A scientist is using the biomes at Biosphere 2 to study why buffelgrass is so hearty and invasive compared to native grasses and what forces are contributing to vegetation transformations in deserts around the world.

Scientists predict that arid regions like the deserts of North America will suffer from increasingly frequent droughts, negatively impacting plant life. Some of these regions are also seeing rapid vegetation transformations because of invasive species. Here in the Southwest, the invasion of non-native buffelgrass could change our desert landscape forever, and a better understanding of why these changes are taking place is happening inside Biosphere 2.