Planting Science - Members: View: Jeffrey Lauder
You are here: Home / Members / Jeffrey Lauder / Profile

Jeffrey Lauder

Profile

  • Time Zone
    Pacific

  • Organization
    University of California - Merced

  • Role
    Scientist Mentor: I will mentor teams of students online

  • Research Interests (300 words)
    My current research focuses on drought resilience and tolerance mechanisms in conifers. I examine physiological response to climate stress within individual trees, and how these responses relate to and interact with between-tree variables such as competition and reproductive success. I am conducting this research using dendrochronology, or tree rings. This research has a goal of spanning from the cell to the ecosystem, by incorporating within-tree cellular responses to stress into whole-forest models of range shifts under climate change.

    My past research has focused on general ecosystem ecology including both terrestrial and aquatic systems. This includes studies on forest structure and how disturbance begets diversity in tropical forest systems in Papua New Guinea, how salmon habitat restoration projects in the Sierra Nevada mountains influence whole-ecosystem health, and the role of local adaptation in phytoremediation (extraction of contaminants by green plants) of metals.

  • 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):
    Plants can consist of multiple cells that are all genetically distinct. This means one branch of a tree may be unrelated to a branch on the other side of the tree. This is due to somatic mutation, when non-reproductive cells mutate during the differentiation process, leading to isolated mutations all on the same individual plant.

  • Profile Question 2
    What is best about being a scientist?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 2 here (300 words):
    My job is to say "I don't know". People misinterpret science and the role of scientists often, and think that scientists simply "know things". In fact, my favorite part of my job is being asked a question I don't know the answer to, and getting to say "let's find out". Science is not the act of proving things; that is the realm of mathematics. Science is the accumulation of evidence against null hypotheses. That simple premise, and the idea that "why" can still be a valid question, is what drives me to be a scientist.

  • Profile Question 3
    What is a typical day like for you?

  • Answer the question you selected for profile question 3 here (300 words):
    My days are split between coursework and the lab during the fall, and are often spent in the field in the late spring and summer. Field days for me consist of waking up wherever I am sampling (in a cabin or tent) and hiking to a field site, laying out transects and plot boundaries, measuring tree after tree (literally hugging trees), identifying them, and coring some individuals. My lab days are primarily spent preparing and measuring tree cores. To do this I sand them, scan them, and use machine-learning-based programs to mark tree ring boundaries before measuring distances between them. I then put the cores under the microscope to zoom in and take pictures of cellular anatomy for measurement. The end of each day is then usually spent briefly writing notes on the day's work, working on papers or grant proposals, or analyzing data.

  • Availability
    I am NOT available, please temporarily remove me from the available mentor list

  • In addition to English, I am comfortable communicating with students in the following languages:
    None of the Above

  • Capacity: How many teams at a time are you comfortable working with?
    2

Recent Posts

Nothing Jeffrey Lauder

Hey guys sorry for the delay! I have indeed been very busy. I have been out of town and am actually heading out of town again tomorrow to go give a seminar about how trees die!

I agree with Ruby's comments/suggestions/questions. Maybe the…

more
Nothing Jeffrey Lauder

Hi Ryan, Micah, and Fletcher. I, too, like all of those things. Gearing up for snowboarding season has me excited. But, being in California, I'll have to hope we get a big winter after a few years of extreme drought. We had a good one last year,…

more
Nothing Jeffrey Lauder

Hi Ryan, Micah, and Fletcher. I, too, like all of those things. Gearing up for snowboarding season has me excited. But, being in California, I'll have to hope we get a big winter after a few years of extreme drought. We had a good one last year,…

more

Skills & Endorsements

  • No skills have been endorsed yet.

LogoWithTags.png

f_logo_RGB-Black_72.png 2021_Twitter_logo_-_black.png icons8-mail-30.png

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

GET INVOLVED AS A TEACHER  *   GET INVOLVED AS A SCIENTIST MENTOR

SUPPORT US!   *   TERMS OF USE

NSF_Logo.jpg This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant #2010556 and #1502892. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Copyright © 2022 PlantingScience -- Powered by HUBzero®, a Purdue project