Day Five

Project assignment day!

Starting off the day, Dr. Lipo gave us an overview of the three projects (vegetation, hydrology, and archaeology) and listed some key questions that would be involved. We then submitted our preferences, and the professors and graduate assistants assigned us to our groups. Although my first choice was vegetation, I was placed into the archaeology group. Luckily, I can still look into some aspects involving vegetation; my idea was to map out the environmental factors (SOC, precipitation, temperature, soil nutrients, elevation, etc) to determine suitable habitat for the endangered species. This could be applicable to all sorts of species whether they be avian, mammalian, or plants, but I would focus on the plants. It would be very interesting to compare this with the past habitat ranges from the prehistoric pollen record.

After the decisions were made, we were split into our groups. We mostly just went through the XRF (aka the phaser) procedure and safety guidelines. It will be great to work with Drs. Lipo and Wechsler.