Za nneLab
seeing the forest for the trees
| Welcome to the Zanne Lab! | |
| Fall 2012 |
The lab has recently moved to George Washington University, in the heart of Washington, DC. |
We are enjoying our new location in the nation’s capitol. Here’s the lab outside the White House!
The lab had a very busy summer. We completed the year 3 harvest for the wood decay project, collecting samples from 24 species of plants at 8 sites to measure mass loss, nutrient content, and fungal community structure and function. We also finished the first coarse woody debris survey in the 4 ha Forest Ecology Dynamics Plot, managed by Jonathan Myers. We can’t wait to see how all this wood rots! Additionally, the lab team has been monitoring mass loss of different plant tissues and carbon respiration in microcosm experiments. The field season was helped tremendously by 2 new lab members, Amy Milo, who joins us for a PhD, and Darcy Young, who joins us as a technician. We even had a visit this summer from Mariya Shcheglovitova, who also joins us as a technician. Welcome to all of the new recruits! Additionally, Kevin and Maranda were instrumental in making the summer a success. In other news, Amy and Brad went to another Tempo and Mode of Plant Trait Evolution working groups at NESCent in May. Elvis has been doing fieldwork on carbon storage in peatlands in Peru for the summer and will return to UMSL to complete his MS degree. Brad presented on the lab research on vessel lengths, mortality and decay at the ESA meetings in Portland. Oyomoare has been monitoring carbon respiration in microcosms and determining fine scale anatomy of wood from plants from Panama and Missouri. Nikki Benjamin is helping Oyomoare with the anatomy work. Jeremy spent the summer at the zoo after a spring of monitoring carbon respiration in the microcosm experiments. He returns to UMSL for his senior year. Kevin graduated with his bachelors from UMSL this spring and traveled around Europe before lending a hand with fieldwork. Juan has begun a PhD program at Ohio University and Maranda is finishing prepping the leaf and fine branch decay project while she plans her wedding in Hawaii. We will miss all of you! Amy and Brad will travel to Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at the University of Western Sydney in Australia this fall on an IRIS fellowship to start up the new wood decay projects in collaboration with Jeff Powell, Brendan Choat, and Peter Reich. |
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| Spring 2012 | If 2011 is any indicator, 2012 is going to be another busy, successful year! Vania successfully defended her M.S. thesis. She will be starting her PhD shortly with Dr. Honnay in Belgium. Former tech Andy has joined the M.S. program at UMSL in biology. He, Andrew, and Juan are waiting to hear from Ph.D. programs. Amy received a fellowship from University of Western Sydney for 2012-2013 under the International Research Initiatives Scheme. She and Brad will be working with Brendan Choat, Peter Reich and Jeff Powell at the UWS HIE to look at fungal wood decay. Amy had two trips to the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in the fall. She co-lead the third Tempo and Mode of Plant Trait Evolution working group with Will Cornwell and Stephen Smith. She returned to NESCent to develop learning activities related to the Global wood density and vessel anatomy databases with DryadLab. She worked with Elena Feinstein (NESCent) and Jean DeSaix (UNC). Brad is on the road again with trips planned to work on multilevel models with Kiona Ogle at ASU and Forest Survey techniques and data with Forest Service Collaborators Chris Woodall, Shawn Fraver and Kieth Moser at the USFS NRC this spring. He’ll also be giving the Biology Department Seminar at Wichita State University in February. Amy and Brad will be offering Field Biology again this year. We’re looking forward to another cohort of bright interested students and lots of great interactions with local naturalists in the beautiful places around St. Louis. Lots of experiments brewing in the lab. Check the new photos on the Projects Page. |
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| News Archive Spring 2015 Summer 2014 Spring 2014 Fall 2013 Spring 2013 Fall 2012 Spring 2012 Fall 2011 Summer 2011 |
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