Do wildflowers help reduce runoff in roadside soils?

Road construction and roads themselves can cause more problems than just a rush hour traffic jam. My research focuses on using wildflowers to help reduce some of these problems – in addition to being pretty! Paved surfaces, such as roads, cannot absorb rain during storms. Rain or snowmelt becomes runoff that flows to the soils …

What are alluvial soils?

Alluvial soils are soils deposited by surface water. You’ll find them along rivers, in floodplains and deltas (like the Mississippi Delta), stream terraces, and areas called alluvial fans. This last category results from larger floods, causing the soil to spread out in the shape of a triangle fan. These soils are formed differently than many …