December was busy. Jan and Noah harvested the first phase of a new plant-soil feedback experiment. Superstar undergraduates Madeline, John, Alejandra, and Abbey produced first drafts of papers from their independent projects that we hope to edit for submission to peer-reviewed journals. Hannah, Noah, and Devon presented at the Annual Ecology and Evolution Grad Student Symposium — and Hannah earned 1st place for her talk (Congrats, Hannah!). Devon set-up her first experiment in the lab. Scott, Noah, and Hannah have all finished drafts of new papers. A visiting student, Kori Bohon, joined the lab and is finishing up experiments for her PhD. And, we had a great holiday party that was so good I forgot to take pictures. Hopefully everyone also enjoyed a break with family and friends!

Everyone in the lab (Jan, Hannah, Noah, Scott, and Devon) got good news from Texas EcoLab. With this funding, we will:

(1) Establish the first Texas-specific collection of AM fungi.

(2) Test how plant-herbivore interactions change across a precipitation gradient.

(3) Learn how precipitation influences interactions between plants and above- and below-ground microbial communities.

(4) Determine how abiotic stress influences interactions between native and non-native species.

(5) Examine how microbe-microbe interactions on plants are influenced by different environments.

Congratulations everyone!

While working at the UH Coastal Center, Noah noticed something weird on the leaves of Liatris. Turns out that it was a common leaf rust usually found on goldenrod. This is the first reported instance of the fungus switching hosts to Liatris. You can read all about it over at New Disease Reports.

A few highlights from the past few months:

Jan joined the lab as a postdoc this April to help with the climate and plant-soil feedback project. In addition to doing awesome work on the project, he’s already brainstorming lots of cool project ideas. Welcome Jan!

Devon joined the lab as a PhD student this August. She just submitted a proposal to the NSF GRFP and is helping mentor undergrads in the lab on statistical analyses. Welcome Devon!

Hannah presented her work at the North American Prairie Conference and the Ecological Society of America meeting, all while she was managing experiments for her dissertation and fun side projects.

Scott presented his work at the Ecological Society of America meeting. He received 2nd place for his poster from the Restoration Ecology Section. Congrats, Scott!

Noah and Hannah were both awarded grants from the Texas EcoLab program.

Noah and Scott were both awarded grants from Sigma Xi.

The lab went on a trip to the field sites in Michigan. We collected data on the long-term biodiversity experiment and a ton of midges for Alejandra’s independent project.

Austin and Hoang started graduate programs this fall. We miss them, but I can’t wait to see what they accomplish as graduate students!

Madeline received a Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship for her work on fungal endophytes and she helped develop a new outreach program that debuted at an event at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. She also just submitted a proposal to the NSF GRFP.

Antonio received a Provosts Undergraduate Research Scholarship for his work testing how above- and below-ground microbes influence plant responses to precipitation.

Congrats everyone!