Environment

  1. Modest moss supports billions of tons of carbon storage

    Did you know that over its lifetime, a tree can absorb more than a ton of carbon from the air and store it in wood and roots? Researchers now contend that mosses have the potential to store a massive amount of carbon in the soil beneath them, an important antidote to climate change.

  2. An eye on the sky

    The Extremely Large Telescope (or ELT) could change everything we know about the universe — including how the first galaxies were created and where life on other planets may exist. And U-M is the only U.S. university involved in helping develop it.

  3. U-M Biological Station gains ground

    The University is expanding its nature holdings in northern Michigan with the purchase of approximately 40 acres near the U-M Biological Station, a move intended to preserve the area from potential development.

  4. 48217: The Stamps Pollution Mural Project

    ‘48217’ is known as Michigan’s most polluted zip code. Community activists in this community near Detroit teamed up with Stamps Professor Joe Trumpey and his students in Fall 2022 to draw attention to the poor air quality in this industrial area — to stunning effect.

  5. Ann Arbor campus joins Bee Campus USA movement

    U-M’s Ann Arbor campus recently joined UM-Dearborn as a certified Bee Campus, reflecting the University’s commitment to pollinator conservation. U-M has long followed pollinator-friendly landscaping practices.

  6. 319-million-year-old fish preserves the earliest fossilized brain of a backboned animal

    The CT-scanned skull of a 319-million-year-old fossilized fish, pulled from a coal mine in England more than a century ago, has revealed the oldest example of a well-preserved vertebrate brain.

  7. Collaborative project to help improve coastal community resilience in Michigan, Wisconsin

    Researchers from U-M and the University of Wisconsin will assess flood risk for disadvantaged communities in Berrien County, Mich., and Milwaukee, and will provide a framework to extend the analysis throughout the Great Lakes.

  8. Refugee-focused community garden celebrates its first year

    The garrden, a collaboration between Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County and Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum, has turned a previously unused, grass-covered space into a fertile, productive plot.

  9. U-M startup joins White House partnership to remove lead pipes

    The water analytics company BlueConduit originated the approach of using machine learning to predict the location of lead pipes. By joining the Biden-Harris Get the Lead Out Partnership, the firm will multiply combined efforts to exponentially reduce risk to American families.