Vampires in the Tundra - Miles Moore
Having always had a passion for both mountainous regions and the little things in life, my interest in tundra flora may have been foreseeable. I would spend weekends and summers botanizing along trails in the alpine. If I wasn鈥檛 sure about a plant鈥檚 Latin name, I would take a million photos of it and key it out at home. A plant binomial name, a seemingly mundane way to refer to a plant, you have the key to all the data about that species in the world. It鈥檚 evolutionary history, ecology, distribution, you name it!
This excitement for alpine plants eventually earned me a full-time job working for the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the Niwot-Ridge LTER site. My curiosity for these little plants was encouraged to grow by the fantastic people at INSTAAR and I am now working on an Honor鈥檚 Thesis in Dr. Nancy Emery鈥檚 lab. There I study how microclimates generated by complex terrain in the alpine tundra are influencing the ecology of a native facultative root hemiparasite, Castilleja occidentalis. A hemiparasitic plant is one that at least partially relies on the heterotrophic acquisition of carbon. In the case of Castilleja, I have set out to investigate if environmental forcings like drought stress or light competition (e.g. from encroaching shrubs) modulate an individual鈥檚 resource allocation to favor heterotrophic structures, like haustoria, or autotrophic structures, like vegetative tissue.
I highly encourage anyone with even a passing interest in research to approach faculty members in the department about an honor鈥檚 thesis. It can be a lot of work, but the lessons and experiences gained are invaluable. The people in EBIO are so very kind and work hard to uplift motivated students. If you鈥檙e interested but nervous about starting, consider these words of wisdom from Finding Nemo鈥檚 Dory:
鈥Well then, how are we gonna do that unless we give it a shot and hope for the best?鈥
