“Thanks to the Field Travel Award from the Wetland Foundation, I was able to take 2 overnight trips to one of my distant field sites along the South Texas coast. During these trips I completed a modified study from the proposed work that focused on the relationship of functional traits in relation to each other and edaphic conditions. The purpose of this modification was to include more plant traits thought to be key to determining the effect of aridity on plant function and the effect of these traits to ecosystem processes such as carbon sequestration, root respiration, and transpiration. During fieldwork, I collected soil, leaf, stem, pneumatophore samples, and root cores in addition to measuring canopy structure of mature Avicennia germinans shrubs. The travel award allowed me to complete this work at my south-most (26.00°N) and my north-most site (28.26°N).”
