News & Announcements

Working to Solve our Most Challenging Environmental Problems

DRI’s research calls on the expertise and methods of scientists from multiple scientific disciplines. More than 600 highly-skilled scientists, engineers, technicians, students, and staff work collaboratively within and across three research divisions, focused on understanding and answering critical science questions about global climate change, water quality and availability, air quality, the sustainability of desert lands, life in extreme environments, education, and more.

DRI Scientists Contribute to Breakthrough Study on Microbial Evolution

DRI Scientists Contribute to Breakthrough Study on Microbial Evolution

The new paper, which was led by scientists from the Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences and published last week in Nature publishing group’s ISME Journal, identifies a group of microbes from the deepest regions of the continental subsurface biosphere that have been at an evolutionary standstill for approximately 175 million years.

As climate warms, summer monsoons to produce less streamflow

As climate warms, summer monsoons to produce less streamflow

A new paper led by DRI’s Rosemary Carroll points to both the importance of monsoon rains in maintaining the Upper Colorado River’s water supply and the diminishing ability of monsoons to replenish summer streamflow in a warmer future with less snow accumulation.

What happens when rain falls on desert soils? An updated model provides answers

What happens when rain falls on desert soils? An updated model provides answers

Several years ago, while studying the environmental impacts of large-scale solar farms in the Nevada desert, Desert Research Institute (DRI) scientists Yuan Luo, Ph.D. and Markus Berli, Ph.D. became interested in one particular question: how does the presence of thousands of solar panels impact desert hydrology?