Desert Laboratory

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Desert Laboratory, also called Desert Botanical Laboratory, sits on Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, Arizona (on O’odham land known as Cemamagĭ Doʼag). It was founded in 1903 by the Carnegie Institution to study how desert heat and drought affect plants, the first privately funded desert biology lab in the United States. Beginning in 1906, Volney Spalding and Forrest Shreve created long‑term ecological study plots on the 860‑acre Tumamoc Hill, including nine of the world’s oldest permanent ecology quadrats. The Desert Laboratory helped shape the science of ecology and contributed to founding the Ecological Society of America in 1915 and the journal Ecology, as well as innovations in conservation. Part of the site was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965, with the rest added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966. The location was chosen in February 1903 by Frederick V. Coville, botanist of the USDA, and Daniel T. McDougal of the New York Botanical Garden; the laboratory opened in October 1903. Today it is operated by Tumamoc: People & Habitats, part of the University of Arizona’s College of Science.