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My name is Nicole A. Gutierrez-Ramos, and I am the current plant physiology technician at TRACE. Today I will be taking over to talk a bit about me, career paths, plant physiology data collection and working in a tropical rainforest. Feel free to make some questions here. 1/n
Follow us on Instagram and Facebook ( @forestwarming) for more detailed information on our work at TRACE. 2/n
About me: I am from Cataño, Puerto Rico. I went to the public school here, did a bachelor’s degree and a master's in Biology/Ecology. During this time, I did research with avian malaria in one resident bird species of Puerto Rico. You may ask: why plant physiology? 3/n
A course on biogeochemistry got me really curious about these processes. Also, the opportunity to do in-situ research about warming on tropical forests, particularly in El Yunque. Most importantly, it was the opportunity to learn new things every day. 4/n
I've learned so much during my time at TRACE. Thanks to the incredible members of the team (they will take over on these accounts in the upcoming weeks, stay tuned!) and the PI's of the project @Tana_TropicsGal, @MollyCavaleri and @ecology_awesome
As the plant physiology technician, I have the task of collecting data in three major components of the project:
1) Photosynthesis campaign
2) Thermotolerance campaign
3) Ingrowth cores campaign
I also assist in collecting data for other areas of the project. 6/n
1) Photosynthesis campaign
2) Thermotolerance campaign
3) Ingrowth cores campaign
I also assist in collecting data for other areas of the project. 6/n
I will get into more details about what I do in these campaigns. You can also go to http://www.forestwarming.org where we have details on everything around the project including research, infrastructure, equipment, publications and more.
A question from Instagram: What is my favorite plant at TRACE?
Yagrumo
𝘊𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢
Yagrumo
𝘊𝘦𝘤𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘪𝘢 𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘣𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘯𝘢
Photosynthesis campaign: We use the LI-6800 from @LICOR_ENV to take gas-exchange measurements from the plants at the plots. We want to see how warming changes different areas in the photosynthetic process. We do this campaign twice a year.
We divide it in light-response curves (LRC), temperature-response curves (TRC), dark respiration (RTRC) and A-Ci measurements.
Something that I always have during field measurements in the tropical rainforest?
A shower curtain. We don't take measurements in the rain, but sometimes it comes unexpectedly.
A shower curtain. We don't take measurements in the rain, but sometimes it comes unexpectedly.
Short video by @IanaGrPe of me putting a leaf in the LI-6800 to start taking measurements. We previously tag the leaves that we will use in the campaign. The pink tag (on the video) makes its easier to find at night under red light.
Dark respiration as the name states has to be done at night. We take these measurements from 8 pm to 3 am. At night, you can see lizards sleeping in the leaves, coquís and maybe a Puerto Rican boa moving from one tree to the other.
Thermotolerance campaign: We do this to determine how photosynthetic performance declines with increasing temperature. This campaign is also done twice a year and we do it early in the morning. Here is the link to a recent post about this component: https://twitter.com/ForestWarming/status/1339955999927623680?s=20
After collecting the leaves, we process them in a dark room under red light. Leaf disks are put into water baths at different temperatures for 30 minutes. Here is a short video of how the system looks under red light. We use sous vides to change and maintain temperatures.
Ingrowth core campaigns: I collect the root-specific respiration data. We use a tabletop infrared-gas analyzer to measure at three different temperatures. This campaign is important to understand belowground processes and how they change under warmer conditions.
What happens after collecting the data? It gets published!
Here is a publication by @kelseyrcarter et al. about what occurs to physiological processes in tropical forests under warmer conditions https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.576320/full
Here is a publication by @kelseyrcarter et al. about what occurs to physiological processes in tropical forests under warmer conditions https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/ffgc.2020.576320/full
This concludes my take over of the social media accounts at TRACE. I had a great time posting about the work that I do. Feel free to send us more questions and I'll be more than happy to answer them in the upcoming days. Have a great weekend!
