Hello everyone, this time I will share a little bit of my internship experience at the Provo Shrub  Science Lab and also I want to share something about the new work I am doing with quaking aspen populations (Populus tremuloides) in collaboration with people from Utah State University.   As I shared in my previous posts my primary research is focused on big sagebrush and the analysis of mix volatile compounds using an electronic nose device. In this stage of the research we are scaling the experiments from leaves to seeds and trying to explore smell patterns in sagebrush seeds.  Additionally in regards to the big sagebrush populations research, I started to explore quaking aspen populations in Southern Utah. One of the activities of the project that is very interesting to me is the collection of germplasm because aspen populations have a wide genetic variability. Thinking ahead we are planning to present our big sagebrush results next fall in the Society for Ecological Restoration Conference, which also makes me very excited.

There are a lot of things to do at the Provo Shrub lab, and we are moving forward on all of our projects, but the thing that makes me really excited is that we are formulating new interesting questions about big sagebrush. As I said in previous post I am very thankful for all the support of my mentor and my companions at the Provo Shrub lab. Thank you CLM for this opportunity and, I want to say thank you to all of the staff for all the support and help, I really appreciate it.

Hector

Provo, UT

Forest Service, RMRS, Provo Shrub Science Lab