I am a fifth year PhD student studying Botany at UC Riverside with Dr. Edie Allen.
My research focuses on detremining the sources and sinks of anthropogenic nitrogen to the Colorado desert, by measuring stable isotopes of nitrogen and oxygen in atmospheric nitric acid and ammonia. I am then tracing the anthropogenic signature through the ecosysem to measure if the anthropogenic additions remain in the upper soil profile and are able to be utilized by plants.
Along the deposition gradient I am measuring how the combination of nitrogen additions and soil surface characteristics are impacting the invasion of the area by the exotic grasses Schismus barbatus and Schismus arabicus.