I worked primarily with Dr. Eli Zaady on different projects centered around soil productivity, land use, and the prevention of desertification. Seeing how agriculture works in an arid environment was an eye-opening experience. By using runoff, wastewater, and conservation, scientists have found innovative ways to make plants grow. Dr. Zaady's ongoing study concerned the effect of external factors such as grazing, herbicides, and scraping on soil crust.
Soil crust is important to vegetation in the desert because it prevents runoff and conserves water.
Because of the summer heat, there was no field work going on, and because of my short stay, I was not able to do my own research project. Instead, I learned a lot of different laboratory methods and a lot about the research process. This has been most valuable to me since I hope to go into research. I learned soil methods to test for chlorophyll, phosphorus, and polysaccharides. Summaries of these procedures are at the end of this report.