Pima County

Since 1903, the Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER) has provided scientists with a unique real-world laboratory. In his interview with the AZ Daily Star Professor Mitch McClaran, the Director of Research at SRER, discusses the 50,000 acre range's impact on the research of sustainable use of rangelands, wildlife, endangered species, and recreation.
 

Most DRU projects are interdisciplinary; collaborating units on campus include Chemical and Environmental Engineering; Soil, Water and Environmental Science; Agriculture and Biosystems Engineering; Hydrology; the Arizona Laboratory for Emerging Contaminants; the UA Water Village, and the Sarver Heart Center.  External collaborators include Northern Arizona University, Colorado School of Mines, Arizona State University, U.S.

The trace organic contaminant perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) was detected in several groundwater production wells in 2009 by the Tucson Water Department in their Microconstituent Sentinel Program .  The origin of PFOS contamination in Tucson Basin ground water is unknown although it is strongly suspected that municipal wastewater effluent that recharges the local aquifer via the Santa Cruz River is an important source.  PFOS, the key ingredient in Scotchgard up until 2003, is a perfluorinated anthropogenic chemical that is very persistent and a sus

The Santa Rita Experimental Range's (SRER) 50,000 acres south of Tucson have served as an important outdoor laboratory for more than a century for researchers investigating sustainable grazing practices.

Efforts to control the invasive species buffelgrass are expanding across the city of Tucson. The School of Natural Resources and the Environment is involved at several sites including Tumamoc Hill and the Santa Rita Experimental Range. SNRE research specialist, Travis Bean is orchestrating the removal of buffelgrass from Tumamoc Hill on the west side of Tucson.

The fifth annual Research Insights in Semiarid Ecosystems (RISE) Symposium will feature invited speakers presenting recent research on the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed, University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range and other outdoor laboratories.  There will also be a poster session where students and researchers are encouraged to report on completed or in-progress studies.  Time will be available for questions from the audience.   

During Tucson's dramatic monsoons our streets are scoured by stormwater. The water drains down storm sewers, gullies and washes, and eventually to areas that could be used for recharge. Should the city actively recharge our depleted groundwater with storm runoff? Through the project ‘Tradeoffs of Enhanced Urban Runoff-Recharge and Water Quality', SNRE Assistant Professor Kathleen Lohse is finding out if pollutants, metals, pathogens and nutrients in storm runoff present a challenge to stormwater recharge.