Recent research at the USDA-ARS Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) and the University of Arizona Santa Rita Experimental Range (SRER)
The Symposium will feature invited speakers presenting recent or on-going research on the WGEW, the SRER or other outdoor laboratories in the region. There will be time for questions from the audience, which will consist of federal agency, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) stakeholders from southern Arizona and university faculty, staff and students.
Registration is required to attend.
If Your Plans Change
PLEASE Cancel your registration if your plans change, so that we can accommodate as many attendees as possible. To cancel, please use the link in the registration email confirmation to add the text "CANCEL" in the Comments section.
The deadline for registration (as a courtesy for catering plans) is 17 October 2025. Walk-up registration may be available the day of the Symposium if there have been sufficient cancellations.
The deadline for Poster Abstract Submission is 11 October 2025. Note: Space is limited to 20 posters. Posters will be accepted based on the order of registration. Early registration is encouraged to secure your poster space!
Please consider donating any amount to support the Symposium Program and Student Poster contest awards (currently $1100 in awards, but award amounts will increase if donations are sufficient). You can donate at this url https://give.uafoundation.org/SantaRita-RISE and this QR code.
We welcome posters presenting data from or relevant to any dryland ecosystem. All poster presenters will have the opportunity to share their work with an enthusiastic audience.
If you wish to have your poster included in the student poster competition, please provide a sentence that describes how your poster is relevant to the WGEW or SRER. Note that if the data were collected as part of a study that was much broader than these two study sites, the relevance of the study to the WGEW or SRER must be clearly articulated to be eligible for the poster competition.
A single award will be granted in each of the following categories:
To qualify for a student poster contest, the work presented on the poster must have been conducted on or have used data from the WGEW, the SRER, or both. If the poster includes data from a much broader study area than the WGEW and/or SRER (e.g., regional or continental-scale remote sensing data), the poster must clearly articulate how the data are being used or interpreted to be relevant to the WGEW or SRER.
Contestant’s posters will be judged and awards presented at the close of the Symposium. A poster should stand on its own merit, but poster judges will also be visiting with each student at their posters to evaluate enthusiasm and competence in the subject area. Note: Students in the competition will be asked to identify at least a 30-minute window in which they will be at their poster during the poster session.
APPEARANCE:
SCIENTIFIC ORIGINALITY: Creative approach.
GRAPHICS: Graphics are effective and enhance the results.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS/REFERENCES: Proper acknowledgements are given for support of the study, and literature cited.
INTERACTION WITH STUDENT PRESENTER:Posters should not exceed 36 inches tall by 60 inches wide.
(applies to all posters, including student contestants and others)
Brett Blum, Phil Heilman, Mitch McClaran, Heather Throop (alphabetical)
bcb@arizona.edu
phil.heilman@usda.gov
mcclaran@u.arizona.edu
heather.throop@asu.edu