I am especially interested in how the relationships between fitness and individual plant characters change following a sudden and severe disturbance. The dominant vegetation at this elevation in the Mojave Desert returns very slowly following disturbance, and vegetative composition is drastically altered for at least 100 years following fire, according to the few available estimates.
Preliminary results suggest the former hypothesis is correct, but analysis is ongoing.
The UNLV greenhouse has been an integral part of my research. The common garden experiments will indicate genetic differences among the studied field populations, and consistency between years will be determined. Finally, seeds from the field observations have been used to determine the effect of fire on soil as it relates to these Amsinckia tessellata populations. So far I've written chiefly of evolution, but ecology is also vital to a complete understanding of this system. Abiotic factors such as soil moisture, temperature, and light have also been measured to determine the extent to which these explain the differences observed in plants within and among sites.