The Sonoran Desert teems with wildlife. These 3D scans could help protect its future : NPR

The RAF Exhibition Gallery hosts an immersive exhibit with multiple screens showing FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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PHOENIX — It was about 6:30 a.m. when the saguaro fell and the group chat came on.

Lidar scanners – the same technology that allows self-driving cars to create 3D maps of their surroundings – had been capturing the daily evolution of the giant cactus for six months. They recorded the colossus as it pulsed with life, then tilted and finally toppled over in Arizona’s vast Sonoran Desert in February 2024.

That WhatsApp chat was filled with researchers, technicians and artists who had scanned the plant as part of a yearlong art and data project, said Laura Spalding Best, senior director of exhibits at Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, which commissioned the project.

“It was so emotional and meaningful for everyone. [There] It was like excitement. But it was also very sad at the same time,” Best said. “And that’s kind of what ends up being summed up in this video. You see it deteriorate, but it still brings everything around it to life in this environment. »

The best-described video is part of a new art exhibit at the garden called “Frame Rate: Desert Pulse,” a collaboration with London-based tech-savvy artist group ScanLAB Projects. It’s comprised of detailed 3D scans of Arizona’s unique desert landscape featuring the iconic saguaro and other cacti, such as the prickly pear, ocotillo and cholla – also known as the “jumping cactus” for the uncanny ability of its pads to cling to passersby.

Visitors look at Horizon | FRAMERATE Legal Notice: Desert Pulse on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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But it also chronicled a growing housing development on the edge of the desert, a dairy farm filled with cattle and Chase Field filled with baseball fans on opening day for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“You have things like a target [parking lot] and landfill, which hopefully challenges some of the slightly less sustainable things we do as a species,” said Matthew Shaw, co-founder of ScanLAB Projects.

Images of desert plants are projected in a loop on giant screens placed outside among the garden plants. It is also presented in a room with screens on the walls, floor and ceiling, immersing people in the art. The video is accompanied by a thumping soundtrack, composed by Pascal Wyse, largely using materials found in the desert like saguaro thorns. The effect is meant to be a celebration of the Sonoran Desert, as well as a cautionary tale about man’s impact on it, Shaw said.

Science in art

Present echoes of FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, in which plants in the garden bed were scanned every day for a year, seen on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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These 3D images are captured over time with scanners that send millions of laser pulses across the landscape.

“They reflect off every surface they come into contact with and create a perfect 3D model of the space,” Shaw said. The technicians repeated this process every day for a year.

The scans captured expanding cacti as they took in water and raised their arms higher toward the sky. They documented desert sands moved by humans and animals. The stones shook, the branches stirred, the cholla stirred, the weeds sprang up then withered and died.

Chalice from FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, in which cactus flowers are captured on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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A group of friends sit in the RAF Exhibition Gallery and watch FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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Chalice from FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, in which cactus flowers are captured on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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“I don’t think we could have ever imagined [the desert] would be teeming with as much life as we found it,” Shaw said.

These lidar scans have created billions of data points – which they call “digital dust” – that can be used by garden scientists for their conservation work.

“Because of the nature of this data-driven work of art and us being a data-driven institution, we now have incredible growth records that you would never get from going to the same site every day,” Best said.

What can come out of this information?

“In some ways it’s only limited by our imagination,” said Kim McCue, the garden’s vice president and director of research.

McCue once observed an agave, a rosette-shaped succulent, folding and unfolding its leaves as the days went by.

A pair of birds nest in a cactus April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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“(We had) no idea agaves would do this,” McCue said.

“The question is: Is there an adaptive purpose to this? By opening and closing the rosette, the leaves of the agave, does that protect them from the heat?” she added.

Ultimately, this data could lead to better conservation efforts – but it will likely take years to dig through the mass of information.

The RAF Exhibition Gallery hosts an immersive exhibit with multiple screens showing FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

Caitlin O’Hara for NPR

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Caitlin O’Hara for NPR

Visitors walk past Calyx from FRAMERATE: Desert Pulse, in which cactus flowers are captured on April 14, 2026 at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona.

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There is precedent for this: earlier artwork from ScanLAB Studios was used to produce a scientific article on coastal erosion in England, information which can be used to improve the protection of coastal infrastructure.

This fallen saguaro was a defining moment for those involved in the project. After it was toppled, lasers captured the fallen cactus over the next six months as it fed the surrounding wildlife and then shriveled into the desert landscape.

“One interesting thing about the laser is how it reflects off surfaces can represent…how much water is under the skin and things like that. So that could be really, really fascinating when it comes to this saguaro,” Shaw said.

These analyzes could provide valuable information to scientists trying to understand why the giants are succumbing in the desert and how to protect them.