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How An Artificial Climate Change Experiment Affected A Colorado Meadow

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9min 16sec
Courtesy of Anne Marie Panetta/Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
Researchers have been warming this meadow in northwest Colorado for the last 30 years to simulate climate change.

Near the ghost town of Gothic, in northwest Colorado, there’s a meadow that’s been a little warmer than the others around it. Scientists at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory have heated it artificially for 30 years. They call it “The Warming Meadow Experiment.” Put another way: they created their own climate change to see what would happen. Researchers recently turned the heaters off. A member of the meadow team, Stephanie Kivlin is going to help us understand.