Barbe, Lou, Cendrine Mony, and Benjamin W. Abbott. “Artificial Intelligence Accidentally Learned Ecology through Video Games.” Trends in Ecology & Evolution, May 2020, S0169534720301105. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.04.006.
Abbott, Benjamin W, Mitchell Greenhalgh, S Isaac St Clair, and Jonas Bush. “Making Sense of the Research on COVID-19 and Masks.” Provo, Utah, USA: Brigham Young University, 2020. https://pws.byu.edu/covid-19-and-masks.
Errigo, Isabella M, Benjamin W Abbott, Daniel L Mendoza, Robert A Chaney, Andrew Freeman, Jeff Glenn, Peter D Howe, et al. “Human Health and Economic Costs of Air Pollution in Utah,” 2020.
Shogren, Arial J., Jay P. Zarnetske, Benjamin W. Abbott, Frances Iannucci, and William Breck Bowden. “We Cannot Shrug off the Shoulder Seasons: Addressing Knowledge and Data Gaps in an Arctic Headwater.” Environmental Research Letters, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab9d3c.
Tank, Suzanne E., Jorien E. Vonk, Michelle A. Walvoord, James W. McClelland, Isabelle Laurion, and Benjamin W. Abbott. “Landscape Matters: Predicting the Biogeochemical Effects of Permafrost Thaw on Aquatic Networks with a State Factor Approach.” Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2057.
Voigt, Carolina, Maija E. Marushchak, Benjamin W. Abbott, Christina Biasi, Bo Elberling, Steven D. Siciliano, Oliver Sonnentag, Katherine J. Stewart, Yuanhe Yang, and Pertti J. Martikainen. “Nitrous Oxide Emissions from Permafrost-Affected Soils.” Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, July 7, 2020, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0063-9.
Bochet, Olivier, Lorine Bethencourt, Alexis Dufresne, Julien Farasin, Mathieu Pédrot, Thierry Labasque, Eliot Chatton, et al. “Iron-Oxidizer Hotspots Formed by Intermittent Oxic–Anoxic Fluid Mixing in Fractured Rocks.” Nature Geoscience, January 6, 2020, 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0509-1.
Frei, Rebecca J., Benjamin W. Abbott, Remi Dupas, Sen Gu, Gerard Gruau, Zahra Thomas, Tamara Kolbe, et al. “Predicting Nutrient Incontinence in the Anthropocene at Watershed Scales.” Frontiers in Environmental Science 7 (January 14, 2020). https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2019.00200.
Li, Fei, Yunfeng Peng, Leiyi Chen, Guibiao Yang, Benjamin W. Abbott, Dianye Zhang, Kai Fang, et al. “Warming Alters Surface Soil Organic Matter Composition despite Unchanged Carbon Stocks in a Tibetan Permafrost Ecosystem.” Functional Ecology 34, no. 4 (2020): 911–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13489.
Turetsky, Merritt R., Benjamin W. Abbott, Miriam C. Jones, Katey Walter Anthony, David Olefeldt, Edward A. G. Schuur, Guido Grosse, et al. “Carbon Release through Abrupt Permafrost Thaw.” Nature Geoscience 13, no. 2 (February 2020): 138–43. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0526-0.
Wen, Hang, Julia Perdrial, Benjamin W. Abbott, Susana Bernal, Rémi Dupas, Sarah E. Godsey, Adrian Harpold, et al. “Temperature Controls Production but Hydrology Regulates Export of Dissolved Organic Carbon at the Catchment Scale.” Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 24, no. 2 (February 27, 2020): 945–66. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-945-2020.
PhD student Sara Sayedi wanted to use science to change public policy in her home country of Iran, but politics limited her work in the public arena. Now at BYU, she is influencing policy at a global scale.
Research by BYU ecosystem ecologist Ben Abbott presents a new tool to fight nutrient pollution. His study found that streams can be used as “sensors” of ecosystem health, allowing both improved water quality and food production.
When Keely Song moved to Utah in 2016, she was jarred by what she called the “apocalyptic” talk about air quality during the state’s notorious inversions. So when BYU announced in November it would be providing free UTA passes to students, employees and their families, the dance professor had an idea.
Nitrogen pollution from human fertilizer and fossil fuels affects two-thirds of freshwater bodies worldwide and causes billions of dollars of damage to fisheries and ecosystems annually. It triggers harmful algal blooms and dead zones where only worms and bacteria can survive.
As part of her undergraduate research at BYU graduating student, Natasha Griffin has presented at conferences in Europe, ridden in a helicopter and visited both the north and south poles.
Will we show up in the geologic record in millions of years? The Anthropocene suggests the answer is yes: collective human impact on the environment will leave a definitive mark in future bedrock.
Although separated by space and time, our emissions have a great impact on ecosystems across the globe, and those systems are responding. Plant and wildlife sciences professor, Dr. Ben Abbott, has been studying these ecosystem responses and recently published research with Dr. Merritt Turetsky, director of the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder, on permafrost collapse in arctic ecosystems.
