California Road Trip

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Hello!

I mentioned to a few people I would write a Blog over this summer about my research position and the travel involved. Naturally, I am late writing the first post, hopefully it won't be a trend! I plan to write once a week and hope you find it interesting.

First a little background:

During my final semester at Mills a few months ago, my professor and mentor/role model Dr. Sarah Swope informed me that she and a collaborator at the University of Arizona, Dr. Katrina Dlugosch received a grant to do research on Centaurea solstitialis, commonly known as Yellow Star Thistle (YST from here on). This plant is extremely invasive in the western US and is a problem both for agriculture and in wild land areas. Sarah informed me there was a summer position for someone of my education level in the grant, and that if I wanted the job it was mine. So here I am in Tucson Arizona! The research is focusing on the genetic basis for the invasiveness of YST and comparisons of the microbial communities growing on the plants in the US where it is invasive, and in Europe, where it is native. What this means for me is that I just finished a road trip through California collecting samples, and will be leaving on Wednesday to do similar collections in France and Spain!

The road trip:

This Friday night I arrived back in Tucson after 9 days of sampling and driving all over California. In total we drove about 3,000 miles and we sampled 7 sites total, one every day other than the first and last. Greg, my boyfriend, who has quite a bit of experience working in invasive plant ecology came along and I realize now I truly could not have done it alone. Sampling at the site was more time intensive than originally expected, taking somewhere between four and five hours a site (with Greg's help!), and then there was an additional two and a half hours of processing to be done at night in the hotel. This meant I had a lot of late nights and early mornings, but it was very worth it. I have I new respect for the state in which I was born and raised and its incredible diversity, both cultural and ecological. I visited areas of California I have never seen and realize there is so much more I may never see. We traveled from sweltering, cactus dominated desert, through rolling oak studded hills and steep river gouged scrubland, and up into the evergreen forests of the Sierras. We ate at taco trucks, natural foods markets, a hidden thai gem, and even the occasional in-and-out (mostly for the milkshakes). We are also now Best Western and Holiday Inn experts and can tell from miles away the nice ones from the ones better to skip over. Even with our packed schedules we had a blast, listening both to J-Cole and Drake's new albums as well as many episodes of This American Life. I learned from small store owners and gas station attendants about the state of Jefferson how to "successfully gamble" (I remain unconvinced). In terms of the research itself, I have learned heaps about sterile microbial community collection, something only two weeks ago I could only guess at. We also managed to snap a few pictures of some gorgeous Clarkia species, of which I think almost all must be blooming given the pink hue of almost all the smaller highway roadsides we passed, and some other delightful plants and views:

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Comments

[Mom]

Great Blog!
Well I've forwarded this to 6 or so peeps - I'm sure there are probably more that I will think of later. State of Jefferson and successful gamble ?? Take good care my lovely daughter. I am so excited and happy for you! Love mom

[John Cornacchia]

Great Entry and Photos
Keep the blog comin. You hit the Sierras during wildflower season....nice. I imagine writing the blog entries every night after 12 hours of sampling and processing would have been a bit much. Sooooo please post your France/Spain wildflower shots and locations....I wanna go too!!!!!!!