Project Grant 2317850

The Regents of the University of Minnesota received a $832,098 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Earth Sciences under the Geosciences program (CFDA 47.050) on September 15, 2023. The award will fund a 4-year collaborative research project to investigate the impacts of climate change-driven glacier retreat on Andean volcanoes in the inner tropics, including effects on water supply, vegetation, elemental cycling, and local indigenous Kichwa communities. The project will combine field and remote sensing observations, laboratory analyses, computational modeling, and knowledge co-production with Kichwa stakeholders to provide the first systematic investigation of glacier mass balance processes in the inner tropics, model plant succession in deglaciated landscapes, and assess controls on páramo carbon stores. The project aims to demonstrate how climate-driven glacier retreat triggers responses that propagate through mountain catchments to affect water, plants, and elemental cycles. No subawards are planned under this grant.