3+ day, 16+ hour ago   (153+ words) Worldwide patterns of increased plant water stress reveal water limits to vegetation greening. Leaf area index, which measures the ratio of leaf area to ground area, is commonly used by researchers to track foliage coverage and ecosystem health. One consequence…...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (346+ words) Smoke from the Skinny’s Road Fire blurs spruce forest near Fairbanks, Alaska, in June 2013. Credit: U.S. Geological Survey/photo by Jeremy Littell Climate change is altering patterns of wildfire activity in Alaska, making fires larger and more common in some…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago   (1064+ words) The Colorado River and its reservoirs, which supply water for about 40 million people and 30 tribes across seven states and two countries, is drying up. Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border, which has the largest storage capacity of any reservoir in…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (566+ words) From 2020 to 2022, California faced one of its driest periods on record, in part because of human-caused climate change. Though the drought has eased, scientists have noticed lasting effects on the state’s aquifers that may affect their ability to store water…...