Last Week

It's been a busy time here! On Monday, I visited the landscape architecture department here at the U of A. I met with the director and a collaborator with the green roof project. I felt extremely welcomed and was impressed by their projects and the department's strong environmental mission. In every class, they stress more sustainable practices and water-conserving techniques (but they kind of have to here). It seems like they have a strong program, and many graduates have found good jobs. I really liked the feel of the department and the faculty-just the arid climate that I'm uncertain about. But graduate school is temporary at the same time.

Some pics from the department

     On Tuesday, I joined Fiona for a full day a field work. It gave me time to get out of Biosphere and lend a hand. It was enjoyable to work with her and Luzia, a PhD student, but we were out in the middle of desert, and the heat made the work very uncomfortable. Fiona's project deals with looking at infiltration rates near a certain type of desert bush. On Wednesday-Friday, I worked with the green roofs. On one of the days, Mitch and I were filmed. He was first interviewed and then the camera crews filmed me taking measurements and talking to him. Sometime in August, I'll get a chance to see what they made it into. It's nothing big-just some university clip on current research. The week did start getting very hectic when Mitch and I realized that an abstract for the Sustainable Water Management Conference was due that Friday, the 24th. I mentioned that the abstract was due the next day, and we got to work immediately. He sent me over some of his old abstracts, and I was able to reword some of his things and add my own twist to create my abstract. He edited the abstract for me on Thursday night, and I was ready to send it out Friday. We'll have to wait and see if my abstract is accepted. It will be in Portland, OR during March 18th-21st.

One thing exciting did happen when I was taking measurements. The green roof experimental plots are at the back of the Biosphere and near a small paved road. I saw something out of the corner of my eye, looked up, and saw a bobcat crossing the street heading from the Biosphere to the desert. I walked near it with my camera and got some nice shots. Poor thing-it looked hungry, thirsty, tired, and skinny.

Big Cat at the Biosphere

 

 Biosphere Deer-they are everywhere!

   On Friday, we drove in Tuscon to check out the Dia de San Juan festival. It was a small festival, but we were able to listen to a mariachi band and try some Mexican pastries. I tried this one that was wrapped in a flour-tortilla-like thing that was doused with Cinnamon and filled with a pudding or like Bavarian cream filling. So good! It didn't cross my mind to take a picture..I was just so ready to eat it! On Saturday, we went to a graduate school symposium from 8am-noon. It was informative but painfully early! During the first session, a panel of graduate students spoke about the demands of research projects, and then someone spoke about funding for graduate research. Next, we were joined by a couple of faculty members, and they answered our questions about applying to graduate school and what they expect from grad students. The whole thing was worthwhile and really made me realize that I need to really know for sure what I want to do before delving into a graduate program. It's much more of a time commitment and investment. I'm thinking more and more about taking a year to work if I'm undecided but will probably still apply to grad programs and differ. Who knows? I might have a decision in 6 months, have some funding/assistance, and feel ready to go. Always good to have options.

Off to more green roof data this week and hopefully a trip to San Diego for the 4th of July! More to come about that :)

Saturday's visit to the Desert Museum

   I went to a fantastic zoo, botanical garden, and museum just out of Tuscon called the Desert Museum. The group and I rode through Gates Pass, an exciting, windy, and hilly road that hugs the side of a very steep sloping hill. At, some times, the hills were short and sudden so it felt like a roller coaster. It's hard to tell from the pictures, but we had lots of hairpin turns and stayed to the left to avoid going over the cliff!


Pictures from the scenic overlook at Gate's Pass.

The treacherous part of the road is located at the craggy hill that is in the middle of the picture.

 

    We made it at the Desert Museum at 5:00pm for the special Saturday night "The Desert comes alive" special. We started by touring the museum with the reptile and amphibian exhibits and explored their man-made cave. I got to try out a very large pair of bat ears!



   And checkout some fascinating crystals that can all be found in Arizona! Mom would have loved this place because after the crystal exhibit, they have an area of "mine waste". You can spend time picking through the rocks to find some with crystals and neat colors. Don't worry, I grabbed a few.

After touring the indoor exhibits, I toured the trails of the desert and checked out the animals. I saw a coyote, mountain lion, ocelot, bear, bobcat, fox, javelinas, ground hogs, a screech owl, and a wolf.

You can always count on a beautiful sunset out here

We stayed until 9:30 to listen to an enthobotany lecture all about edible native plants. After that we headed to Lindy's on 4th, a small restaurant known for its burgers and was featured on the Man vs. Food tv show. We didn't eat one of the challenge burgers, but we had some delicious unique burgers. Mine was called the Hawaiian. It had swiss cheese, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, onion, lettuce and tomato. Delicious!

Week 2-Green Roof Data

   It's been a great week! I got started with taking green roof data and talking to tours. I go out at 8:45, 12:30, and 4:30 to take soil moisture and temperature readings. While I'm collecting data, I talk to the tours that come by every 45 minutes. This is the first green roof experiment in the Southwest so I stress the importance of this research and the benefits of green roofs in the Southwest. I tend to talk to them for about 5 minutes and then leave time for questions. Many tourists have stayed to take a look at the plants and help me take soil moisture and temperature readings. It's been a lot of fun talking to them..it's a little nerve-racking when the tour guide hands me a microphone, but I get over it and have been doing pretty well.

