A new machine learning tool can reduce errors in national flood prediction programing, resulting in more accurate predictions of where floods will occur.  In a new study published in AGU Advances, scientists found that when the AI was used in combination with the National Water Model, developed by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the resulting hybrid model was four to six times more accurate.

Chapman University researchers, in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service and others, published a study in Nature Communications showing that warming tropical rainforest soils release vast amounts of carbon dioxide, potentially accelerating climate change. In Puerto Rico, experimentally heated plots showed a 42–204% increase in soil respiration, among the highest CO₂ release rates ever recorded. The findings suggest that instead of acting as carbon sinks, tropical soils could become major carbon sources, intensifying global warming. Chapman’s Dr. Christine Sierra O’Connell co-led the research as part of the TRACE project.

Xinting Yu, assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at The University of Texas at San Antonio, is one of two recipients of the 2025 Harold C. Urey Prize.

The national award from the American Astronomical Society’s Division for Planetary Sciences recognizes early-career scientists shaping the future of space research.

Yu was honored for her research in planetary and exoplanetary science — the study of planets in our solar system and beyond. Her work focuses on how planetary surfaces and atmospheres interact and evolve.