Project Name:
RainMan - Rainfall Manipulation in the Santa Rita Experimental Range
Collaborators:
Joel Biederman, Bill Smith, Nathan Pierce, Fangyue Zhang, Matt Roby, Mostafa Javadian, Dan Potts, Harrison Friedman, Tianyi Hu, Charlie Devine, Jacob Blais, Russ Scott
Goals/purpose:
RainMan is a global change research facility on the Santa Rita Experimental Range designed to help scientists understand how shifts in
A RainMan experiment house rainfall amount and timing influence semiarid grassland and savannah ecosystems. Established in 2019, the facility uses hoop‑house structures to fully exclude natural rainfall and apply controlled precipitation events, allowing researchers to study how changes in summer pulse size and winter rainfall shape plant productivity, soil moisture dynamics, and ecosystem functioning. Experiments at RainMan have revealed impacts on phenology, soil respiration, plant water access, and responses to increasing vapor pressure deficit. Ongoing studies continue to explore how reorganizing rainfall into fewer or larger events affects water use and plant physiological responses.