The Pickleweed Project Continues...

This past winter, the lab got to celebrate the graduation of DECOMPer Germán Silva, who studied the relationship between soil salinity and physiological traits of Salicornia pacifica, also known as pickleweed, including anthocyanin concentration, chlorophyll concentration, leaf mass per area, and leaf water content. These relationships were directly quantified in a greenhouse experiment in which 200+ pickleweed plants were grown from seeds and treated with three different salinity treatments, a control (< 3 mS/cm), low (~15 mS/cm), and high (~30 mS/cm). It was concluded that soil salinity had the strongest relationship with leaf mass per area (LMA) and leaf water content, with higher soil salinity leading to higher leaf mass per area and lower leaf water content.

However, we are now curious if we see the same relationship in the field. Our site of interest is Devereux Slough, which is located in both UCSB's North Campus Open Space and Coal Oil Point Reserve, and we will be collecting data on soil salinity, elevation, LMA, and leaf water content. This Saturday, we got to go out in the field to scope out some of our potential sampling sites. We already saw large variations and some interesting patterns in soil salinity, so we're very excited to see what new information this pickleweed project will reveal!

To conclude our field visit, we got to enjoy some tasty bagels from IV Bagel Cafe while discussing our next steps!