On Saturday, 26 September 2026, sixty people attended the 22nd Annual RISE (Research Insights in Semi-Arid Ecosystems) Symposium. You can find the program and links to the PDF version of the talks and posters presented at https://rise.santarita.arizona.edu/. The objectives of the symposium were to share recent results of scientific research in semiarid environments, with an emphasis on work conducted at the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) and the University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER), and to encourage collaboration among researchers and students on future research and outreach activities.
Ten speakers covered many topics, and some included results of work completed and ongoing at WGEW or SRER. The program started with updates from NEON (Abe Karam) reminding us about the opportunities to access data and engage with ideas and support, from the Santa Rita (Brett Blum) reminding us about plans for mesquite thinning and the recent BioBlitz, and from the Southwest Watershed Research Center (Heilman) reminding us about their 75-year history being celebrated this year, new office and lab building, and ways to engage them for collaboration.
The first group of invited speakers started with Dave Moore (UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment) providing a comprehensive update on the new NASA ARID program and different ways to engage as it rolls out. Laura Condon (UA Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences) presented the national model of groundwater for the U.S. and the suite of tools associated in HydroFrame that provide access and simulations for that data. Sarah McCord (USDA ARS Jornada) described two data sets and tools to estimate vegetation cover and productivity on western rangelands in the U.S., which are called the Landscape Data Commons and the Rangeland Analysis Platform. Heather Throop (ASU School of Earth and Space Exploration) reviewed work on plant litter dynamics and contributions to nutrient cycling in arid environments, and ongoing work focused on spatial scaling with colleagues across the globe. As the morning session neared completion, the eleven poster presenters provided short descriptions of their posters to stimulate more discussions in front of the posters during lunch break. The lunch and poster session was fueled by excellent food from the UA Catering and facilitated by perfect shaded conditions in the Integrated Learning Center courtyard. The cacophony matched the intensity of previous years, and animated discussions as well as new colleague connections were abundant.
After lunch, three speakers from the UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment maintained the enthusiasm from lunch, starting with Amy Ganguli providing an introduction and update on the New World Screw Worm in the Southwestern U.S. and the education and outreach efforts programs she is leading. Jesse Alston followed with a description of his research program focusing on wildlife on working lands across the U.S. southwest and Africa. Mitch McClaran ended the program with a short primer on how different measures of vegetation abundance contribute to our perception of vegetation change using examples from the 124-year record of change on the Santa Rita.
This was the fourth year that we did not charge a registration fee and instead relied on donations to support the student poster awards. This year, we had a generous outpouring of 16 donations since July 2026, with a total of over $1700. This amount supported $500 for the top Graduate student poster and $300 for second place.
Graduate Student Contest Winners and Photos with Posters
Best poster at $500, Mary Sanchez (ASU Center for Fundamental and Applied Microbiomics) for the poster titled Tracking Effects of Changing Precipitation Regimes on Biocrust Microbial Communities.
Second place award of $300 went to Fehmida Rafi (UA School of Natural Resources and the Environment, UA) for the poster titled Interannual Bare Ground Dynamics at SRER Beyond Climate.
