Fans of the prickly pear cactus might be familiar with recipes for cactus jelly, cactus candy, and fried cactus pads or nopalitos. But how about a recipe for a biodegradable plastic bag?
Floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon can be a leisurely, relaxing experience. But for a handful of river runners, speed is the real objective.
Biocrust is a vital, but fragile material that covers a good portion of the soil surface on the Colorado Plateau. This “living skin” is a complex concoction of cyanobacteria, algae, fungi, moss and lichen.
When a warm storm front moves over a snow-capped mountain range, floods often follow. These events aren’t common on the Colorado Plateau, where winter precipitation usually falls as snow. But scientists say that’s going to change as the world continues to heat up.
