Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Florida State University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  Like humans, animals can have personalities. Some animals might be more aggressive, bold, shy relative to others. My research looks at the personalities of insects. I am interested in figuring out how the personality of an insect influences interactions with plants (e.g., does a bolder individual damage a plant more?) and predators (e.g., is a bolder individual less likely to get eaten). I am also look at how the collective personalities within a population may influence interactions at larger scales (e.g., does a population with all bold individuals damage a field of plants more than an population with a mixture of bold and shy individuals?)

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 1 here (300 words):

  I really like Monarda fistulosa (beebalm). It grows in prairies, which I worked in for ~1 year post-college. It looks groovy, smells great, and it reminds me of my time in prairies.
  I am also a big fan of Cirsium pitcheri, because I spent a lot of time as an undergraduate studying it. Cirsium pitheri is a thistle that is endemic to the shorelines of the great lakes. There's a variety of threats that have reduced populations, putting the thistle on the federally-threatened list. As an undergrad, I studied how an invasive weevil (larinus planus) attacks Cirsium pitcheri.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  When and why did you decide to go into a science career?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):

  After graduating, I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do next. I really liked science, but if felt selfish going into a career where I wasn't directly helping people. I found myself at a family bbq once, and I remember telling a relative visiting from Mexico about my undergraduate research that looked at an invasive weevil. As a farmer, he was really interested in my research and started asking me many questions about common herbivores that he dealt daily. In that moment, I realized that my research was applicable to a wide variety of people, but that it was on me to go out and share it. I was also motivated by the idea of learning how to do science properly so that I could help out my relative in Mexico with his herbivore issue. After my conversation, I felt very sure that I wanted to pursue a career in ecology.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is best about being a scientist?

  
  
• Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):

  The best thing about being a scientist is that you get to wear many hats. There are days that I get to wear my thinking/curiosity hat, where I spend my day discussing research, reading papers, and thinking. Other days, I get to wear my explorer hat. On these days, I am in the lab or field looking for specific insects or figuring out how to run an experiment. I also get to wear a gardener, data analyst, and educator hat almost every week. Being a scientist means that you're doing different things every day, the job never gets boring!

  
  
• Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

science. Monica Paniagua Montoya Nov 9, 2022

I think the yellowing of leaves is called chlorosis, and it happens when plants don't have enough nutrients to make all the chlorophyll (the stuff that makes leaves green) that the leaf needs. There might have been a delay between adding…

more

I think the yellowing of leaves is called chlorosis, and it happens when plants don't have enough nutrients to make all the chlorophyll (the stuff that makes leaves green) that the leaf needs. There might have been a delay between adding the sodium hydroxide and change in the soil's pH. I think the sodium hydroxide is slowly (relative to the low pH treatments) taking all the nutrients as you suggested.

science. Monica Paniagua Montoya Nov 9, 2022

Great observations on the differences among the treatments. Have you all noticed any differences between the two species that you are growing-- radish vs, corn, right? 

science. Monica Paniagua Montoya Nov 2, 2022

Wow, how exciting to see that your plants are already growing! It's really interesting that the more basic solution (9) is growing faster than the control. Plants can sink into the soil. It could also be that the soil that you started out with…

more

Wow, how exciting to see that your plants are already growing! It's really interesting that the more basic solution (9) is growing faster than the control. Plants can sink into the soil. It could also be that the soil that you started out with or the solution. What did you do to the water increase the pH to 9?

It looks like your lower acidity treatments are drier (i.e., soil seems less wet). I'm assuming that you all took the picture right after watering them, any ideas why these lower pH treatments are drying out fast?