o. Great wave-like dun

es of gy

psum sand have engulfed 275 squ
are mi les of desert here and created the
largest gypsum dun

e field in the world. The dunes, brilliant and white, are ever changing. They grow, crest, then slump but always advance. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of th

e dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants g are ongoing in the laboratories each year. These projects make use of the laboratories' state-of-the-art equipment, including Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier Transform Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), an Agilent Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer (GC-MS) with an autosampler and other equipment designed to provide information with a high level of accuracy and precision.

row rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving dunes, but several t

• ypes of small animals have evolved white colorations to camouflage th
  em in the gypsum sand. White Sands National Monument preserves a major part of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have adapted successfully t
• o this constantly changing environment.At the northern
  end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain-ringed valley, the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one
• of the world's great natural wonders-the glistening whit
  e sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert here and created the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The dunes, brilliant and white, are ever changing. They grow, crest, then slump but always advance. Slowly but relentlessly the sand,
• Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC):
  driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving
• dunes, but several type
  s of small animals have evolved white colorations to camouflage them in the gypsum sand. White Sands National Monument preserves a major part of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have adapted successfully to this constantly changing environment.At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain-ringed valley, the Tularosa
• Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural w
  onders-the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert here and created the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The dunes, brilliant and white, are ever changing. They grow, crest, then slump but always advance. Slowly but relentlessly the sand, driven by strong southwest winds, covers everything in its path. Within the extremely harsh environment of th
• e dune field, even plants an
  d animals adapted to desert conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved white colorations to camouflage them in the gypsum sand. White Sands Nationa
• l Monument preserves a major part
  of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have adapted successfully to this constantly changing environment.At the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert lies a mountain-ringed vall
• The EMRTCey, the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders-the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 27

5 square miles of desert h

• ere and created the largest gypsum dune field in the world. The dunes, br
• illiant and white, are ever changing. They grow, crest, then slump
• but always advance. Slowly but relen
• tlessly the sand,
• driven by strong
• southwest winds, covers everything in its pa
• th. Within the extremely harsh environment of the dune field, even plants and animals adapted to desert

conditions struggle to survive. Only a few species of plants grow rapidly enough to survive burial by the moving dunes, but several types of small animals have evolved white colorations to camouflage them in the gypsum sand. White Sands National Monument preserves a major part of this gypsum dune field, along with the plants and animals that have adapted successfully to this constantly changing environment.At the northern end of the Chihuahuan

Desert lies a mountain-ringed valley, the Tularosa Basin. Rising from the heart of this basin is one of the world's great natural wonders-the glistening white sands of New Mexico. Great wave-like dunes of gypsum sand have engulfed 275 square