Science Moab

Cheatgrass is one of the most pervasive, non-native grasses in the American West, changing ecosystems almost everywhere it goes. Here, we talk with Dr. Jayne Belnap, a world renowned scientist from Moab, Utah, who has studied how this invasive grass has changed ecosystems around the Southwest. We talk about where cheatgrass came from, how it got here, and how it has and will likely continue to transform southwestern landscapes.

This show examines how people living in the desert southwest in the past may have differentiated between communal places where everyone was welcome, and private places like granaries and dwellings. Through studying these differentiations, Elizabeth Hora-Cook tries to understand what society may have been like for Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan people.

A show about Southwestern archaeology and paleoethnobotany, or the study of plants that past humans have used, with Dr. Timothy Riley. Rose Elgholff talks to Dr. Riley about ways to figure out what humans ate in the past, why we care about it, and work he has done with experimental archaeology today.

Exploring strategies to protect plant and animal species by protecting diverse landscapes with Dr. Paul Beier.

The second part of a two part interview about volcanoes on the Colorado Plateau, how they interact with the ecosystem, why there are so many, and how humans may have responded to the eruptions, with Dr. Michael Ort.

An interview about the different ways herbivores influence plant communities in our region and the different impacts of native and nonnative grazers with Dr. Kari Veblen .