benabbott.byu.eduBen Abbott Lab

Close Home Burger Menu Icon College of Life Sciences Plant and Wildlife Sciences Menu Donate Search Home People Join Values Projects Public reports Publications Climate change class Welcome to the Abbott Lab of Ecosystem Ecology We research how human activity affects the water and nutrient cycles that sustain all life on Earth. Our current projects investigate water chemistry in river networks undergoing permafrost degradation in Alaska, water stewardship in agricultural and urban landscapes around the world, and the ongoing renewable revolution. We are always looking for creative and motivated students to help address these important environmental and societal issues. Click here to find out how to join the team. Announcements: We have launched a new initiative to restore Great Salt Lake called Grow the Flow . Will you join the movement? With a team of 32 researchers and managers, we put together an emergency briefing on Great Salt Lake . We provide an overview of the lake’s ongoing collapse and call for the establishment of a minimum flow requirement to restore the lake. As a part of the Permafrost Carbon Network, we published a comprehensive overview of Permafrost and Climate Change in Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Saving The Great Salt Lake with Environmental Expert Dr. Ben Abbott | BYU Social Impact Labs Ben Abbott Associate Professor of Environmental Science & Sustainability Brigham Young University Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences benabbott(a)byu.edu CV Blog Google Scholar ResearchGate ResearcherID Publons About Ben Abbott Lab in the News data-content-type="external" Going Great Lengths to Save the Salt Lake Undergraduate student Karoline Busche took her passion for her home and turned it into an international campaign for awareness and stewardship of the Western Hemisphere’s largest salt lake. overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="oneOffPage" Emergency measures needed to rescue Great Salt Lake from ongoing collapse ESS undergraduates teamed up with researchers and managers from across the state to create this emergency briefing calling for coordinated rescue of Great Salt Lake. overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Influencing Environmental Change from Iran to Utah By Kalicia Bateman April 08, 2020 10:36 AM 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. 3 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="oneOffPage" Clean Electrification of the U.S. economy This report by 14 researchers, students, and community members provides a crash course on this renewable revolution. It seeks to correct misunderstandings about renewable energy, air pollution, and climate change. overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="external" Measuring the price of air pollution Environmental Science & Sustainability grad student Isabella Errigo led a landmark study on the health and economic impacts of air pollution in Utah. overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="video" After a megafire, how do waterways recover? As wildfires get more frequent and severe because of climate change, a BYU team investigates ecosystem resilience to wildfires in a warmer world. 2:52 overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Intellect BYU analysis of 115+ studies on COVID-19 July 23, 2020 09:56 AM BYU researchers found that masks could be one of the most powerful and cost-effective tools to stop COVID-19 and accelerate the economic recovery. 1 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Intellect Saving the world’s water (and humans) one little stream at a time By Todd Hollingshead January 16, 2018 10:00 PM 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. 2 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Intellect Fighting bad air quality with ... dance? By Andrea Christensen September 11, 2018 10:00 PM 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. 1 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Intellect Study finds bedrock is teeming with microorganisms protecting water quality February 03, 2019 10:00 PM 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. 3 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Intellect Studying climate change at opposite ends of the Earth By Erica Ostergar August 13, 2018 10:00 PM 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. 3 Min Read overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="video" Permafrost Degradation in Alaska BYU professor of ecosystem ecology follows permafrost organic matter from the mountain to the sea on the North Slope of Alaska. overrideBackgroundColorOrImage= overrideTextColor= overrideTextAlignment= overrideCardHideSection= overrideCardHideByline= overrideCardHideDescription= overridebuttonBgColor= overrideButtonText= overrideTextAlignment= data-content-type="article" Impact Magazine Interdependence and Stewardship: Piecing Together Humanity’s Relationship with the Earth By Carlee Reber...