Scientists show that deforestation can have vastly different impacts. For example, clearing intact forest can damage biodiversity and carbon storage up to four times more than clearing forest edges.
Sebastian Lotz, a research fellow at Stanford, has shown that behavioral decision design can nudge people to purchase clean, renewable energy plans over fossil fuel.
Stanford University's Natural Gas Initiative will research many questions related to the responsible development of natural gas as a fuel supply in the United States and around the world.
Mark Z. Jacobson and colleagues show that it's technically possible for each state to replace fossil fuel energy with entirely clean, renewable energy.
Stanford economist Dave Donaldson found that the impact of climate change might amount for just a .26 percent reduction in global gross domestic product if farmers are able to switch what types of crops they grow.
Stanford biologist Rodolfo Dirzo and a team of ecologists forecast enormous ecological, social and economic costs from the loss of large herbivores, but offer some solutions.
As the largest animals in the ocean, blue whales have not evolved defensive behaviors. New research by Stanford biologist Jeremy Goldbogen suggests this might explain why the whales are so prone to ship collisions.
The comprehensive system incorporates solar power for electricity, combined with heat recovery, to cut greenhouse gas emissions 68 percent and fossil fuel 65 percent.
As the world's population grows, so does the demand for – and threat to – the planet's freshwater supply. Stanford researchers are developing a range of promising solutions to freshwater challenges around the globe.
The finding refutes a hypothesis by the famed evolutionary biologist Stephen J. Gould that marine creatures underwent an "early burst" of functional diversity during the dawn of animal life.
In California, warm, dry years are more likely to lead to severe drought than dry, cool years, and the probability of warm and dry conditions coinciding is likely to climb.
After changes in government policy and farm practices, European grain yields leveled off. Stanford's Frances C. Moore says climate trends account for 10 percent of that stagnation.
Stanford students Annalisa and Madelyn Boslough, experienced backcountry backpackers, followed the course of mountain creeks to hike to four camps where prospectors once mined the streambeds for placer gold.
New technique exploits naturally occurring seismic waves to probe seafloor at less expense, and with fewer ill effects on marine life caused by air guns in use today.
By teaching basic ecology field work techniques to indigenous groups in the Amazon, Stanford researchers find that satellite measurements of rainforests underestimate the region's carbon storage potential.
In a new report, Steve Palumbi and colleagues show that the industrialization of the oceans mirrors the early stages of activities that have triggered mass extinctions on land.
China's booming aquaculture industry relies on fishmeal made from wild-caught fish. This practice depletes wild fish stocks and strains fragile ocean ecosystems, but a new study offers a more sustainable path.
Team uses novel combination of computer simulations and statistical techniques to show that a persistent region of high atmospheric pressure was much more likely to form in the presence of modern greenhouse gas concentrations.
The Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment was established in 2004 to serve as a hub of interdisciplinary environmental research. Its forward-thinking natural and social scientists, engineers and others pursue practical solutions for people and the planet.
