Media Category: CAP

In the Phoenix metropolitan area neighborhoods there are three popular types of landscaping, (1) mesic, consisting of lawn and trees, (2) xeric, consisting of desert- and drought-adapted plants, and (3) oasis, landscaping that combines the grassy swaths of mesic and desert plants of xeric. ARC LTER researchers found that after the socioeconomic stress of the Great Recession, plant species richness of residential yards increased (LEFT) due to a surge in weedy annual species, which corresponded with a simultaneous increase in homogeneity (RIGHT) of residential plant communities. Julie Ripplinger

Former student Jessica Alvarez Guevara doing her population survey of small mammals inside/outside urban Phoenix. She was letting the pocket mouse warm up from her body heat before releasing him so that he wouldn’t be a target for predators. Becky Ball

ISCO autosamplers were placed along the length of the flume, at strategic locations, to capture the movement of the fluorescent dye. These dye studies not only confirmed that the Biological Tide generated surface currents in the marsh, but the water residence times calculated from these studies closely matched those calculated from our water budgets. CAP LTER

At West Campus, we are currently testing the use of a polymer developed and used in California that gets injected into turf soils to help retain water and reduce irrigation needs. We’re the first test of that polymer being used in Arizona (truly arid desert compared to where it was developed). It’s a project with the University Sustainability Practices & Bureau of Reclamations. “Installation1” is the equipment the company used to inject the polymer. JoEllen Alberhasky

Julie Ripplinger

In the Phoenix metropolitan area neighborhoods there are three popular types of landscaping, (1) mesic, consisting of lawn and trees, (2) xeric, consisting of desert- and drought-adapted plants, and (3) oasis, landscaping that combines the grassy swaths of mesic and desert plants of xeric. We found that after the socioeconomic stress of the Great Recession, plant species richness of residential yards increased (FIGURE) due to a surge in weedy annual species, which corresponded with a simultaneous increase in homogeneity (RIGHT FIGURE) of residential plant communities. Julie Ripplinger

CAP-LTER. CC BY-SA 4.0