Progress 12/01/07 to 05/31/10
Outputs Target Audience:
Nothing Reported
Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The grant provided support for one laboratory technican (Lori Glenwinkel) who is now in a PhD program at Columbia University. The project has supported 10 undergraduate researchers: Kimberlee Cyphers, Savannah Lane, Christyn Takara, Dominic Gonzales, Kayla Ferrari, Amy Ortega, Monica Nguyen, Luke Sanborn, Gigi Schwirblat, Monica Merrill. Most of these students are female and several are minorities that are under-represented in the sciences. I also incorporated the project into my Plant Biology course (BIOL 301/L) at Chapman University. In the laboratory section of my course, I provided the students with a description of the project and we analyzed Rubisco content in three replicates of two species (one invasive, one native) for all four treatments. During the gas exchange measurements, I trained a French graduate student (Jessica Pasquet-Kok) on the LI-6400 portable gas exchange system. Jessica is visiting the laboratory of Dr. Lawren Sack at UCLA, who graciously provided greenhouse space for this project. Lastly, this grant provided financial support to PI Dr. Jennifer Funk, a new tenure-track faculty member at Chapman University. Wtih these funds, I was able to hit the ground running at Chapman and quickly establish my research program. This grant was important in providing data and ideas that allowed to secure additional federal funding and, ultimately, obtain tenure at my institution. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? The results from this work were presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America. The data have also been published (Funk et al. 2013 PLOS ONE) and contributed to ideas published elsewhere (Funk 2013 Conservation Physiology). What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts What was accomplished under these goals?
The remote sensing aspect of this work was never realized due to complications in storing and transporting the scanned plant tissue to Chapman University for biochemical analysis. The project was successful in identifying and quantifying different nitrogen fractions in leaves of native and invasive plant species. It had been widely thought that Invasive maintain high rates of growth through greater allocation to soluble protein, which supports higher rates of photosynthesis. Our work found, instead, that invasive species may succeed by employing a wide range of N allocation mechanisms, including higher amino acid production for fast growth under high irradiance or storage of N in leaves as soluble protein or amino acids (see Funk et al. 2013 PLOS ONE). The grant also allowed us to quantify leaf nitrogen fractions for two other projects (C3 and C4 grasses, coastal sage scrub species) which are still in progress. The grant also provided support for undergraduate projects that developed methodology for the extraction of glutamine synthetase from plant leaves.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2010
Citation:
Funk JL and LA Glenwinkel (2010). Plant functional variation at the biochemical level: trade-offs in trait syndromes? Ecological Society of America (Pittsburgh, PA)
- Type:
Journal Articles
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Funk JL, Glenwinkel LA, Sack L (2013) Differential allocation to photosynthetic and non-photosynthetic nitrogen fractions among native and invasive species. PLoS ONE 8(5): e64502. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0064502
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Progress 12/01/07 to 11/30/08
Outputs OUTPUTS: Research Activities: The goal of this project is to examine how inter-specific variation in nitrogen partitioning among photosynthetic, structural and defense compounds within leaves contributes to carbon assimilation in invasive species across environmental gradients and how this variation in nitrogen partitioning can be used to identify invasive species distribution and spread using remote sensing techniques. I initiated the greenhouse experiment called for in the proposal in March 2008. The experiment consisted of eight plant species (four native, four invasive), composed of four treatments with six replicates each. The treatments were two levels of light availability (10 and 300 mol m-2 s-1) and two levels of fertilization. In January 2009 we measured gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence on all plants and collected leaf tissue for biochemical analysis. Starting in January 2008, I have been working with a laboratory technician (Lori Glenwinkel) to develop and optimize protocols for quantifying various nitrogen pools in leaves. We have now optimized protocols for amino acid content, total protein and inorganic nitrogen. We are still developing protocols for lipid nitrogen and nucleic acid nitrogen. We are also working on quantifying three different fractions of protein: soluble (including Rubisco), detergent soluble (membrane protein) and detergent-insoluble (cell wall protein). Education and mentoring activities: The project has supported mentoring of four undergraduate students: Kimberlee Cyphers (Chapman University, class of 2010) Savannah Lane (Chapman University, class of 2010) Christyn Takara (Chapman University, class of 2010) Dominic Gonzales (Chapman University, class of 2009) I also incorporated the project into my Plant Biology course (BIOL 301/L) at Chapman University. In the laboratory section of my course, I provided the students with a description of the project and we analyzed Rubisco content in three replicates of two species (one invasive, one native) for all four treatments. During the gas exchange measurements, I trained a French graduate student (Jessica Pasquet-Kok) on the LI-6400 portable gas exchange system. Jessica is visiting the laboratory of Dr. Lawren Sack at UCLA, who graciously provided greenhouse space for this project. PARTICIPANTS: Principal Investigator: Jennifer Funk (> 160 h, Caucasian, female) Technician: Lori Glenwinkel (> 160 h, Caucasian, female) Training or professional development: Kimberlee Cyphers (Chapman University undergraduate, Caucasian, female) Savannah Lane (Chapman University undergraduate, Caucasian, female) Christyn Takara (Chapman University undergraduate, Asian, female) Dominic Gonzales (Chapman University undergraduate, Hispanic, male) Jessica Pasquet-Kok (UCLA visiting graduate student from France, Caucasian, female) Other collaborators: Lawren Sack (UCLA, Caucasian, male) provided greenhouse space for the project TARGET AUDIENCES: This project provided support or training for several female researchers including the PI (Jennifer Funk), technician (Lori Glenwinkel), one graduate student (Jessica Pasquet-Kok) and three undergraduate students (Kimberlee Cyphers, Savannah Lane and Christyn Takara). Two of the four undergraduate students are minority students (Christyn Takara, Dominic Gonzales). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts The project is currently ongoing and I have no outcomes to report at this time. I anticipate completing all biochemical assays from the greenhouse experiment by July 2009. I expect that two publications will arise from the greenhouse experiment. One paper will report differences in leaf biochemical plasticity (various N pools) among invasive and native species across the light and nutrient treatments. A second paper will focus on the relationship among N pools and gas exchange data. In July, we will collect tissue in Hawaii that corresponds to remote sensing data collected by Dr. Greg Asner. We will conduct all biochemical assays on Hawaii tissue by December 2009. The correlation between leaf biochemical data and spectral data collected by Dr. Asner will contribute to a third publication.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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