Media Category: Sites

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