Current news & events
Earth Science week, October 14, 2023!
Past News & Events
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Deep CZ Drilling
Winter 2023 Soil cores, borehole logs, and groundwater samples are being collected from the 5R Farm near Tornillo, TX and the Red Lake Playa in the Jornada Experimental Range, NM. Samples will be analyzed for geochemical and geomicrobiological characteristics. Researchers hope to gain a better understanding of the deep Critical Zone architecture and functioning. |
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Sun Country Regional Science & Engineering Fair
UTEP Memorial Gym February 18, 2023 Dryland Researchers helped facilitate this event for hundreds of middle and high school students, where they competed in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. |
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LTER SPARC Grant: Soil Phosphorus Control of Carbon and Nitrogen
Dryland researchers Dr. Jennie McLaren and Dylan Stover are named in a grant funded January 2023 to study soil nutrient cycling at Jornada. Description |
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News from our Wyoming colleagues
The University of Wyoming Dryland Team, Dr. Mike Zhu and PhD students JC Liu and Carson Thompson, installed dust collectors and collected soil samples at the Jornada LTER in October 2022. JC's doctoral research is going to use these samples to assess organic phosphorus in the surface soil and compare organic phosphorus between resource island soils and bulk soils in-between plants. |
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The Dryland Nutrients Group is investigating plant and microbial community limitation by nitrogen and phosphorus. They recently added fertilizers and water to study plots in the Chihuahuan Desert to study this limitation.
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UTEP and
Insights El Paso host a Teacher Professional Development Workshop Np |
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Dr. Melissa Warak will be presenting on the use of photography as proxy data in the Dryland CZ: Documenting Crisis: Photographic Evidence of Climate Change Southeast College of Art Conference (SECAC) Baltimore Oct. 26-29th |
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Dryland Outreach Activity
Saturday July 16, 2022 9:00 - 11:30am Chihuahuita Park 417 Charles Rd. El Paso, TX STEAM at the Park is geared towards children ages 5-17. This event is made possible by ASPIRE NSF Engineering Research Center, UTEP College of Engineering abd Upward Bound Program, Insights, and yes si=ie can. |
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Dryland CZ hosts an All Hands Meeting at the University of Texas El Paso
May 23-25th Thematic cluster participants enjoyed field trips to agricultural sites and the Jornada Experimental Range, a poster session and numerous research presentations, outreach activities, and social events! The |
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Dryland Critical Zone presents at the
Geological Society of America Joint Section Meeting Las Vegas, NV 2022 Ghahremani, Z., Pierce, J., Huber, D., Reynard, L., Murray, E., & Swanson, C. (2022). The importance of dust in the formation of soil inorganic carbon in drylands. Sectional Geological Society of America meeting, Las Vegas, NV.
Hanif, T., Huber, D. P., Jin, L., Finney, B., Ghahremani, Z., & Pierce, J. (2022). Do drylands soils act as a net sink of CO2 to reduce atmospheric CO2 in the global carbon cycle? Sectional Geological Society of America meeting, Las Vegas. Molina, V., Ma, L., Engle, M., Darrouzet-Nardi, A., Kaye, J., & Jin, L. (2022). Differentiating biotic vs. abiotic CO2 in the formation of pedogenic carbonate in an agriculturally altered site. Sectional Geological Society of America meeting, Las Vegas, NV. Quiroz, M., Molina, V., Garcia, A., Doser, D., & Jin, L. (2022). A survey of tree size in a pecan orchard as a proxy of carbon flux, soil salinity and texture. Sectional Geological Society of America meeting, Las Vegas, NV. |
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Dr. Marguerite Mauritz-Tozer
accepts an Assistant Professor position at the University of Texas at El Paso September 1, 2022 |
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Dr. Tom Gill, Dryland Critical Zone researcher, featured in article:
"Dust Is a Growing Problem. What Role Does Farmland Play?" Link to Article on civileats.com January 6, 2022 See Dust Alliance for North America (DANA) for more information on Dr. Gill's work. |
Fellowship Applications Due February 21, 2022
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Graduate Student Research Fellowships Available
at the Jornada Basin LTER The Jornada Basin LTER provides support for half-time, 12 month (up to $24,000/y), and summer research fellowships (up to $6000/summer) for graduate students conducting research directly related to the goals of the Jornada LTER. Graduate Research Fellows may be eligible for up to 2 years (halftime) or 2 summers of support, for students in good standing with their university and with the Jornada LTER Program. The number of fellowships and amount each year depends on funds available.
Click Here for More Information |
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Dryland Critical Zone at AGU!
https://www.agu.org/Fall-Meeting 
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Dryland Critical Zone researcher, Dr. Jen Pierce, featured in the Idaho Statesman
Layer of Idaho dirt you can’t penetrate with a shovel? Here’s how water gets through. |
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NSF Awards UTEP $5 Million to Leas Study of Earth's Surface in Drylands
A team of interdisciplinary researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso was awarded $5.27 million by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to advance critical zone (CZ) research in drylands. The University is one of nine funded CZ research projects in the nation. Also featured in El Paso Inc. |
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Understanding Earth's Surface from Tree Canopy to Bedrock
Land-use change. Environmental change. Extreme natural events such as hurricanes and wildfires. All are placing increasing pressure on the planet and its natural resources. In the critical zone, the layer from the top of the forest canopy to the base of weathered bedrock, where freshwater flows and soil forms from the breakdown of rocks, life flourishes. |
