Isaac Larsen

Associate Professor of Earth, Geographic, and Climate Sciences University of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Amherst MA

Geoscientist Isaac Larsen has made groundbreaking discoveries about the rate, extent and causes of soil erosion in the American Midwest.

Contact

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Expertise

Soil Erosion
Landsacape Evolution
Megafloods
Geomorphology
Agriculure and Soil Erosion

Biography

Geoscientist Isaac Larsen has received national attention and media coverage for his research finding that topsoil in the American Midwest is eroding 100 times faster than it's forming, putting the future of food production and even civilization in peril.

Education

University of Washington

Ph.D.

Carleton College

B.A.

Select Recent Media Coverage

Soil in Midwestern U.S. eroding 10 to 1,000 times faster than it forms

National Science Foundation  online

2023-01-11

In a discovery that has repercussions for everything from domestic agricultural policy to global food security and plans to mitigate climate change, researchers at the University of Massachusetts have found that the rate of soil erosion in the midwestern U.S. is 10 to 1,000 times greater than pre-agricultural erosion rates.

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Study: Midwest topsoil ‘being eroded 100 times faster than it’s forming’

The Spokesman-Review  print

2022-12-29

An eye-popping new report from a leading geologist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst argues that soil erosion in the Midwest — including from samples in southwestern Minnesota — is happening at a far faster clip than previously estimated.

“On a human time scale, the change is pretty much impossible to see,” said UMass Amherst geoscientist Isaac Larsen, whose findings were published this month in the scientific journal, Geology.

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Midwest soil is eroding faster than ever. Modern farming could be to blame.

Grist  online

2022-12-13

Researchers have found that the rate of soil erosion in the Midwestern US is 10 to 1,000 times greater than it was before modern agriculture practices reigned supreme across the region. “The Midwest is losing soil, for most of these sites, about 100 times faster than it’s forming,” Isaac Larsen, a geoscience professor at the University of Massachusetts and a study co-author, told Grist.

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