Scientists teamed up with nonprofit Clean Up the Lake to collect and analyze litter found on the bottom of Lake Tahoe. In one of the first studies to utilize scuba divers to collect litter from a lakebed, 673 plastic items were counted from just a small fraction of the lake.
Community members across Utah, the Great Basin, and around Lake Erie and Lake Ontario are invited to join people across the country in contributing winter weather observations. The data is collected by scientists for a NASA-funded project that seeks to improve the accuracy of winter weather predictions.
DRI scientists produced the most detailed projections yet for how the region’s landscape will be impacted by climate change. Lake Tahoe is known for its crystal-clear blue water, scenic mountain backdrop, and world-class recreation opportunities. Unfortunately, the lake and surrounding basin aren’t insulated from global climate change.
Angelique DePauw and Olivia Hines are undergraduate student researchers in the Microplastics and Environmental Chemistry Lab. Together, they are conducting an experiment comparing the decomposition rates of plastic and plastic-alternative straws.
Sayantan Majumdar, Ph.D., joined DRI in June 2023 as an assistant research professor of hydrologic sciences and remote sensing. Majumdar, who also goes by the name “Monty,” also specializes in machine learning, geospatial data science, and scientific software development.
Rachel Kozloski is a Ph.D. student in Dr. Monica Arienzo’s lab focused on the movement and characteristics of microplastics in ground and surface water.
A team of DRI scientists returned to Greenland in May 2023, where they are drilling a 150m long ice core to study interactions between ice chemistry and microbial life.
Researchers from DRI and UNLV teamed up with a Las Vegas community concerned about a neighboring asphalt plant to measure their air quality.
Brianda Hernandez Rosales examined the use of rainwater harvesting to support food sovereignty for the Hualapai Indian Reservation.
In this story, we highlight the work of DRI interns Phillips Nguyen and Alexius Jessup-Raju, two students from Truckee Meadows Community College, as they explore natural hazards and their impacts on house ownership and aquatic environments.