{"id":30472,"date":"2013-07-08T14:27:26","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T21:27:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=30472"},"modified":"2013-07-08T14:27:26","modified_gmt":"2013-07-08T21:27:26","slug":"south-by-southwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=30472","title":{"rendered":"South By Southwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 28, 2013<\/p>\n

Las Cruces, NM<\/p>\n

Two weeks ago I left my humid\u00a0hometown to come work for the Bureau of Land Management in Las Cruces, NM.\u00a0 Although I grew up outside of Chicago, I spent the last eight years of my life in the northeast, where I attended school in Connecticut and Rhode Island.\u00a0 As their names imply, the northeast and southwest are polar opposites.\u00a0 In the northeast, states are small and densely populated.\u00a0 Forests prevail in the humid climate, and the long, sinuous\u00a0coastline is never more than a few hours away.\u00a0 But I left behind the\u00a0land of\u00a0poison ivy, Lyme disease, and fickle weather and entered the realm of tarantulas, rattlesnakes, and incessant heat.<\/p>\n

My friends in Rhode Island were astonished when I mentioned that my post-graduation plan\u00a0included moving to\u00a0New Mexico.\u00a0\u00a0New Yorkers apparently associate New Mexico with only two things: (1) \u00a0the UFO spottings in Roswell, and (2) illicit drug activity as presented in Breaking Bad, a TV show set in Albuquerque. Luckily, I have not encountered either of these two stereotypes.\u00a0 Instead, the southwestern stereotypes that I have experienced have been quite pleasant.\u00a0 What’s not to love about our adorable adobe apartment nestled in the Organ Mountains,\u00a0beautiful sunsets, and gooey, cheese-filled Mexican food?<\/p>\n

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Our adobe apartment at Dripping Springs Natural Area<\/p><\/div>\n

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View of the Organ Mountain on the Road Home from the Office<\/p><\/div>\n

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Sunset view from Drippings Springs Natural Area<\/p><\/div>\n

Life in the office has been exciting as well. \u00a0This week, Evelyn Williams, a conservation genetics researcher from the Chicago Botanic Garden, visited us to collect clippings from Lepidospartum burgessii<\/em>–a rare plant that no longer produces seeds.\u00a0 Lepidospartum burgessii is an obligate gypsophile, meaning its range is limited by the narrow extent of gypsum-based soils.\u00a0 One theory as to why the plant has failed to produce seeds is that it has lost genetic diversity through inbreeding,\u00a0which has increased the plant’s homozygosity.\u00a0 Evelyn and her fellow researchers will\u00a0 transplant the Lepidospartum clippings in a common garden and crossbreed the individuals to determine whether increased gene flow prompts seed set in the species.<\/p>\n

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Lepidospartum burgessii<\/p><\/div>\n

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The gypsum sand dunes near the Guadalupe Mountains- the ideal habitat for Lepidospartum burgessii<\/p><\/div>\n

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My fellow intern, Kate, and our mentor, Mike, recording the location of a Lepidospartum burgessii individual<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u00a0I\u00a0will end this blog post with some local terminology that I have picked up over\u00a0the last couple weeks:<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n
\n
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TAT<\/strong>: Type-A Texan<\/div>\n
PNM<\/strong>: Pokey New Mexican<\/div>\n
Dust Devil<\/strong>: A small whirlwind of dust common in arid regions, such as the Chihuahuan desert<\/div>\n
\n
“Christmas”<\/strong> : A preparation of Mexican food that has both green and red chile sauces<\/div>\n
Sopapilla<\/strong>: A delicious, puffy pastry dessert drizzled in honey<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n
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-Elisabeth Ward<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n
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\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

June 28, 2013 Las Cruces, NM Two weeks ago I left my humid\u00a0hometown to come work for the Bureau of Land Management in Las Cruces, NM.\u00a0 Although I grew up outside of Chicago, I spent the last eight years of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2556"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30472"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30887,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30472\/revisions\/30887"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}