Have to love what you do.

Friday we did a pre-dawn at Lucky Hills/Walnut Gulch, which means we got out to our work site at 4:30am in order to take measurements on water potential in the plants before sunrise (i.e. we had 30 minutes to do 15 measurements). Erin and I did a few measurements and then realized the N2 was leaking really bad, so we switched the casing on the plant, in hopes the smaller casing would have less leakage. It worked, but we lost a significant amount of time on it. Russ and Eric said today they didn't think it would affect the numbers very much, but we are doing another pre-dawn at a different site (Santa Rita) this week and then next week are attempting Lucky Hills again to see if anything changed since the first rainfall. Pre-dawns aren't too bad, it definitely messes with your sleep schedule, but the actual measurements are kind of interesting so I can't complain and once a week isn't so bad. We did however also have to take leaf area measures and count stems and clip samples to take back to the lab. Once the sun rose we put on 5 sensors on the tar bush and got resistance ratings. I'm sure we would not have made it out there if there hadn't been 3 people as 30minutes is a lot to accomplish pre-dawns and sampling.

Today we spent time measuring leaf area on the samples we clipped Friday using another LI-COR insturment. The only tricky part was that the tar bush and creosote bush have leaves that were sticky and thus sticked to themselves and the conveyor belt of the insturment. Letting them air dry a bit made the whole process a little better. We did not measure any leaves from white thorn acacia since it had none.

Another thing Erin and I both noticed today was how much the people who work at ARS seem to dislike their job. Maybe it was just something in the air today, but many people were talking about how they can't wait to move out onto the next best thing. It's kind of scary how many people end up in jobs they hate and the most common reason seems to be for the money, especially in today's economy. I think that its important to like what you do at work since you spend so much time on it. Of course it also helps to like the people you work with, but as I have seen first hand with the Penn State Vegetation Management that doesn't necessarily equate to being happy in the workplace and often that lack of happiness is brought home to the personal life. I sincerely hope that I never have to be in a job I hate...

Sap Flow Installation and Walnut Gulch

Tuesday we went out to the Santa Rita experimental range land to install the sap flow sensors that we made in the lab. It was tedious work, as you have to wrap a small 10 meter wire (without overlaps or gaps) around the mesquite trees (which have thorns). Once the units were on the trees we took the stem diameter and wrapped the units in bubble wrap and tin foil so no bugs or moisture could ruin the sensor. In the end they look like a bunch of tacos in the trees.

Wednesday we went back out to check and see how many of the sensors were working properly. Out of the 15 we put up, only 2 were not working. We will be taking those down next week and replacing them. However, still more may not work because we can't tell if they are getting a reading until it rains, hopefully sometime this week. But hey 2/15 ain't bad.

We also visited the Walnut Gulch site where Melissa had done some of her master's work so the sensors were already on the shrubs. We did pick another species of shurb (tar bush) so we removed 5 sensors from the white thorn acacia and creosote bush. Ultimately we will have 5 on each of the 3 species.

On Friday we will be measuring pre-dawn water potential (i.e. 3am) and putting on the sensors for the tar bush at Walnut Gulch. I'm not looking forward to having my sleep schedule messed up, but in the name of science....

Field Work

Today was our first day in the field. We visited a mesquite forest and studied 5 types of vegetation cover (with grasses and completely without). At each plot we took readings of evapotranspiration using a tent contraption made of PVC pipe and lining. After a reading was taken for photosynthesis, a solar blanket was placed on the top of the tent to get a reading of respiration. These measurements were then followed by two more procedures to measure evapotranspiration.

Needless to say it was a long day. We spent 5 hours doing field work (plus two hours of driving) and then went back to ARS and looked at some of the data that was collected. I'm excited to get to start analyzing the data tomorrow using Excel. For now, its the only familiar territory I have until I become better at using the equipment.

First day of Research

Today Erin and I went to meet Russ and the team we will be working with for the summer. We will be working with two other employees of ARS (Agricultural Research Service): Michelle and Erik.

Michelle just received her Master's from the U of A and decided to stick around for the rest of the summer. She did her work on plant respiration using sap flow as her main indicator. The project we will be doing this summer is very similar to her Master's work. We will be studying two sites, a mesquite savanna and a shrub land and measuring the sap flow (both horizontally and vertically). The idea behind this is that the sap is composed mostly of water thus knowing the movement of the sap allows us to determine transpiration from the plant.

Erik comes with 8 years of experience teaching at Rutgers, and decided to move out to Arizona to join the ARS team. He studies gas exchange on an individual plot scale (i.e. small scale). We spent far less time with Erik so I don't know as much about the work we will be doing with him, but I will say he kind of reminds me of the professor from "Back to the Future" in the way he thinks, so I'm kind of looking forward to that.

Today Michelle, Erin, and I worked on prepping the sensors for the field, i.e. a lot of repetition. Essentially, we had to strip small wires, twist the wires together, and then solder them. Once the wires were ready, we attached them to a piece of foam that will be wrapped around the base of the plant and three wires will be connected to the plant (one to the stem, one to the root, and one horizontal with the system we created on the foam). This is what we will use to measure transpiration.

Tomorrow will be very similar to today (i.e. more prep work), but we will be out in the field on Thursday. Right now the goal is to be in the field 1 day a week, at ARS 2-3 days a week, and working on a project(s) at the Biosphere 2 the rest of the time. We are also hoping to meet Dr. Huxman later this week, but I have a feeling it might be put off till early next week.

Also, I keep hearing about this elusive Arizona monsoon...so I'm definitely looking forward to actually seeing that. Apparently there are some really spectacular thunderstorms that come in the area.

Welcome to Tucson!

So I officially made it to Tuscon after 10 days of traveling with my brother to see some of the "classic" sites of America. We visited Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, Yosemite, the Badlands, as well as 3 relatively close friends along the way- not to shabby for starting out in Newark, Delaware and taking 10 days!

This is definitely the farthest West I have ever been (besides for our stop in Berkeley, CA) and there are a few things I noticed about Tucson, Arizona right away. First, the change in weather/climate and thus the vegetation and landscape. So far the locals tell me it has been a "mild" June, as it has yet to hit triple digits. I can't say I'm looking forward to that even if it is a "dry heat." The sun also stays out for most of the day, however when it set it sets quickly and soon after everything is pitch dark.

Besides the obvious cacti and brown landscapes, the other thing that struck me about Tucson is the amount of people biking. It seems like for every 1 person walking there is at least 5 people biking. I can see why Tucson is considered one of the most bike-friendly places in America. Though it is definitely "construction time" and a lot of the main roads have detours and orange signs.

I start research with Dr. Russ Scott and Dr. Travis Huxman on Tuesday. There is one other undergraduate working with them, her name is Erin. I have yet to meet her, but will be meeting up with her and Dr. Jim Washburne, the Director of SAHRA, on Sunday at the Biosphere 2. So for now I'm just waiting and taking in the community. I guess you could say the calm before the storm....