burn, scientists wonder what these…
Ghost Forests of the Mid-Atlantic
One of the most visually apparent impacts of climate change are the emerging…
Herbarium Specimens Show Changes in Carbon Dioxide Levels
It has been documented that since the industrial revolution there has been an…
Herbarium Specimens Show Changes in the Landscape
Changing climate means changing landscapes. Herbarium specimens document what plants are growing in…
Hitchhikers
Some plants have evolved to literally hitchhike on passing animals. They have…
Iconic plants of the Amazon
The Amazon Rain Forest, Earth’s largest tropical rain forest, is an immense…
Indicators of past settlement
Humans alter the environments where they live and we can use those…
Learning from Extinct Plants
Specimen StoriesFocus on Science
From the woolly mammoth to the passenger pigeon, many extinct species owe…
Phenology and Herbarium Specimens
As habitats get warmer, a plant's life cycle can change. For example, when spring…
Seeds go ballistic
Getting help is great, but sometimes you just have to do something…
Studying the DNA of Herbarium Specimens
Molecular biologists study the DNA of plants. They use this data to identify…
Traveling Plants
While plants can’t walk, they can definitely travel. Plants have evolved a…
Traveling Plants: People lend a hand
Plants have lots of ways they can move and distribute their propagules…
Traveling Plants: Plants on the move
Plants might not be able to move the way animals do, but…
Treeline Expansion
The absence of trees at high-elevations both defines Alpine zones and is…
Tumbleweeds
Tumbleweeds aren’t restricted to one species or plant family, but are an…
Vanishing Lakes: Great Salt Lake
Great Salt Lake is a shallow, highly saline, terminal lake situated in northern…
Vanishing Lakes: Lake Poopó
Lake Poopó is a saline lake in the Altiplano Mountains of Bolivia.…
Vanishing Lakes: Owens Lake
The drying of Owens Lake is a human-made catastrophe. In 1913, the…
Vanishing Lakes: Salton Sea
Ingloriously described as “the biggest environmental disaster in California history,” and a…
Vanishing Lakes: Tulare Lake
The California Central Valley was once a matrix of riparian grasslands and…