There is life in the desert, and especially on NYU Abu Dhabi’s new Saadiyat Island campus, where it is abundant and varied. Walking from the Welcome Center towards the alluring palm trees in the center of campus, I am reminded of how good it feels to be at home. Yes, a home away from home. A walk on the High Line towards my room in A2C complements this rich experience with the greenery of the lawn and the variety of flowers. Students loll on the lawn, some scanning novels in their hands.

It seems as if the diversity brought by the student body on campus is not enough. Cats and dogs stroll the High Line without conflict and animals appear to be thriving in the new space. The plants and animals of Saadiyat are not endemic; some say that the palm trees adorning the Campus Center were shipped all the way from Egypt.

But how do the plants here manage to adapt to the new island and call it home though sometimes needing to brave summer temperatures sometimes as high as 50 degrees Celsius?

To answer this, a group of Foundations of Science Biology students conducted research on the sustainability of the campus and how it has managed to provide new life.

The purpose of the experiment was to test the plant life found on the High Line for their suitability to arid conditions. The experiment examined non-native species of plants to test whether they had healthily adapted to the new habitat given its harsh conditions, explained freshman Liam Kirwan. Students also considered location as a independent variable, hypothesizing that plants found on the west side of campus receiving more sunlight would be more susceptible to sun damage.

In order to test adaptability, student measured the plants’ chlorophyll fluorescence and the amount of photosynthesis a plant has carried out using a Pulse Amplitude Modulation Fluorometer.

The results indicated that the plant life was healthy and generally well adapted. However, there was no obvious link between the location of these plans and the health of the two plant species that were tested. The plants on the east side, however, were marginally healthier.

Kirwan noted that there were surprising results:

“Although it was difficult to formulate a solid conclusion linking location of plant life and photosynthetic levels, the general conclusion that we drew was that … the plant life used on the High Line is surprisingly well adapted to the arid conditions of the UAE.”

Studying how the plants and animals here grow can serve as a learning point for other generations to come.