Featured Scientist


Melissa Lucash studying forests in Ecuador

Melissa Lucash

Early in her career, Melissa Lucash worked for the EPA lab in Corvallis, Oregon measuring photosynthesis of Douglas Fir seedlings. As she recalls, "One day I was carrying my instrument over to the seedlings and this blackbird started squawking and flying near my head. I realized quickly that the bird built a nest in the trees and...was defending his territory. I ended up having to measure photosynthesis of the trees while holding an umbrella. He would dive right at me and I would aim the umbrella at him and wave it around until he flew to a nearby tree. I was relieved when the birds moved their nest!"

While nothing quite so exciting has happened to Melissa since she's been at the HBEF, she is nonetheless enjoying her time here as a graduate student. Melissa studies plant processes, and is advised by Dr. Ruth Yanai, a professor at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Melissa has always been interested in the outdoors, ever since she was young and went on frequent camping and hiking trips with her family. "I enjoyed being outdoors but I didn't think about making it my career until my junior year in high school. I wanted to be a marine biologist...but I didn't know whether I'd like scuba-diving or being on boats for long periods. So I decided to study ecology,...[and] ended up going to college to study plant ecology. In my third year, I became fascinated with how plants work - the study of plant physiology. After college, I moved to Oregon to study plant physiology and explore the west. While living in OR, I realized that I wanted to become an ecology professor and teach others about the environment. I wanted people to appreciate the outdoors and live in a more responsible way."

Measuring nutrient uptake by roots.

Melissa has just started working towards her Ph.D., and her research is primarily focused on learning how plants take up nutrients from the soil. Of course, studying underground plant roots can be difficult. "One of the insights I had was realizing that we know so little about plant roots. Every time you want to study plant roots, you have to dig them up and disturb them. So we have lots of ideas about nutrient uptake by roots, but most of our ideas haven't been tested," she explains.

To help answer some of her questions about roots, Melissa will be spending several summers conducting research at the HBEF. "This summer I plan to install tubes that will allow me to measure nutrient uptake of large trees. The following summer I'll do lots of experiments, trying to better understand plant nutrient uptake: is uptake higher in the spring than in the summer? does uptake differ between tree species? do mycorrhizae (fungi which live symbiotically with plant roots) increase uptake of nutrients?" Research like this is a good example of the sorts of questions many graduate students and scientists ask about the northern hardwood forest of the HBEF.

As a scientist and graduate student, Melissa has a variable and interesting schedule. During the school year she lives in New York, attends classes, conducts laboratory work, and analyzes her data. In the summer she lives full-time at the field station at the HBEF, where she does field research. "This past summer, I lived at Hubbard Brook for about 2.5 months. My co-workers and I usually spent about 2 weeks out in the field doing experiments with roots, 1 week analyzing the samples, and then another week graphing and trying to interpret the data. Based on the results we found, we would design another set of experiments and see how the plant roots would respond," she said.

"I really love the variety of my research - the mix of field and lab work. For several weeks I get to be outdoors and work in the field. When I get tired of the bugs and hot weather, I work on my computer and try to figure out what my experiments tell me. The most challenging part of my research is trying to design interesting experiments that haven't been done before. You have to read lots of papers and think creatively (which can be hard sometimes)."

A career in science?

When we asked Melissa if she had any thoughts about what it takes to have a career in science, she remarked, "I think the main thing to consider when deciding on a career is to make sure you do something you love. People that enjoy their jobs are fun to work with and a joy to be around. It's so nice to see peoples' faces light up when they talk about cool experiments they've done." To contact Melissa, write to her at: mslucash@mailbox.syr.edu.

More information

If you would like to learn more about plant physiology, you may be interested in visiting these websites:


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