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
Planned action items generated at the Cedar Creek LTER site in response to Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests in the Spring of 2020. Cedar Creek LTER Community
Co-authors Rob Olson and Heidi Sosik have worked on development of the FlowCytobot series of automated submersible plankton sensors at WHOI since the late 1990s Tom Kleindinst
Co-author Alexi Shalapyonok secures FlowCytobot (FCB) underwater at the Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory (MVCO) tower. FCB, an automated submersible flow cytometer, operates unattended at MVCO for 6 months or longer, measuring thousands of individual microscopic plankton every hour. Sean Whelan
We characterized the sensitivity of biological soil crusts to drought (drought plot in photo) in dry grassland ecosystems (Fernandes et al. 2018). We also documented plant evolutionary responses to drought (Whitney et al. 2019) Lauren Baur
We are directly testing how climate mean and variance interacts by building the first field experiments that cross long-term drought with increased rainfall variability. Jennifer Rudgers
Scott Collins
Will Pockman
Anny Chung
