Project Background

As the frequency and severity of both large fire and severe drought events becomes more common across the western US, it becomes imperative to understand whether the forest trees of this region will acclimate to the changing environment, or experience widespread mortality that will devastate the human and ecological communities of this region. Repeated severe drought stress events can lead to increased vulnerability to drought and higher mortality during subsequent droughts, due to accumulation of damages in the water-transporting tissues of the plant. However, this response does not appear to occur uniformly across species; different tree species seem to experience different responses to repeated droughts.

This project aims to understand the effects of prior stress events (drought, heat, smoke) on tree seedling and mature forest response to a subsequent drought event, using a combination of field research in Utah and a climate-controlled growth chamber or greenhouse on-campus to reduce confounding variables. Seedlings of two different tree species (quaking aspen and subalpine fir) will be exposed to an initial stressor (either drought, heat, smoke, or no stress), allowed to re-acclimate to pre-stress conditions, and then exposed to a drought event. The goal of this experiment is to unravel the physiological factors that govern how trees respond to multiple stresses in series, and how responses to multiple stresses may vary by species.

Student Role

As a summer undergraduate researcher in the Anderegg Lab, you would primarily be working with PhD students and postdocs to collect weekly measurements on two species of tree seedlings in the growth chamber and greenhouse before, during, and after drought, heat, and smoke treatments. You would be taught techniques widely used in the field of plant ecophysiology, including measurements of stomatal conductance, water potential, and leaf chlorophyll fluorescence. We do not expect you to have prior experience in these specific methods. In addition to these weekly measurements, you would also have the opportunity to learn additional methods in plant physiology, join multi-day field research trips in the mountains of Colorado and Utah, and work with a large, collaborative lab with undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral researchers of all interests and research background.

Student Learning Outcomes and Benefits

Working with us in the Anderegg Lab will give the student the chance to gain research experience in a large, supportive lab group. Whether or not they eventually choose to pursue an academic or other research-based career, the student will gain many skills working in our lab that are broadly applicable - experience reading and discussing a scientific paper, designing an experiment with feasibly testable hypotheses, planning and troubleshooting experiments, general experience working in a research lab environment, basic data analysis techniques, framing research questions, and presentation skills. The student will have the chance to work with other highly motivated undergraduate students as well as graduate student and postdoctoral researchers with widely varied research interests and study areas.