Environmental stress drives innovation in Arizona, sparking creative approaches to some of the toughest challenges in agriculture. The CALES Center for Agroecosystem Research in the Desert (ARID) aims to position Arizona as a leader in arid-lands agriculture while supporting more resilient, sustainable, and productive global food systems.
“At the heart of ARID’s work is a deceptively simple question: Can we grow food in hotter temperatures using less water?” said Duke Pauli, the center's founding director and an associate professor in the School of Plant Sciences. The answer is yes, but doing so requires a whole-ecosystem approach, combining plant genetics, microbial ecology, soil science, and digital technologies, he explained.
