Desert Research Institute (DRI)
The Desert Research Institute (DRI) is the environmental research arm of the Nevada System of Higher Education. With more than 500 employees and two main campuses in Reno and Las Vegas, Nevada, DRI applies scientific understanding to the effective management of natural resources while meeting Nevada's needs for economic diversification and science-based educational opportunities. DRI's researchers provide scientific services with a focus on global climate change, water quality and availability, air quality, sustainability of desert lands, life in extreme environments, and more.
Several DRI projects are researching the causes and impacts of climate change. These range from improving detection of past climate records in ice cores to directly assessing the impacts of changes in global temperature on water CO2 exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems. Many ongoing studies are assessing the potential impacts of climate change on water availability in Nevada. In addition, DRI researchers are active in educating high school students and teachers as well as the general public about climate change.
DRI scientists have pioneered scientific discoveries and the application of new technology around the world. From the first efforts to monitor groundwater in the Great Basin, to using satellites and remote sensing to find scarce water in West Africa, and tracking the origin, disbursement and distant effects of air pollution across China and Southeast Asia. DRI helped establish the first satellite communications link from the U.S. to Antarctic research stations; and to this day maintains a robust Polar Region research program and one of the most sophisticated Antarctic and Arctic ice-core analysis laboratories in the world.
DRI’s Reno, Nevada campus houses the Western Regional Climate Center, which is part of a national-wide network that collects and distributes climate information and data free of charge to anyone who needs it across the globe.
Phone: (775) 673-7610
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