Clista's Project Page

Who:  I come from Fairview, Utah; population 1,150; In this local rural community I had the opportunity to attend an international boarding high school with students from over 35 countries. I decided to come to the U for both ACCESS programs and research opportunities.  I love to travel, explore new places, hike, ski, play tennis, and swim. The only thing Utah is missing is an ocean.

My scientific/engineering interests:  I am intrigued with both science and engineering.  I’m still undecided on whether to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering or biology.  My family consists of both engineering and science ‘nerds’, creating some interesting discussions.  

Academic goals:  My ACCESS internship has been the start of providing practical experience applications to my education. The science and engineering of my world around me continues to pique my interest as I explore my education.

Career goals:  I participated in a service project on a small island in Fiji that really impacted me.  Ideally, I would like to utilize either my science or engineering degree to help improve the lives of all communities in all countries. 

An experiment was conducted for Canary Island Pine (CP) and Loblolly Pine (LP) plants under elevated CO2 concentrations. This experiment was conducted to determine whether trees change the allocation of their different tissues under elevated CO2 concentrations. This is important because it will help determine how the change in CO2 will affect plant growth. The different tissues that were tested are roots, stems, and leaves on each of the different species. This was done by having six-month-old plants of both CP and LP pines grown in a control test at the normal CO2 concentration. Then plants of the same age-group of both species were grown in the elevated CO2 greenhouse. Both test groups in the experiment were then harvested and segregated into different tissues types and dried. The various tissue types were dried to make sure no water remained in the plant which would artificially add weight to the biomass. Each of the different tissues of the plant was then weighed and recorded. From the recorded data we were able to construct different graphs and run t-tests to create visualizations and prevalence to see if there was a significant change in the allocation or growth-rate of the various tissues based on the effects of increased CO2 concentrations.  While controlling for both species, we calculated the ratios of leaf mass to stem mass, leaf mass to root mass, and stem mass to root mass in ambient CO2 and the elevated CO2 conditions. Then we performed a Welch two-sample t-test on these ratios. The results of the T-tests thus far have not demonstrated a statistically significant difference in tissue allocation. Indicating that plants in elevated CO2 do not distribute tissues differently than plants in ambient environments. However, this analysis was performed on a limited dataset and when performed on the larger more encompassing dataset the results may differ.  This experiment will provide new information that will help us predict the forest’s reactions to the changing CO2 concentration on the planet. The ratio of plant leaf area to the roots/stems impacts the rate of photosynthesis for the plant.  We are curious if plants in elevated CO2 grow more leaves relative to roots or stems. By isolating the growth of the different tissues under the controlled conditions, this experiment will help predict terrestrial productivity in the forest if global warming continues.

Effects of Elevated CO2 on Plant Tissue Growth Download Effects of Elevated CO2 on Plant Tissue Growth