Tools-Pen, Clipboard, Cellphone (to record time), Hydrosense soil moisture-reading device, and four digital thermometers

 New, promising growth on a Red Yucca

    The green roofs were constructed in October and will be used for this experiment for the next two years. There are three plant species being tested for compatibility: Dyssodia pentachaeta (Dogwood) Calliandra eriophylla (Fairy Duster), and Hesperaloe parviflora (Red Yucca). We have 36 of these extensive (6-8 inches of media) green roofs along with three roofs with traditional shingles and three roofs with white, reflective paint based with titanium. When you touch the roofs with the traditional shingles and compare it to the ones with the white paint, you can feel a huge temperature difference-the white-painted roofs are much cooler. While the white paint keeps the heat gain down, the paint is believed to be toxic, and as rainfall runs off roofs, the rain can accumulate paint residues and carry toxins off the roofs and into the environment. Inside each of the small houses, we have temperature-reading sensors that send data to a computer, and with that data, we can compare the temperatures of the three different types of roofs and can tell if the extensive green roofs are actually leading to decreased temperatures inside buildings-the most important benefit for the SW region.

  On Monday, I was getting used to taking the data, and it took me almost four hours to collect all the data on a single visit! I ended up getting my hands on three more thermometers so I can set them in place and collect data a lot quicker. Now, I have it down to about 1.25 hours to collect all the numbers on a single visit (and I visit them 3x a day).  I have to visit the 36 roofs and take temp and soil moisture readings at four different spots...so that's 36x4x2 data points. Since I go out at three different times of the day, I get lots of sun exposure. I go out with a long-sleeved undershirt, sunglasses, and a wide-brimmed hat and I apply sunscreen at three different times throughout the day. So far, I haven't had any sunburns, but my legs are starting to tan. The weather has been hot, but on some days, it can be really windy. On Tuesday, we had our first show of clouds since I've been here.

We've had really beautiful views of the full moon

And saw a Gila Monster crawl by our casita

Today, instead of taking soil moisture and temp readings, I went to campus to help Sarah, one of Dr. P's lab technicians. She went to Columbia University for her undergrad and is now heading to UC, Monterrey to study the vascular system of kelp (marine biology). I helped her with some nitrogen extractions. Basically, investigators find locations of "washes", dried riverbeds in the city, and flush small areas of them with water. With the sudden influx of water, the soil microbes are quick to respond. So, Dr. P is interested in how the microbes respond to the influx of water with respect to nitrogen cycling. With the increase in water, then do the microbes take up more nitrogen? In order to answer this question, the investigators add a tracer, isotropic nitrogen (N15), and then will analyze if/how the microbes are using the nitrogen by looking for the tracer while extracting nitrogen. The soil samples are put in Erlenmeyer flasks and placed in an air-tight containers. In the middle of the container, a flask of chloroform is placed. The container is then vacuumed, and the chloroform starts to evaporate and bubble a bit. When the soil microbes are exposed to chloroform, their cells burst, essentially making their carbon and nitrogen available for lab analysis, specifically nitrogen extractions. This whole process is called fumigation.

Nice part of campus

  Since Sarah is a lab tech, she is left with a lot of sample processing. She receives the samples, prepares and weighs them, adds chemicals, fumigates then, puts them in a shaker, strains them, and then stores the extracted nitrogen in sample cups.They are then frozen until they are sent to a lab for chemical analysis where we will found out the exact concentration of nitrogen.

      Today, my job was to help Sarah with all the steps. I weighed samples, cleaned glassware, prepared funnels, and strained the samples. This is typical lab work. It can be tedious at times, but it's very simple and very repetitive. From my experiences in Silvia's and John's lab and now this lab, I don't think my passion lies in lab work, and I don't know if it's ideal work environment. If I'm going to be working with chemicals and stuck in a lab, I might as well be working towards the next life-saving drug. Soil ecology is important too, I guess, but the work is very repetitive, and I don't see myself getting a lot out of it. Who knows? I might start to like lab work once I start my own project and move away from solely assisting others with their projects. Also, I didn't ask what the whole purpose this experiment was, and if I knew what it was, I probably would have thought I was doing something of some importance. We'll see, but that's what this internship and experiences are all about, figuring out what you like and things you just can't stand. On Monday, I'm meeting with some faculty of the landscape architecture department to tour their department and talk to them about my interests. Dr. P introduced me to Dr. Livingston who is a member of the landscape architecture (LA) department. She has her Masters in LA and a Ph.D in natural resources conservation. She seems to be interested in water conservation through landscape design and the use of native plants in landscapes. She'll be great to talk to since her background is similar to something I think that I'd like to pursue.

    I'm going to continue taking readings from the green roofs on an every-other day basis, and next week on Wednesday, Dr. P and I are going to sit down and come up with a plan for my project. I'll be using the existing green roofs and probably start taking a new data set from them. So maybe, I'll measure plant growth or soil respiration. I have some journal articles to go through, and those may give me some ideas. I met with Dr. P for a short time today, and he showed me a pamphlet on the 2012 Sustainable Water Management Conference. He suggested that I submit an abstract of my project to present at this conference. Hopefully, I'll have an idea of my project's purpose and question by this time next week so I can start writing up an abstract. This conference is from March 18th-21st in Portland Oregon. So, I'm hoping to go to San Fran from Dec 5-9 for the American Geophysical Union conference and now this one! That's one great thing about research is the funding and travel to conferences!

   But all in all, I'm having a great time. The people are really nice and I'm really getting to know the other interns. Most of them are undecided like me and really want to find out their ideal field/type of work. It's nice to know that others are working to discover that as well and it's not just me over-thinking my future.



Hey Padre, you we're right, I'm just hugging trees this summer  J/K