My husband and I got a quarantine dog in May along with the rest of the country. He has provided many frustrations as well as many gifts, much like most things that are worth the effort.
All in In process
Can a ditch by the side of the road save butterflies? Kate's Three Minute Thesis
This is my three-minute thesis talk. I have tried to condense the big idea of my research into three minutes.
Science blooper reel
Five of my biggest science bloopers of the past year. Things do not always go as planned.
Thanks for all the help!
Scientific research is a broad enterprise, and takes a lot of work. Here’s to all the field and lab assistants who have helped me along the way in the past few years!
Making my own map (Object-based imagery analysis of remotely sensed data)
I am working on mapping sites to recognize patterns on the land between plants and stormwater. Object-based analysis is an approach to classification that uses the color of groups of pixels rather than single pixels and adds spatial information to the spectral information. The output of object-based image analysis is accurate categories of fine-scale objects and landscape types along with relationships between them.
A Qualified Success
Earlier this month, I passed my qualifying exam to become a PhD candidate (and not get kicked out of the program, yay!). There was a lot of reading involved, but in the end it was not so bad. It gave me just the incentive I needed to get through thousands of pages of background and come out a little more prepared for my research.
The Influence of Landscape Context on Native Plant Species in Stormwater Detention Basins
One of the ways I am using the data from my fieldwork is to study the way the surrounding landscape influences the plant species found at a site. I found the percent native species at a site is negatively affected by commercial and services land use and transportation and utility areas in the surrounding area but positively affected by wooded wetlands and recreation land nearby. This can help land managers fine tune restoration decisions for different kinds of sites.
November in the Lab: Extractable nutrients, or what color is it?
Phosphorus and nitrogen are essential for plants, but can become pollutants in high concentrations, so I am measuring levels in the soil in my study sites. In this series of analyses, I am using the color of chemical reactions to measure the concentration of nitrogen and phosphorus in soil. In the analysis, I compare the color of my samples to the color of samples of known concentration using a spectrometer. This analysis shows a convoluted and ingenious way that someone came up with to measure these very low concentrations of elements.
October in the Lab
What do I do with the soil samples once I bring them back to the lab? Some fancy science and a lot of weighing and re-weighing each sample. See a sequence to prepare soil for nutrient content analysis.