Today, two of my cooperation supervisor's master students, Nathan and Beth, presented at an Annual conference which hold by Texas State University. Both of them did very well, especially as two master students at their second year. Congratulations to them!

   Nathan focuses on the survivorship  of three different species in three different climate zones of Mojave desert, based on transplantation experiments. More specifically, seedlings of each species were germinated from seeds that colleceted from different regions. In these cases, bunch of comparsions could be made and sort of outstanding results are expected.

   Beth focuses on the influencing of site factors on drought mortality of tree species acrossing South Texas, where experienced severe drought during 2011 and 2012. Sixty four plots were set up and more 8, 000 pant individuals were investigated. Site factors, including microclimate, elevation, slope aspect, soil condition, species composition and stem density were analyzed.

   Graduate students in the U.S. have to spend most of their time in the school, learning and teaching, most of the field work can only be done during the vacation. So, how can they get there (so much field work and related data analysis)? I need more discussion with them.