Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  Florida International University

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  My research focuses on leaf functional traits, meaning the characteristics of plant leaves and what they can tell us about a plant's fitness or adaptation to an environment. I focus on how environmental variables such as increased salinity, and differences in soil nutrient availability affect the functional traits within a single species. My research question revolves around the theory of the Leaf Economic Spectrum, which suggests that species adapted to resource poor environments (low soil nutrients, high stress) have characteristics such as denser leaves, slower growth, and lower photosynthetic capacity, while species with higher resource availability (sufficient soil nutrients, lower stress) have thinner leaves, quicker growth, and higher photosynthetic capacity. I ask whether this theory applies within a single species. My work in the Florida Everglades focuses on red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle), a salt tolerant coastal species which can be found growing along coasts, and in recent decades has increased presence nearer to freshwater wetlands.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is the coolest thing you have discovered or learned about plants?

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

  Before I began learning to identify plants I tended to consider a lot of plants as just "weeds", especially if they were commonly found. Once I started learning plant names and was ultimately tasked with having to identify as many plants as I could within a 0.25 m^2 area within a prairie, I found a new sense of appreciation for these "weeds" each of which have a name! Every plant has a name, and plants that pop up on your lawn sure have the structure to survive and succeed in their growth even when we fight against them!

  
  
• 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):

  My decision to go into a science career probably occurred in middle school. I knew that I liked plants, but at that point I didn't know exactly which direction I would go with that. Initially, I had an interest in Agriscience, which stemmed from conversations with my parents as well as an Agriscience course taught at my middle school where we learned to grow our own seeds. Based on this, I decided to focus on Agriscience in a high school program, which led to a high school summer research internship with the Department of Agriculture. My positive experience in research led to my decision to apply to an Environmental Studies program with a focus in Agriscience in college. My college program led to multiple internship experiences in with plants and insects that were very interesting to me. My very last research experience as an undergraduate student led me to learn more about plant ecology in local landscapes, and ultimately led to my decision to become a graduate student focusing on plant Ecology,

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  What is a typical day like for you?

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

  A typical day can vary! Sometimes I have to wake up very early and drive over to a research site around 6:30 AM. I might hop on to an airboat, a helicopter, or put on some waders and walk into a wetland with the goal of collecting data on plant composition or to measure plant characteristics such as their height, diameter, or plant density. I might also collect some leaves. In the lab, I might dry any leaves I collected, grind them up in order to run some analyses on them such as to determine their nutrient content. Another day I might be at a computer, entering all of my field data, reading journal articles, making graphs, or planning a new field day with the help of some maps.

  
  
• Help represent the outreach efforts of your societies. Please click all those organizations you are a member of:

  (not set)

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

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

mhsfreemanposfall2023 project 6 Rosario Vidales Dec 2, 2023

Best wishes in your classes and happy holidays!

mhsfreemanposfall2023 project 6 Rosario Vidales Nov 29, 2023

Hello Caitlyn, Gavin, and Kylee,

I see you have updated your experiment conclusions! Very exciting.

I'm glad to hear that the phenol indicator did have some detectable changes in color. Since you added baking soda to your water solution,…

more

Hello Caitlyn, Gavin, and Kylee,

I see you have updated your experiment conclusions! Very exciting.

I'm glad to hear that the phenol indicator did have some detectable changes in color. Since you added baking soda to your water solution, I'm curious if the indicator in the negative control tube changed color to lighter yellow due to the decreased pH or did not change. Are these the results from the tubes in the light or the dark?

The color of the indicator in each test tube is your result, next, we'll link that to what we have learned throughout each experiment to answer your question about photosynthesis.

As you stated, the phenol indicator turning yellow indicates a decrease in pH. As we have learned previously one way a plant can decrease pH is though the output of CO2. This occurs during respiration. An increase in pH can occur during photosynthesis due to the presence of oxygen (which would result in a redder color).

Based on this knowledge, it seems the saltwater plant ended up with a lower pH, or more CO2 in the solution than the freshwater plant. This can mean two different things depending on how the tube without any plant (negative control) changed in color. If the negative control tubes with no plant turned yellow, this may mean the baking soda is what caused the color change rather than a plant process in the saltwater plant tube, while the shift to red orange in the freshwater plant tube is a sign of photosynthesis. If the negative control tubes had no color change, then a change to yellow in the saltwater plant tube may be due to respiration (which would be a bit odd, but may have some explanation), while the redder indicator in the freshwater plant suggests it underwent less respiration or more photosynthesis than the saltwater plant.

This might mean the saltwater plant underwent either no process or underwent respiration while the freshwater plant photosynthesized, again, it all depends on the negative control. Ideally we would repeat the test to make sure of our results. Your results suggest that there is a difference between the saltwater and freshwater plant in relation to photosynthesis! Very cool!

Personally, I would expect the tubes with plants in the dark to have all turned yellow due to the lack of light which would result in the plants undergoing respiration. Was this the case?

If you have any questions please let me know! I have learned a lot along with you all throughout these different experiments, and hope that you now feel a bit more familiar with plants. 

mhsfreemanposfall2023 project 6 Rosario Vidales Nov 28, 2023

Hello Caitlyn, Gavin, and Kylee,

I just wanted to check in on how your experiment turned out. I'm curious to know which salt water plant you chose for the experiment since in my work I compare plants that grow in water of different…

more

Hello Caitlyn, Gavin, and Kylee,

I just wanted to check in on how your experiment turned out. I'm curious to know which salt water plant you chose for the experiment since in my work I compare plants that grow in water of different salinities!

What were your results? Were they as expected? Did you run into any issues? Even with tried and true methods, sometimes experiments don't turn out as expected. Typically, you can troubleshoot and learn about what may have caused these issues. Then you can approach the experiment again. I think your question was very interesting and am curious if there were any differences between the salt water plant and the freshwater plant or in relation to light presence or absence in your experiment?