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Experience Reflection: My-Lan Le
“I wanted to make sure that any undergraduate students I recruited for fieldwork could participate regardless of how much field gear and prior wilderness experience they had. I believe fieldwork experiences should not be a financial burden. [This award] helped me facilitate a safe and positive field research experience for both the undergraduate students and myself.”
BY MY-LAN LEE
While they wouldn’t describe themselves as “outdoorsy”, my parents modeled and encouraged my love for wildlife early in my life. We watched PBS Nature documentaries, photographed invertebrates in tide pools, and spent hours in bookstores where I often chose field guides to bring home. My mother brought me to our local Audubon Society chapter (Santa Clara Valley) and we volunteered to monitor western bluebird nest boxes and at the local wildlife rehabilitation center. Like many others I’ve met, I imagined myself as a veterinarian until discovering I could pursue field ecology. I began to explore ecological research as an undergraduate student at California Polytechnic State University, and those field experiences shaped my career trajectory.
Wildlife and especially birds sparked my interest in ecology, and while I did study birds, I also studied several other vertebrate species including ground squirrels, live-bearing fish, monkeys, crickets and sea otters. Being a part of research facilitated by professors and graduate students alike reinforced my science identity, and I was also encouraged to continue fieldwork from meeting the professional biologists through my membership with my university’s student chapter of the Wildlife Society. I noticed I was unsatisfied not knowing the identity of the plants that my study organisms interacted with, and discovered my passion for plants during a required field botany course. By then it was 2018 and I was about to graduate; I went on to work as a technician or biologist for different botanic gardens and non-profit conservation and research organizations. I also spent some time monitoring wildlife for a consulting firm. These experiences outside of academia helped me understand what kind of skills I’d need to practice to advance as a researcher, and what I might study if I became a graduate student.
My research goal, broadly, is to contribute to research that can inform conservation management. I matriculated as a graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver through a partnership with the Science and Research Department at the Denver Botanic Gardens. My advisor, Dr. Rebecca Hufft, facilitated my research project through a grant from the BLM allocated towards rare plant research. Rare plants are understudied for multiple reasons — acquiring research permits can be challenging, there are fewer populations to study, and perhaps their rarity and limited distribution is less attractive to researchers who look for study systems with a broader scope. But rare species contribute to biodiversity, and rare species’ conservation and management depends on the existing research. For example, Alex Seglias, the department’s Seed Conservation Research Associate, is one of very few researchers studying a rare plant species, the Avery Peak Twinpod (Physaria alpina). This plant only occurs in certain alpine areas of Colorado.
After a seed collecting trip where we visited two different populations of the Avery Peak Twinpod, Alex and I discussed how despite both populations producing flowers earlier in the season, only one population had produced seeds. What could be the ecological reasons for this reproductive difference? My graduate research aims to study how the habitat of the Avery Peak Twinpod might influence its reproduction. Most people are familiar with the idea of competition, where organisms are all trying to use the same resources — but organisms also may experience facilitation (benefits) from having neighbors, especially in harsh environments like at high elevation. If a flowering plant species needs pollinators to reproduce, lower reproduction may occur from pollen limitation — when pollinators do not transfer enough quality pollen to plants.
I wanted to make sure that any undergraduate students I recruited for fieldwork could participate regardless of how much field gear and prior wilderness experience they had. I believe fieldwork experiences should not be a financial burden. With the help of the Field Inclusive award sourced through a collaboration with the Wake Audubon Society, all undergraduate research assistants had access to a certified online wilderness first aid (WFA) course. I hoped that the WFA course would both build confidence and model field safety as a priority for the undergraduate students.
Furthermore, I shared a supplies checklist with notes about different types of clothing and camping gear with the undergraduate students to figure out what else we might need. Additional support from the Garden Club of America allowed me to acquire additional field gear and supplies for the undergraduate students. Alpine landscapes are very open, providing very little cover and so we were fully exposed to the elements including near gale-force winds, freezing temperatures, rain and hail. Even during the “mild” sunny days, constant sun exposure without sun protection can be harmful. These awards helped me facilitate a safe and positive field research experience for both the undergraduate students and myself.
We measured the Avery Peak Twinpod’s abundance and density compared to its neighboring plant species, the soil moisture, and air temperature among other variables this summer. We also tested pollen limitation by hand-pollinating plants and comparing their reproduction to plants that had not been supplemented. Additionally, we were able to document pollinators and herbivores of the Avery Peak Twinpod which had not been recorded before. If there are notable relationships between these ecological variables and the Avery Peak Twinpod’s reproduction, this information should help scientists and land managers assess the condition of the different populations.
My-Lan Le (she/her) has worked as a technician and crew leader for several seasons in the western United States, and is now a graduate student at the University of Colorado Denver and the Denver Botanic Gardens. She was a recipient of Field Inclusive’s 2024 Research Grant, sponsored by Wake Audubon Society.