Profile

• Time Zone

  Eastern

  
  
• Organization

  University of Minnesota

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  Plants are some of the most diverse organisms on Earth. My research seeks to understand where that diversity comes from, asking "How do new species form?". The formation of new species is known as speciation, but there are many factors that may affect speciation. In my lab, we investigate how plants interact with each other and with their environment, and how these interactions help prevent or cause speciation. For example, one important way that the environment can influence speciation in plants is through climate change. A recent example would be the last ice age. During this time, areas of the desert Southwestern United States were much cooler and more forested than they currently are. This allowed plants that live in forests to spread far and wide across a large area. Sort of like a super-highway for plants! After the ice age, these formerly forested areas in places such as Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico once again became deserts, ending the forest "highway". Without any forests crossing vast areas of desert, many plant species were suddenly isolated in small patches far from any of their relatives. Over time, evolution has shaped these plant and their relatives in different ways, ultimately leading to the formation of new species. In my research, we are concerned with how future climate change might also affect the distribution and abundance of plant species, and the potential impacts for the formation of new species.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

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

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

  Somehow, I always knew I wanted to work with living things. From the time I was a kid I was fascinated in everything that moved or grew outside. I guess I did not know that science could be a job until I was older. I distinctly remember watching Shark Week on Discovery Channel one year, perhaps when I was 9 or 10, and seeing the interviews with the marine biologists studying sharks and thinking to myself, "that could be me!". From then on I knew I wanted to be a scientist in some capacity.

  
  
• Profile Question 2

  Do you have advice for students about preparing for a science career?

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

  My main recommendation is to seek out any kind of science or research opportunity as soon as you have the chance, no matter what form. One reason is that it is always good to get your foot in the door to learn what science is all about. Plus, other opportunities may open up to you as a result of taking that first leap into science. The second main reason is that there are many ways to be a scientist. It may take time for you to learn whether you would be more comfortable in the lab or in the field, working with plants or animals, working for government/non-profit or in academia. There are many paths, and no one choice is best for everyone.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  Can you describe your attitude toward science when you were in high school?

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

  Though I knew I wanted to be a scientist in some capacity, I had very little sense of what that looked like or how to become one. The only scientists I knew were guys on TV doing something super cool and adventurous, or famous genius types that I could not relate to. Even after getting to college, I did not initially understand that there are thousands of scientists out there doing many amazing things that you do not see on TV or hear about in media. My takeaway is that even though the path may seem unclear, there is a lot more going on in science 'behind the scenes'. Looking back to high school, I don't think I would believe what I am doing now was possible for me. Yet, here I am, doing exciting research at a world-class institution!

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

  2

  
  

Recent Posts

hhsbembryfogbspring2024 project 7 Aidan Harrington Apr 16 at 11:08am

Oh no! It sounds like your plant did not have enough water, unfortunately. Even as a botanist myself I find it challenging to properly manage the water for different plants sometimes. One thing that is possible is that because your plant had gotten…

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Oh no! It sounds like your plant did not have enough water, unfortunately. Even as a botanist myself I find it challenging to properly manage the water for different plants sometimes. One thing that is possible is that because your plant had gotten so large, it needed more water than other plants.  

I am curious if you recorded the traits of the parental plants in the cross. For example, your plants were hairy and Lauryn's had purple stems, correct? Were there other differences that you noted? I encourage you to make predictions about the traits that will be present in the offspring based on the traits present in the parents. 

As for the plants which experienced heat/light damage from the sun, it is not surprising the leaves never fully 'healed'. Plants don't have the same biological tools that animals have, for example, you can heal a scrape or cut with no sign of it left behind, but a plant cannot really heal a leaf. The best a plant can do is plug the wound with proteins and other materials that stop water and nutrients from leaking out, much like how blood clots to form a scab. The undamaged part of the leaf can then go on to continue living and photosynthesizing. 

hhsbembryfogbspring2024 project 7 Aidan Harrington Mar 19 at 02:55pm

Well they do call them "fast plants" for a reason! 

Its good to hear that you are beginning to notice differences between your plants. An interesting thing to keep an eye on would be whether all of your plants display the same…

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Well they do call them "fast plants" for a reason! 

Its good to hear that you are beginning to notice differences between your plants. An interesting thing to keep an eye on would be whether all of your plants display the same traits, or whether there are differences (e.g. some individuals more purple or more hairy than others). On a similar note, you might notice differences between the plants that were affected by heat stress versus those that were not. 

I think it is interesting that a plant grew only in water. While plants get sugars (energy) from photosynthesis, they need to draw up nutrients from their environment using roots. For one of the experimental plants to grow only in water, my guess is that the water must have had enough of these nutrients in it for the plant to grow. How those nutrients got there is anyone's guess, perhaps a bit of soil was in there as you suggested.

You might also be interested to know that there are some plants that grow in the tropics which take up their nutrients from the air. Sometimes called "air plants", these plants capture dust and moisture that is in the air using their leaves, instead of with roots. The tradeoff with that strategy, however, is they grow very slowly. As you might be able to imagine, there is a whole lot less nutrients floating around in dust than there is in the soil. So it's probably safe to say that the fast-growing plants in your experiment are not "air plants".

Looking forward to further updates! 

hhsbembryfogbspring2024 project 7 Aidan Harrington Feb 29 at 02:13pm

Hi Abdoulie, this is a great question.

I am glad you were able to sort out the problems afflicting your plants. I would encourage you to keep track of (if you have not already) which plants were affected by the heat. This might be important later…

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Hi Abdoulie, this is a great question.

I am glad you were able to sort out the problems afflicting your plants. I would encourage you to keep track of (if you have not already) which plants were affected by the heat. This might be important later and you might consider how it could influence your results. 

As far as your question is concerned, I think it would be best to leave the plants in the box with the growth light setup if possible. The main reason is that 24 hour lighting will lead to faster growth as well as keeping a more consistent lighting environment across individual plants. If you place the plants in the window, it is likely some individuals will get more light than others. Clouds and the position of the sun relative to the window will also add additional uncontrolled variation.

Remember that one point of this experiment is to see how genotypes interact with the environment to influence traits. In order to best do this, you need to control the environment within and across treatments as much as reasonably possible. If your data is being combined with that of other groups, it is even more important that you grow your plants in the same way as those other groups. 

To illustrate this, imagine a scenario where you are growing plants in a high and low nutrient environment. However, because of their position in the experimental garden, the plants in the low nutrient treatment get more light than the plants in the high nutrient treatment. At the end of the experiment, you find that the plants in the two different treatments ended up growing the same amount. With this finding, you conclude that nutrients had no effect on growth. But is this conclusion justified, based on the unequal lighting that the two treatments received?