How much water does your lawn really need?  A University of Utah study re-evaluated lawn watering recommendations by measuring water use by lawns in Los Angeles. The standard model of turfgrass water needs, they found, lacked precision in some common urban southern California conditions, like the Santa Ana winds, or in the shade. “The current […]

Andrew Weyrich, most recently associate dean for research at the University of Utah School of Medicine, has been named the next vice president for research. He succeeds neurobiologist Tom Parks, who retired June 30, 2016, after eight years as vice president. “Dr. Weyrich understands what a research program needs to succeed, both as a physiologist […]

University of Utah biologists working in Turkey discovered two surprising facts about a group of 16 brown bears: First, six of the bears seasonally migrated between feeding and breeding sites, the first known brown bears to do so. Second, and more sobering, the other 10 bears stayed in one spot all year long: the city […]

  Picture a singer, accompanied by a grand piano. As the singer’s voice dances through multiple octaves of range, the pianist’s fingers trip from one end of the keyboard to the other. Both the singer’s voice and the piano are dynamic instruments. But while the piano creates its music using the vibration of hundreds of strings, […]

Spring snowpack, relied on by ski resorts and water managers throughout the Western United States, may be more vulnerable to a warming climate in coming decades, according to a new University of Utah study. The study, accepted for publication in Geophysical Research Letters, models the year-to-year variability in precipitation and temperature in Utah’s Wasatch Mountains […]

Darryl P. Butt, associate director of the Center for Advanced Energy Studies in Idaho Falls, Idaho and distinguished professor of materials science and engineering at Boise State University will be the next dean of the College of Mines and Earth Sciences at the University of Utah. “Dr. Darryl Butt has a remarkable record of achievement, […]

Distinguished professor of biology James R. Ehleringer, who has pioneered applications of stable isotopes, was elected May 3 as a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Ehleringer is among 84 U.S. scientist-scholars and 21 foreign associates from 14 countries elected at the Academy’s Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. He joins more than 20 other current […]

Vultures. Cartoon characters in parched deserts often wish them to disappear, since circling vultures are a stereotypical harbinger of death. But, joking aside, vultures in some parts of the world are in danger of disappearing. And according to a new report from University of Utah biologists, such a loss would have serious consequences for ecosystems […]

  Two hundred-twenty-five million trees dead in the southwest in a 2002 drought. Three hundred million trees in Texas in 2011. Twelve million this past year in California.  Throughout the world, large numbers of trees are dying in extreme heat and drought events. Because mass die-offs can have critical consequences for the future of forests […]

The western United States relies on mountain snow for its water supply. Water stored as snow in the mountains during winter replenishes groundwater and drives river runoff in spring, filling reservoirs for use later in summer. But how could a warming globe and a changing climate interrupt this process? In a new study published today […]