Science Moab

We speak with author/journalist Jonathan Thompson about mining history in SW Colorado and its impacts on rivers. His book “River of Lost Souls: the Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Disaster” explores the infamous Gold King Mine spill that released large amounts of acid mine waste into the Animas and San Juan Rivers. Here, Jonathan talks about the history of mining in the San Juan Mountains and its positive and negative effects on communities and ecosystems. We discuss how the Gold King mine spill is only a small part of a larger picture of the extractive industry in the Four Corners.

This show explores the social and ecological impacts of climbing in the Indian Creek Area, Utah. We talk with Zeke Baker and Steve Fick. Zeke is a PhD candidate in sociolology at UC Davis while Steve is a post-doctoral research ecologist with University of the Colorado Boulder and the USGS here in Moab. The two have teamed up to study rock climbing in the Indian Creek area and the social, ecological, and political interactions of climbers with this fragile landscape.

The understanding of snow...the various ways it falls from the sky and how it is transformed on the ground is critical to being safe in the backcountry. We talk with Mark Staples who is the director of the Forest Service Utah Avalanche Center. Mark graduated from the Montana State University Snow Science Program and here in Utah he and his team predict snow conditions for avalanche reports. Here with Mark we discuss the different forms snow can take when falling from the sky and the various ways that snow transforms once it is on the ground. This information is critical for understanding the snow stability and avalanche danger both in the La Sals and elsewhere around Utah and the West.

The world that existed when dinosaurs roamed the Moab area was vastly different than the world today . We talk with Dr. John Foster, a paleontologist and the former director of the Museum of Moab, whose work involves excavating the oldest known dinosaur Sauropod skeleton right here in the Moab area. Here we discuss a geologic layer known as the Morrison Formation and we explore the Jurassic Period…the landscape, plants and animals that existed 150 million years ago when the Morrison was being deposited.

Drought is impacting the plants that are growing around Moab and the Colorado Plateau. Here we talk to Alix Pfennigwerth, a former biologist with the US Geological Survey in Moab. We talk about different types of droughts that are expected to impact the plant communities we see on the Colorado Plateau. We explore how experiments provide insight into plant response to future drought due to climate change and what that might mean for the ecosystems and how we manage them into the future.

Deserts are characterized by having limited amounts of water. The plants that live in these dry climates are there because the soil holds onto just enough water for plants to survive. But climate change has the potential to change the amount of soil water available to plants. Here, Dr. John Bradford explains how soil moisture influences plant communities in the Southwest and how management actions & climate change can interact to alter water available to plants.

The impacts of climate change can be complicated and far reaching. Here we are speak with Ryan Choi about the influence that climate change has on the interactions that occur within ecosystems. Ryan Choi is a PhD student at Utah State University. There, Ryan studies how climate change changes interactions between Arctic plants and the species that eat them. Specifically he looks at how warming temperatures influences when grasses grow, and how changes to that timing of growth impacts the migrating geese that rely on those grasses year after year. While it might not seem directly relevant to the Colorado Plateau, Ryan explains how changes in the Arctic have ripple effects to ecosystems across the globe.

Unexplored caves can store a wealth of information about the past. Here we talk with Dr. Tim Heaton who studies the Ice Age mammals found in caves. He got his start exploring the caves of the Colorado Plateau, and currently live here in Moab. Of his multiple scientific accomplishments, one of his best known is the discovered of 10,000 year old human remains in a cave on on island off of Alaska, making them one of a handful of the oldest human remains found in the Americas. Here we talk with him about that discovery and why this site helps us understand how humans came to populate the Americas.

There are an incredible number and many diverse types of volcanoes in four corners region. Here we are speak with Dr. Michael Ort about the different kinds of volcanoes on the Colorado Plateau, when they erupt, and how they might erupt again.

Here we talk about how wildlife moves through the landscape and how wildlife corridors might be the best chance to preserve the different members of ecosystems with Dr. Paul Beier a professor in the School of Forestry from Northern Arizona University. As a conservation biologist Dr. Beier studies wildlife corridors, protected areas that allow wildlife to move from one natural area to another without being stopped by human made barriers. These corridors are important not just for allowing the movement and exchange of genetic material, but also for maintaining the integrity and functions of whole ecosystems