Summer Undergraduate Biology Research Fellowships at Hofstra University: *Embarking on my Research Journey*

In order to start my research project I needed to call numerous plant nurseries to order seeds and plants. This assignment helped me to develop great leadership skills and encouraged me to use critical thinking skills to make the correct decisions. I showed initiative and was able to contact some great nurseries, mainly Pinelands in New Jersey and Greenbelt in Staten Island for the materials that I needed. Unfortunately, Pinelands was a little expensive, leading us to believe that the plants were too big. Since it is late in the spring, availability of plants was very limited. Due to these factors, we held off on ordering plants and decided to just use seeds. I contacted Greenbelt and ordered five different species. These species included:

White wood aster (Eurbia divaricata)
Blue wood aster (Symphyotrichum cordifolia)
Wild sarsaparilla (Aralia nudicaulis)
Late meadow rue (Thalictum pubescens)
Wood reed ( Cinna arundinacea)

The next step in the preliminary stages of the project was to secure a site. Dr. Aronson and I visited Muttontown Preserve in Long Island to look at possible locations within the preserve to conduct our research. There were many sites where the Lesser celandine was but they were all pretty much dead. It was obvious where these plants grew because the remnants were yellow, slimy and there were many bulbils present. Some tubers were noticeable but not many because they were all most likely underneath the soil. The amount of bulbils that were left behind by the ranunculus was amazing. There was so many and if there was ever a doubt as to where the plant grew, the presence of the bulbils confirmed it. We found a great spot in the preserve to conduct my research project. We flagged plots of invaded (where the lesser celandine grew) and non-invaded soil. These plots were drastically different because the invaded soil was very slimy and practically had no growth except for Violet and Impatiens. However, it was obvious where the non–invaded plots were because there was a lot of other plant species and no bulbils were present. No soil was collected at this point because we had to wait for the necessary permits to collect. It was a great experience to actually observe the plant that I have been researching for the entire spring semester and its effects on native forest herbs. Bulbils were also collected for another possible research project on plant dispersal. Even though the plant was decaying, many bulbils were still attached to plant parts and some were lying separately on the ground.

Last week, Dr. Aronson and I also attended a meeting at South Side High School in Long Island for a possible location to conduct the greenhouse portion of my research project. They have students who are interested in research during the summer and are eager to work alongside myself and Dr. Aronson in our research projects. This group of about four or five students are participating in various scientific competitions themselves and can use the experience from our research. This high school has a great greenhouse that they recently renovated and we decided that we would use it for our greenhouse study. These students can help with the smaller aspects of my research such as watering and monitoring my plants during germination periods. They will assist me when I go out to the field and I am excited about this great opportunity to mentor these students. It will give me a chance to nurture my leadership and communication skills.

We also went out to another possible research site in Freeport where we were told lesser celandine had invaded. However, the plant was no longer visible. I am currently working on designing the greenhouse study for my research project with “Allelopathic Inhibition of Germination by Alliara Petiolata (Brassicaceae) (Pati and Boddsorf 2004) as a guideline. I found a lot of great papers during my literature searches to help me with my experimental design. These papers will help me to gain insight on using field soil in the greenhouse. They will also help me to understand the use of activated carbon and its relationship to allelopathy for one of the treatments.