Between 26-15 My ago, forests covering west-central North America gave way to open, grassy habitats. Now, oxygen isotope records suggest this shift is owed to drier winters and increased aridity.
landscape & topography
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Western U.S. “Megafloods” Might Not Have Been So Mega
The flooding that carved eastern Washington State 20,000 to 12,000 years ago could have been 80% smaller than the canyons’ volume today.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
High Mountain Rain Has Scientists Rethinking River Basics
Rainfall varies with elevation, and such precipitation gradients can have profound and often counterintuitive effects on topography.
Posted inScience Updates
Making the Most of Volcanic Eruption Responses
Last year, a new collaborative initiative conducted a hypothetical volcano response exercise. A month later, they put the knowledge gained to use during an actual eruption.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
A New Model for Self-Organized Pattern Formation
Scale-dependent feedbacks in time, rather than in space, result in a new type of competition, explaining the regularly patterned landscape of Big Cypress National Preserve in South Florida.
Posted inEditors' Vox
Why Rivers Need Their Floodplains
Floodplain storage of water, nutrients, and sediment is critical to sustaining river ecosystems but has been reduced by human activities.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Researchers Home in on the Age of the Yangtze River
Findings on the river’s age also have implications for past landscape change in Asia.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Decoding the Age of the Ice at Mars’s North Pole
Exposure to sunlight creates telltale patterns in the polar ice cap that change over time, potentially providing insight into the climatic history of the Red Planet.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Devastation of Hurricane Maria to Puerto Rican Landscape
The destructive winds and rain of Hurricane Maria in 2017 caused a dramatic transformation to Puerto Rico’s landscape and altered the characteristics of land-air interaction.
Posted inEditors' Vox
How is Modern Climate Change Affecting Landscape Processes?
Landscapes will respond to hydroclimatic changes associated with modern global warming, such as increasing extreme storms and wildfire, but to what extent is physical landscape change already evident?