Program Update!!

 

The view that my herbaceous species enjoy in my Tennessee field site!

It's been a little while since I've posted here, hasn't it! I think a little recap is more than appropriate, so here goes!

I was so excited to join Dr. Peterson's lab in late fall 2019 as referenced in my previous post, then...life happened. First of all, COVID. Rather than starting fieldwork as planned, I spent 2020 immersing myself in the literature and expanding my focus from just looking at wind disturbance to that of wind disturbance and salvage logging on herbaceous species. 

In 2021 I started fieldwork in earnest: a short-term (<5 years since disturbance) experimental (human-created) wind disturbance in Piedmont Georgia, a short-term hurricane and logging disturbance in coastal plain Georgia, and a long-term (>20 years since disturbance) thunderstorm and logging disturbance in coastal plain Tennessee. Due to logistical constraints, I was only able to visit the Georgia coastal plain site in 2021, but the other two sites I have been able to return to multiple years. The Georgia Piedmont site I visited in 2019, 2021, and 2022. The Tennessee coastal plain site I visited in 2021 and 2022, with plans to return later this year. Three years of data is much better than two years of data!

Between November 2021 and April 2022, I completed and passed my comprehensive exams (yay!) and now am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Department of Plant Biology. I'm currently (2023) writing up a chapter on the results from my two short-term sites, and anticipate writing up a chapter on my long-term site just as soon as I finish data collection this summer. 

It's been really fun to focus on writing lately, as the data comes into focus and I start to discover what the story of my dissertation will be. I've also been able to start sharing my work at different conferences! This past spring I presented the talk Moderate windthrow and salvage logging do not alter herbaceous diversity or composition in long-term study of Tennessee coastal plain forest at both the Association of Southeastern Biologists (Winston-Salem, NC) and the Workshop on the Diversity & Dynamics of Terrestrial Herbs in Forests (Virtual). 

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Grinning in the greenhouse!

Alongside my progression in research, I've also endeavored to gain experience in teaching! Highlights include teaching the introductory Principles of Plant Biology laboratory this past semester and the Plant Ecology laboratory for the past two fall semesters. 

Principles of Plant Biology is predominantly non-STEM major freshmen who are taking their one required science class. I have really enjoyed teaching using hands-on strategies about the wonders of photosynthesis, respiration, and transpiration.  Students visually measured the amounts of oxygen produced, oxygen consumed, and water transported, respectively. The "lightbulb" moments on their faces made all the work that goes into running a smooth lab totally worth it! It's been particularly enjoyable taking these students on their first tour of the UGA greenhouse and herbarium. Hearing shrieks of fear turn into shrieks of delight when I invite them to touch the mimosa plant is so cool, and seeing their creative minds at work when creating an herbarium tour video can't be beaten. 

Plant Ecology is an absolute blast! It's aimed at juniors and seniors. Our ultimate goal is to provide students with the opportunity to collect data out in the field, analyze it, and write up a research report of their finds. Along the way, they practice professional interpersonal skills, which can help them no matter what profession they end up in. We spend the first month of the semester teaching students skills in Microsoft Excel. After the first week of an "Intro to Excel" lab, we provide them maps with differently sized tree diameters. They collect tree diameter data from the maps, then run through a whole slew of calculations and analyses on Excel. My favorite part of this course section is answering student questions - helping them gain confidence with a program that many have never used before. We then spend the next three *glorious* weeks :D exploring a forest at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia. My major advisor has set up a 12-hectare forest dynamics plot out there, and each lab section collects data (tree ID and diameter) for one-half of a hectare. For many of my students, this is their first time at the botanical gardens, and it's so cool to see the joy on their faces as they learn to tell an American Hophornbeam apart from a Tulip Poplar. Then the rest of the semester is spent analyzing their botanical garden data using the same methods they practiced with the map data, writing it up, and presenting an oral presentation of their findings the last week of the semester. It's so satisfying seeing students grow in their understanding and confidence from beginning to end of the course. Plus, time outside is never time wasted!

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As Steve Irwin once said - 

"Come with me. Share it with me. Share my wildlife with me. Because humans want to save things that they love. My job, my mission, the reason I've been put on this planet is to save wildlife." (click for reference)

I think the same is true of plants, clean air, or anything else in the environment. I love helping others begin to understand the natural world around them, such as being able to identify the differences between poison ivy and Virginia creeper (a truly beautiful plant!). That understanding will lead to an appreciation of the natural world, such as how plants take in carbon dioxide and produce oxygen. This appreciation will lead people to care for the natural world, whether that looks like planting native species in their gardens, encouraging lawmakers to protect the habitat of plant species, or any number of different actions.  

But the first step to helping people care is helping people to understand, and that is where my passion lies. I am actively job searching for a position to begin in just as soon as I graduate with my Ph.D. in May 2024. I don't know where I'll end up yet, but I do know this much: I want to spend my days helping people understand the natural world around them. Seeing lightbulbs go off in people's heads and smiles on their faces as they connect with nature is what gets me out of bed. You don't need a Ph.D. to appreciate or care for - in the words of the Apollo 8 crew - "the good Earth" (click for reference).