Profile

• Time Zone

  Central

  
  
• Organization

  University of Texas - Austin

  
  
• Role

  Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  
  
• Research Interests (300 words)

  I am a graduate student studying plant responses to global change, as well as plant-pollinator interactions across time, space, and environmental gradients. I am interested broadly in plant and pollinator conservation, as well as making the field of ecology more accessible for all people.

  
  
• Profile Question 1

  What is your favorite plant? Why?

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

  My favorite plant is Tillandsia utriculata. It is a beautiful epiphytic bromeliad that is currently rare in Florida. It grew to be my favorite when I studied it for my undergraduate research.

  
  
• 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):

  I have always been interested in the environment and conservation, but didn't start to see myself as a scientist until college. I was fortunate to have many enthusiastic mentors who encouraged my passion for plant conservation, and who provided me research opportunities to grow as a scientist.

  
  
• Profile Question 3

  (not set)

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

  (not set)

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

  1

  
  

Recent Posts

vsnhsfrazerwosspring2024 project 1 Liliana Benitez Apr 24 at 11:36am

Hi team! Great job on your paper-- it is so interesting that you saw a consistent increase in height of your seedling based on the depth planted. From your report, I can see that you measured plant height from the depth of the seed to the tallest…

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Hi team! Great job on your paper-- it is so interesting that you saw a consistent increase in height of your seedling based on the depth planted. From your report, I can see that you measured plant height from the depth of the seed to the tallest point on the plant. I'm wondering what the height would be if you measured it from the soil surface. I think there is an interesting explanation for the results you found that we can find from Plant Physiology. Plant seedlings as they are germinating can sense light from the surface of the soil, and that can tell the plant to stop elongating the stem and start producing leaves. Therefore, your seedlings at deeper soil depths had to compensate for that distance to the soil surface, which is why they had a taller seed-to-leaf height. I recommend looking up etiolated seedlings to see examples of how seedlings respond to low-light environments (like below ground). 
Overall, great job! It was fun to read your report. 

vsnhsfrazerwosspring2024 project 1 Liliana Benitez Mar 28 at 10:37am

Thank you for sharing this! It is a little hard for me to understand what each column is-- I think maybe the headers for them got cut off

vsnhsfrazerwosspring2024 project 1 Liliana Benitez Mar 28 at 10:36am

Hi Ravjot!

Congrats on finishing data collection! For your paper I would revisit your hypotheses-- did your plants act in the way you expected? If not, why do you think this might be? Can you find any resources to help explain your findings?