CALEM
Center for Arid Lands Environmental Management
CALEM Capabilities
CALEM is able to call upon the wide range of intellectual resources and skills of DRI faculty and staff to develop interdisciplinary research projects. Below is a partial list of capabilities of DRI faculty and staff that are relevant to the mission and goals of CALEM
Ecosystems
- Evaluating variability in biotic distribution and abundance
- Relating biotic distribution to resources and surface characteristics
- Using modeling to extrapolate ecosystem processes to other scales
- Evaluating the role of the ecosystem processes in erosion, stabilization, and reclamation of disturbed areas
- Evaluation of temporal and spatial change in ecosystem parameters
Landscape Dynamics, Modeling, and Remote Sensing
- Linking small-scale processes to landscape-scale models
- Characterizing landscape dynamics through remote sensing and GIS
- Alternative futures analysis
- Evaluating response of soil, hydrologic, and ecological systems to climate change and variability
- Natural geomorphic and biologic processes in desert areas
- Analysis of dust generation processes
- Modeling effect of policies and land use on physical and cultural landscape
Geomorphology and Soils
- Determining water and nutrient flux through the soil system
- Evaluating surface stability and evolution
- Linking soil, hydrological, and biological sytems
- Monitoring soil moisture and plant-available water
- Evaluating anthropogenic impacts to soil, landscape, and ecosystem processes
- Determining soil degradation and dust production
- Analyzing desert microbial communities
- Applying remote sensing to soil science and landscape dynamics
Erosion and Deposition Processes
- Assessing sensitivity to disturbance via natural and anthropogenic causes
- Extrapolating process impacts at local and regional scales
- Characterizing erosion and deposition over a range of time scales
- Evaluating variability in space and time
- Evaluating dust emissions linking fluvial and aeolian systems
- Assessing effects of climate change on arid ecosystems and landscapes
Hydrology
- Measuring, modeling, and monitoring contaminants in the unsaturated zone
- Measuring and modeling soil hydraulic properties in the unsaturated zone, including infiltration and recharge processes
- Measuring and modeling the processes that control availability and quality of groundwater
- Analyzing and predicting alluvial fan and channel flow, surface-groundwater interactions, and effects of management practices in watersheds
- Investigating transfer processes between the soil and atmosphere, characteristics of precipitation, and paleohydrology
Cultural Resources
- Conducting historical evaluations
- Completing archaeological surveys and excavations
- Consulting with Native Americans
- Curating artifacts
- Developing management and context documents
Air Quality
- Monitoring long-term air quality
- Measuring and modeling aerosols and visibility
- Investigating fugitive dust emissions
- Monitoring air quality in real time
- Characterizing and inventorying emissions
- Determining gas and particle emission sources
- Modeling dispersion of pollutants and atmospheric processes
Weather and Climate
- Acquiring data in near real-time including quality control, storage, and retrieval
- Integrating climate information
- Managing and maintaining an on-line multiple data set system
- Understanding microclimates and the applicability of point measurements
- Working with federal resource management agencies to develop products which answer practical questions
Contact
Dr. Nick Lancaster (faculty web page)
775.673.7304
Nick.Lancaster@dri.edu