earth and environmental science
Vanderbilt scientists use fossil records to understand the present, predict future ecosystems
Apr. 19, 2021—Vanderbilt environmental scientists show that patterns found in fossil records of ancient ecosystems may be the key to combating today’s biodiversity crisis and making informed conservation decisions.
Evidence suggests climate whiplash may have more extremes in store for California
Feb. 24, 2021—Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists deploy first calcium isotope analysis of North American stalagmite to show how past weather extremes may predict events in California.
NASA-funded project uses images from space to study underwater volcanoes
Nov. 18, 2020—Interdisciplinary Earth scientists explore how little-understood underwater volcanoes affect the atmosphere.
Vanderbilt scientists awarded NSF grant to examine the future of international shipping in the Arctic Ocean
Sep. 11, 2020—Comparing risk of shipping along the Arctic and the Suez Canal through 2100 scientists weigh factors including climate change in their calculations.
Geochemical analysis from the last ice age may hold clues for future climate change and preparedness strategies
Jul. 14, 2020—Paleoclimatologist Jessica Oster uses geological clues from stalagmites to explore implications for future climate change.
International collaboration draws new conclusions about ‘convergent evolution’ of saber-tooth cats
Jun. 26, 2020—International collaboration shows that marsupial saber-tooth cats were more closely related to possums than fearsome predators.
Unexpected mammal provides insight into the lives of ancient hominins
Jun. 11, 2020—Paleontologist and associate professor of biological sciences Larisa DeSantis finds answers about early hominin diets are with an unrelated group of mammals—tapirs.
Students have front-row seat for international climate change negotiations
Feb. 10, 2020—As part of its continuing commitment to understanding and combating climate change issues through education and action, Vanderbilt University is now an accredited, official observer of the United Nations Framework on Climate Change.
Dolphin ancestor’s hearing was more like hoofed mammals than today’s sea creatures
May. 15, 2019—The team, one of the first in the world to examine the ability’s origins, used a small CT scanner to look inside a 30-million-year-old ear bone fossil from a specimen resembling Olympicetus avitus.
Student pushing boundaries to impact the Earth, and people in it
Jan. 30, 2019—What is more daring—camping in a remote part of Antarctica for a month doing field research, or directing and performing in a musical revue about the environment? For Earth and Environmental Sciences major Andrew Grant, pushing boundaries to positively impact the Earth, and the people who call it home, are equally thrilling.
Climate change the likely killer of Australian marsupial lion
Oct. 19, 2018—The extinction of one of Australia’s top predators, the marsupial lion, was likely a result of changing weather patterns and loss of habitat rather than human impacts, a study led by Vanderbilt University paleontologist Larisa DeSantis has found.
Volcano researcher learns how Earth builds supereruption-feeding magma systems
Oct. 11, 2018—After studying layers of pumice, measuring the amount of crystals in the samples and using thermodynamic models, the team determined magma moved closer to the surface with each successive eruption.